Time to plan – Essential tips before beginning a bathroom renovation

Planning a bathroom renovation is exciting and it is easy to get swept away and miss vital steps or even feel so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start! Here, we will talk about planning and discuss some essential steps to do before you start so that you end up with the bathroom that you will fall in love with for years to come.

Planning a bathroom renovation tip #1 – Size

If you’re at the very beginning of your bathroom renovation stage, you should have some idea of the bathroom size and your budget. This will guide you at the beginning of your first path – there is no point going down the rabbit hole lusting over a large soaker tub if the space you have simply won’t allow it. Try to have a rough budget in mind of what you are prepared to spend at this stage. While it’s hard to know the exact amount that your bathroom renovation will cost – it will help you reach your dream bathroom at a cost that will be comfortable to you.

Planning a bathroom renovation tip #2 – Look around

We recommend spending some time – as much as you need – having a look around at what’s out there. Trends move and new products and styles are always freshly hitting the market.  Browse through catalogues, watch some home renovation shows and even have a peek at what your friends and family’s bathrooms look like and chat to them about what they love about their bathrooms and what they would do differently.

This process is not a race so don’t get overwhelmed – take your time and enjoy a hot cup of tea or coffee while browsing and thinking about what styles you like and that will suit you and your family’s lifestyle. Create a look book to keep a reference of things you like – you can make a hard copy book or take photographs and screenshots and save them into their own gallery.

There are also many very handy apps that you can download, specific to helping you on your renovation planning journey. While it’s obviously important to know what you do like, it’s also great to acknowledge the things that you do not like. Knowing what styles you don’t like will make choosing your new bathroom quicker for yourself and when working with a bathroom designer, will make their job a lot easier to present you with a design that you love.

Planning a bathroom renovation tip #3 – Style

Now that you’ve had a good look at different bathrooms and furnishings, it time to choose what style you would like for your own bathroom – an example of some popular styles are contemporary, modern, traditional and beachy. You will also need think about how you want the room to feel – do you want it to be open and airy with a light colour scheme and lots of natural light coming through or would you prefer it to be more on the dark and moody side?

Your renovation will be a representation of your personal style so make sure to choose a style that is a reflection of who you are. After all, there is little point in creating a beach-styled bathroom just because you saw a nice one somewhere if you are not actually a fan of the sun and surf in real life. On the other hand, if you are – a beach style might suit you perfectly and look perfectly right at home in your house.

Planning a bathroom renovation tip #4 – Elements

The following checklist runs over a few of the main bathroom elements for you to decide on:

• Flooring type and colour
• Wall paint
• Splash tiles and colour
• Vanity
• Tapware
• Storage needs
• Lighting – main lighting, accent lighting, heat lamps.
• Shower head style
• Toilet if included in the room
• Spa or bath if included in the room
• A standout feature – while not necessary, if you choose an eye catching feature piece whether it be the vanity, the shower or the lighting, you will want the rest of the room to both compliment and showcase it.

Planning a bathroom renovation tip #5 – The bigger picture

Our next tip is thinking about how you want to tie the bathroom into the rest of the house. Do you want it to seamlessly blend in with the house style or do you want it to be its own stand out feature room? If the rest of the house is getting a little dated, a nice modern bathroom is still going to look fabulous but you will want it to still feel connected to the rest of the house so perhaps think of a way to blend them together.

Some ways to do this are keeping the same colour scheme – perhaps the same wall colour or just the trimmings or keeping the same furniture style.  How is the rest of your home decorated? If you like to show off décor pieces, then make sure you include some space in your new bathroom for space to put your decorative items. On the other hand, if your style is quite minimalistic then you will probably want to ensure that you have enough storage for everything to be kept out of sight.

Planning a bathroom renovation tip #6 – Layout

Another very important thing you will want to spend time considering is the layout of your bathroom. Once you are committed to a layout, it is going to be quite costly to change it later on. Think about the past bathrooms you’ve had. Was there anything in particular you liked or didn’t like about the layout plan? If you are renovating and there is a toilet inside the room, perhaps you could create a separate room for it or install a privacy shield. Think about the foot traffic through the bathroom and who will be visiting it – if it a main bathroom that guests will be using, then consider placing what they need (toilet and sink) at the front of the room.

Our experienced and award-winning team at Brindabella are renowned for creating standout bathrooms on Sydney’s North Shore and Hills district for more than 25 years. Every project that we create at Brindabella is a result of our years of design experience and is unique and custom-designed to suit your home, lifestyle and family. We live and breathe designing bathrooms and would love to chat with you about achieving your dream bathroom.