Is your bathroom a damp squib? Then it's time to splash out

Marrying practicality and style to get the most out of the bathroom, whatever its size, will make soaking up the effort all the sweeter, writes Kya de Longchamps.

THE bathroom is a crucial room to get right, but most of us have to deal with a rather small space which can make it difficult to squeeze in those big ideas in styling and luxury.

Marrying practicality to good looks is a matter of scaling a good quality suite correctly to the room, making every available centimetre work.

Baths — the secrets of scale

The bath is generally the largest element to accommodate in a bathroom. Variations in bath design tend to be minor size differences (1700mm or 1800m in length) plus shaping in the shower area to accommodate a wider standing position.

A rectangular wall-mounted bath remains popular as it fits well into a niche. Freestanding baths with straighter sides can slip neatly against even a slender length of wall, but consider something you can sit in rather than lounging full length if the room is tiny. If you take more showers than baths, ensure the bath earns its place.

Shorten the length from 1800mm to 1700mm and go for a ‘P’ shower-bath with 150mm more dancing room in width at the showering end.

Prices for shower-baths including a 180° swing out glass screen are keen from about €300 with 6mm tempered glass and 20mm wall alignment.

To see how any prospective bath feels, kick off your shoes and step inside to judge that horizontal comfort. A quality acrylic (5-8mm) is versatile, lightweight, and warm to the touch. Reinforced to encapsulate the baseboard, it will not ‘creak’ during use.

When renovating, remember that moving water pipe and waste positions creates extra expense. However, if the current bath position is clearly at odds with the room’s dimensions, it’s worth consideration.

Shower, pipes and panels

In showers, the most attractive trays are low to the floor (embedded in the tile if you want to be completely contemporary). The latest shower enclosures offer the potential of almost seamless cabinetry in large panels of uninterrupted glass. Quadrant shaped shower enclosures with sliding panel doors can be tailored to a tight corner.

If you are ready for a complete change, take as much as 1,800mm to frame out and tile a walk-in shower area in place of a bath at one end of the bathroom.

Invest in the best tanking you can afford for any shower or wet-room. Even a small ingress of water into surrounding structural timbers and masonry can wreak havoc. The shower door must be rated for a power shower if that what you intend — otherwise it will blast open in use, soaking the floor.

For an investment, new shower styles break free of the former configurations of a fixed head buried in tiling or the snaking hang-it-up hose type. Pipe showers have the controls and thermostat set at waist level with a strong architectural pipe rising to support the shower head. The squared-off versions are especially handsome with a 1920s bathhouse look.

There’s the added joy that if you are determined to retro-fit a vast overhead rain style head you don’t have to dig through the masonry as the pipes can be retrofitted right onto the wall through standard 15mm outlets. Hansgrohe offer handheld mixers with their models, great for washing hair, dogs, and smaller children.

Having protested our way out of 21st century water charges, you might even want a full spa-style shower. Here panel showers offer everything from individual body jets to sliding height adjustment.

When examining pipes and panels, check where the controls are shared out through the hand-held elements and the wall- mounted unit and ensure your water pressure can handle as much as 25l per minute (2bar pressure is generally a minimum). Prices vary from around €500 to €1,500 for a quality pipe or panel unit. Try taps4less.ie for the Hudson Reed range.

Loos and basin — mix it up

You may find a full suite you just adore, but if you don’t, try combining basins and toilets that agree in styling. The biggest practical decision is whether to wall hang or support these pieces from the floor. Wall hanging allows the eye to travel further, also permitting an easy swipe beneath the bowl when cleaning the floor tiles.

Where you choose a concealed cistern (back-to-the-wall), there’s an opportunity for a handy false-wall in which to hide the cistern, add built-in storage and to set a long shelf. Floating, wall-mounted storage furniture is elegant but without reaching the floor, its full storage potential floats away with it. If you don’t have much room, takes those drawers and cabinets right to the floor or consider a short leg to the unit.

What still amazes me is the lack of counter space in most bathrooms. Consider sketching out economical built-in cabinetry to support a feature sink, and with a longer than average counter 40-50mm deep to accommodate your morning routine.

