Bathroom Remodeling Ideas & Design

Sometimes a full remodel is not needed, especially if your bathroom already has a good layout or your budget won’t stretch far. Always start with a list that begins with the “must haves” and current peeves, and ends with the “if possibles” and far off dreams. This will help us guide you to making some great choices, and you’ll be amazed at the huge variety of products and price ranges that we can suggest for you. Renovations don’t have to be large to have a big impact. 

Choosing a focal feature to renovate can add value to your space, and hopefully put a smile on your face each day too. For example, most people use the shower much more frequently than a tub, so it makes sense to put some attention here. One of the biggest transformations you can have is simply having the old worn out, stained, and dated shower doors replaced with the newer sleeker versions. The different types of shower heads available can turn what was a routine daily chore into feeling like a daily trip to the spa. 

Rain showers are increasingly popular for the soothing experience they deliver and upgrading your faucets at the same time is an easy way to add a designer feel to your space. Sometimes in a renovation, removing the tub can create enough space to have a floor to ceiling shower. This is a great option if wheelchair accessibility is needed.  If you have a bigger budget, and the space, then the possibilities for renovating the shower extend into creating a beautiful waterfall shower. A dramatic back wall can be added using rough stone to create a unique and instantly appealing design. 

Changes to the walls can instantly change the feel of your bathroom, and a new color scheme can really brighten up a once sad looking space. Paint is always a good inexpensive option, but color can easily be added by renovating the floor and walls with new tile work. Warm wood tones can now be added to floors through tile – and this ceramic look-alike is much longer lasting. Subway tile is a great choice that will stand the passage of time, on both floors and walls, and combined with new brass fixtures gives a classic feel. Another way of renovating the walls that is less costly than tile, but still provides that traditional classic look, is adding beadboard that instantly turns up the charm and character. 

Vanities and light fixtures can often be switched out quickly giving you a fast and inexpensive upgrade. Switching out your bathroom sinks and countertops with new designs that include a vast array of natural stones and even fossilized woods is a way to bring impact quickly.

If a total remodel is what you have in mind, and your space can be gutted down to the studs, then even more options will open for you. An advantage of gutting is it allows a quick check that all your electrical wiring is safe and the structure holding up your bathroom intact. Especially important when you are buying an older home. The main advantage of remodeling is that a completely new flow of the bathroom can be designed. Repositioning the shower, tub and the vanity and, potentially, replacing them with all new fixtures and fittings makes the bathroom of your dreams a reality. A totally new theme and color scheme can be embraced. 

If a modern bathroom is what you have in mind there are some basic design cues to remember. In broad terms when you are thinking of modern design, some concepts and strategies are often found no matter what the overall theme, and include geometrical shapes, neutral or basic colors, little to no decoration, and natural materials.

The simplest way to achieve an effortless modern look is to use pure white for everything – floor, walls, fixtures – with minimal clean lines. Floor to ceiling white tile meeting white floors with a white vanity makes for a truly classic modern space. Glass doors and glass walls can create an open feel and this is especially good in smaller spaces. The most striking of modern designs are when a whole wall has been dedicated to a window that overlooks a secluded landscape or garden. These typically have floating vanities, and unenclosed showers, to make the space look bigger and keep the focus on that wall-sized window so the bathroom looks like part of the landscape.

The more traditional modern design often includes Scandinavian elements that are always known to embrace simplicity and utility. White is also featured heavily in Scandinavian design, but the use of wood tends to soften the overall starkness that is created when only white is used. 

It is important to remember that not all bathrooms that have a modern style must look cold and sterile to be classified as modern. The bathroom space can be made warm and inviting by focusing on geometrical shapes used with a simple color scheme of warm neutrals, like wood and stone, keeping with clean lines, and above all, making sure that there are minimal decorative elements.

The most unusual theme for bathrooms was inspired by the classic New York loft warehouses that led to the boon in Industrial chic. This ultra-modern twist for the bathroom is a departure from a clean decor aesthetic and spurs a different type of thinking. Modern Industrial is certainly a mixed bag of ideas and requires an embracing of the eccentric. Paring design back to the structural elements that created it can be liberating. Exposed copper pipes, polished concrete floors, and freestanding tubs are frequently associated with this style. Another feature of a lot of Industrial style bathrooms is an open plan – usually involving transparent glass around showers or even open walls to walk around where the shower has been added onto the exposed brick.