When you’re having a new property built, it’s your opportunity to make sure that every aspect of your property is exactly as you want it, right down to the last detail. This includes the bathroom, a very important room in the house.
For lots of us, our bathroom is our sanctuary. It’s the place we get ready for work or a day out; it’s where we unwind after a busy day. It’s a place of solitude, and therefore, it needs to be a comfy, cosy room that you love.
There are lots of ways you can make your bathroom perfect, and in recent years, walk-in showers have become a very popular feature.
So, if you’re considering a walk-in shower for your bathroom but you’re not sure where to start, let us help. Below, we’ve pulled together some ideas to help you find and design the perfect walk-in for your new build.
Read on for bathroom inspiration.
Create continuous flow
A walk-in shower is not just an efficient use of space; it is also sleek and elegant and avoids the risk of tripping over each time you have to climb in. Traditionally, a shower has a tray and some tiles; often, these are different from the paint or colours used on the walls.
But why not create a continuous flow throughout your bathroom? Perhaps you can embrace the Scandi style with lighter-coloured tiles or add some greys and blacks for a more luxurious feel.
Either way, by opting for the same tiles and colours throughout your bathroom, right through to the walk-in shower, you can really open up the space and trick the eye into thinking the room is far bigger than it is.
Go faux
Using wood like timber in any room of the house creates a beautiful sense of warmth and character. The problem is, using timber (or any wood, for that matter) in the bathroom can lead to warping, cracking and mould due to the moisture and humidity.
However, you can still create that warming effect with faux wooden effect tiles. These can give the appearance of cladding in your bathroom, creating that sauna, ski chalet type of feel.
This can add real depth to the room and make it feel very cosy and relaxing.
Don’t sacrifice the bath
You might think that a walk-in shower means bye-bye bathtub, but that doesn’t have to be the case! If you love to unwind in the bath at the end of the day but need a shower for everyday use, you can have your cake and eat it too.
Play around with the layout, but it’s likely that you’ll find a side-by-side approach is the best way to ensure your bathing areas don’t take up the entire bathroom. Choose a glass shower screen to separate the two areas but ensure plenty of natural light flows around the room, keeping that sense of open space.
Choosing a slightly smaller than average bathtub can work wonders for saving space and allowing you to keep both features. Of course, if you have a large bathroom, you should have no problem fitting both in.
Illuminate your shower experience
Whether it’s LED lighting or a skylight overhead, the last thing you want is for your walk-in shower to feel dark and dingy and leave you fumbling about for the shampoo. Instead, be sure to fit proper lighting or make sure there is enough natural light to illuminate your shower.
There are loads of great lighting ideas, from spotlights to strip lights and the aforementioned skylight, that will allow you to highlight your decorative tiles and make your showering experience much more enjoyable.
Just remember that there is humidity and water involved, so all lighting needs to be the correct IP rating to ensure it is protected.
Make the most of the space
If you’ve got a smaller bathroom, or perhaps you’re hoping to create a second bathroom or ensuite, you need to be very creative with your walk-in shower. You should make the most of every inch, and slotting your shower under eaves and into larger alcoves is the perfect way to do this.
What’s more, you need to think about your decor choice to make the space look and feel as big as possible. After all, you don’t want to feel like you have to shoehorn yourself into the shower. That takes away from the luxurious feel of a walk-in.
So be sure to put the shower head at the highest point in the space and keep your walls and tiling the same colour to create the illusion of space. Floor-to-ceiling tiles will also add to this effect.
Incorporate storage
Following on from the above, another way to maximise your space is to incorporate storage into your walk-in shower. This way, you can store your products neatly rather than having them on the side or the floor of your shower.
If you’re building stud walls as part of the walk-in shower, you can use these to create built-in shelves that make it easy to reach your products and keep your bathroom tidy.
Alternatively, you could add some thinner, sleeker shelves to the walls. Just be careful that these don’t protrude out too far and take up too much precious space.
Raise it up
The last idea on our list is to add some different levels to your bathroom; raising the walk-in shower, even just slightly, can make all the difference.
The key reason for this is not just to add depth and design to your bathroom but also to ensure you have plenty of space to hide the plumbing. This can be particularly useful in smaller bathrooms.
Adding a raised level to the room and then incorporating a walk-in shower on this level ensures you can get the correct drainage gradients and hide the ugly stuff. But it also makes it far easier to keep the rest of the bathroom floor area dry, preventing slip hazards.
Use carefully chosen tiles to accentuate this raised area, and you can really make it a beautiful focal point in the room.