For additional water and stir convenience, look out for floating and leg standing consoles and sinks of 750-950mm width with ‘ears’ providing a balancing point for toiletries and make-up along with a full set of cupboards and shelves beneath.

IKEA start with the Odensvik single ceramic basin with a whopping 1030mm of room, €125. The Reno line of basin/storage from Irish firm Prisma, supplied by Topline hardware outlets have several useful configurations teamed to matching free-standing cabinetry from €299.

Bathroom trending 2015

Break away from beige and boring by introducing new colours and finishing touches:

* Dressing-room meets bathroom. Here, materials such as toffee deep-wood veneers on the walls give a feel of a dressing area with a distinctly warm, masculine touch. Add a vast floor-to-ceiling mirror and plenty of sleek, hidden storage

* Hotel chic. Elements from the hotel industry, including the counter-style vanity, create bathrooms in the smallest spaces. See the work of Philippe Stark for Duravit. Smaller room? Kick up the quality.

* Tiling is still urbane, with its feet in industrial brick styles, but new applications, such as herringbone patterns, are shaking up the look. English encaustic tiles and hand- painted varieties from the Middle East and Spain can colour up a stiff, angular suite.

* High design suites are going dark. If you can’t image having a black suite, an ebony wood surround on a freestanding bath or a lick of a very dark grey to black paint on a roll top’s behind is luxurious. Sanderson spray paints have just appeared at B&Q.

* Porcelain wood-look tiling. The perfect answer to that no-wood-floors-in-the-bathroom dilemma. Choose a tile with a good variety of ‘grain’ to fool the eye. Expect to pay around €70 per metre for good Italian board styles.

* Bluetooth inclusions. The wireless-awake house is now in the bathroom. Take a look at B&Q’s new Bluetooth-enabled mirrors with illuminators that play your music from your device, while you prepare for that big night out.

* Freestanding baths — before vouching for the faux-Victorian (a little 1990s), examine organic shapes that recall Japanese plunge baths and the ‘sensuous airiness’ of Villeroy & Boch My Nature range. We love the Halcyon from Davies.ie, at €2,099.

* No longer can the cheap bed-sit choice, plastic-panelling set on a marine-grade plywood or polyfoam core replicate marble in a range of attractive finishes. Panels defeat the grout lines that frustrate so many architects. Standard sizing: 2.5m for €55. Try Dumalock for DIY choices.

Best to be under pressure

Water works: Hansgrohe Axor Raindance range, from €200.

Sufficient pressure means the difference between a fitful spit and an indulgent shower. Note the word here is ‘feel’, because by adding features such as aerators and clever shower patterns, you may not need a lot more water to deliver a better experience.

* Get the pressure that’s on tap in your area. If your neighbours have markedly better pressure with a similar heating array, ensure your stop-cock is open all the way by turning it fully anti-clockwise. Have a plumber check all internal plumbing for faults, including the balance of pressure in both hot and cold feeds.

* If you have a gravity-fed system (stand ard vented system), the greater the distance between your tank and the bathroom outlets the greater your pressure will be. Ensuring 3-4m should deliver adequate, if low, pressure (generally .2-.3 bar upstairs, .5bar downstairs). You can add a pump to bring this up to as much as 3 bars. An electric power-shower can overcome most situations.

* A main pressure system with an unvented cylinder should be giving you 1.5bar to 3 bars of pressure, as the mains water is used to put pressure on the cold and hot water supply. The delivery will be balanced (not changing when, say, a loo is flushed), so you won’t need a thermostatic valve or controls, unless you want them.

* A limiter should always be used to restrict the pressure to under 3-bar to save water. Choose any low- or high-pressure tap or shower-head (including HP1-3)

* With combi-boilers the water is heated as needed and delivered though a thermostatic valve to the shower and taps. For showers, a modern combination boiler should be able to deliver .5-1bars of pressure and at least 12l per minute to the shower. They are ideal for classic mixer showers with or without digital mixer controls. Taps should be marked MP to HP1.

* Retrofitting? Restricting-valves twinned to aeration offer luxurious, bubbling showers at 7l -8lper minute (10l plus really is ‘last days of the Roman empire’). You can use this simple, passive technology in a fixed- or hose-style shower. Try the EcoCamel JetStorm, €24.95; www.purchase.ie