One of the hardest parts of planning your new bathroom can be deciding how you want it to look.
The best place to start is often to decide what style you’d like to achieve, so I’ve compiled a list of my favourite sources of bathroom ideas for your next renovation project.
1. Pinterest
If you visit pinterest and type ‘bathroom ideas’ into the search box, you’ll see hundreds of images of both finished bathrooms and elements that might go into making your next bathroom just-so.
Across the top, pinterest provides helpful sub-categories such as ‘vintage’, ‘modern’, ‘rustic’ and ‘luxury’ and using these will help you get a better idea of what each looks like.
While you’re there, you can save any images (known as ‘pins’) you like by saving them to your own ‘boards’.
2. Houzz
Although it started out as a very american-orientated site, they’ve recently been working to improve the amount of UK content – the location filter on the left hand side allows you to filter for just UK photos.
With a website, an iPhone app & an iPad app, you’ll easily lose many, many hours scrolling through the beautiful bathrooms on display.
3. Family, friends & neighbours
Wander round the homes of your family, friends and neighbours to see what they’ve done with their bathrooms.
The benefit of poking around your neighbours houses is that they’re likely to have a similar layout & be of a similar age to yours. You might also be able to glean information about any challenges they faced with that type of property. You’ll get a feel for how the layout and space contributes to the overall look and feel of the finished bathroom.
They might also be able to recommend trustworthy local tradesmen who can come and do the work.
4. Books from your local bookshop or library
Your local library is often an overlooked treasure trove of information. It’s also perfect for those on a budget as you can spend as long as you like pouring over the books without spending a penny.
You may prefer to visit your local bookshop if you prefer to leaf through a more recent range of books from the comfort of your own home.
5. Magazines
There are tens of magazines devoted to the topic of home improvement and retailers like WhSmith and Tesco are ranging more and more magazines to suit the increasing diversity of tastes and interests.
6. YouTube
Don’t just think of static images when it comes to inspiration. YouTube has a variety of channels that can offer plenty of ideas.
Some of my favourites include:
Awesome Best Bathroom Design for Small Bathrooms – It comes with some really cheesy music:
45 Small Bathroom Design Ideas 2015 – If you can ignore the robot voiceover then you might find some inspiration here!
7. DIY & Interiors blogs
With the rise in personal blogging, more and more people are letting you into their homes and telling their own story.
Sites like TheRestorationCouple.com show every part of this young couple’s journey to restore their victorian house in Bath.
Check out The Telegraph’s guide to the 20 best interiors blogs for more.
8. Bathroom retailers
Bathroom retailers put a lot of effort into their websites, catalogues and brochures in order to show their products to best effect and encourage you to buy things.
Pick up as many catalogues and brochures as possible. You can then use these to put together a mood board or scrapbook of ideas, or you can take photos and upload these onto pinterest or your computer to create a digital scrapbook.
One of my favourites includes the trusty IKEA catalogue.
Bathstore provide the option of requesting a physical brochure from their website, as do
VictoriaPlum.com.
9. Rightmove / Estate Agent Websites
If you love having a nose around other people’s houses, then this is the perfect option for you to find inspiration without leaving your sofa!
You can either search for properties that are way out of your price range, for those aspirational ideas, or search for homes similar to yours to show what works and what doesn’t for a home of your size and age.
10. TV shows
Popular TV shows like Channel 4’s ‘Love it or List it’ or ‘Grand Designs’ now have their own accompanying websites, with the ability to watch episodes on demand.
Got a bathroom idea?
We’d be happy to talk you through the process of turning it into a reality!
We offer free site visits and quotes, so give us a call today on 0800 690 6400 to discuss your bathroom renovation with us.