Bathrooms – planning for the future

Bathrooms can’t be refurbished every year, so make sure you plan ahead for future use. To find out more visit http://www.utopiamag.co.uk/

Bathrooms can be expensive to refurbish, so you’re not going to be spending money every year on keeping your bathroom up-to-date. This means that you need to think ahead and plan, if you can, for the way you will use your bathrooms in the next 3-5 years or more.

• The couple’s bathroom – if you are a newly married couple or in a partnership that is settled, it’s lovely to be able to create bathrooms that you can enjoy. If you want to start a family in the near future, you might want to think about how that will affect the way you use your bathroom. You might choose to put in a bath with an overhead shower, for example, rather than just a shower cubicle, so that you can bathe children easily without having to spend money on changing your bathroom.

• The growing family – as families grow, so the bathroom usage changes. Children move from having baths to having showers and of course, they are growing all the time. As they reach their teenage years, they are demanding more time in the bathroom, and so you might want to consider adding bathrooms to your home if you have the space, rather than adapting your existing bathroom. Make sure that shower cubicles are spacious enough for growing kids and that there’s plenty of storage space for all those teenage toiletries.

• Empty-nesters – if you have children who have left home, you might find that you’re re-doing your bathrooms at a time when the house is much quieter. This is the time when you can design your bathrooms with you in mind. Go for the luxury bath or extra-large shower cubicle you’ve always wanted, or use a newly-empty bedroom to create a really stunning larger bathroom.

• Safety first – if you’re planning to stay in your home well into retirement, it may be worth thinking about how your bathroom can be used when you have less mobility. Making sure the floor is level and has a non-slip covering, along with handles on the bath and easy-to-use shower enclosures can all help to ensure that you can stay in your home easily without having to spend money re-configuring your bathroom later on.