Creating a Stylish and Practical Family Bathroom

In a household with young children, it can feel like any semblance of style has to be sacrificed to make way for toys, clothes and child-safety measures. Well, in the bathroom that doesn’t have to be the case. Here are a few ideas to help you create a chic and stylish family bathroom that is safe, practical and still looks fantastic.

We all tend to accumulate far more toiletries, cosmetics and cleaning supplies than we really need, and in family bathrooms, products tend to get stockpiled to avoid running out. Without sufficient storage space, all of those mismatched and multi-coloured products and packages are enough to make even the largest bathroom seem cramped and cluttered, so it’s important to be able to neatly store your bathroom supplies out of sight, but within easy reach.

Fortunately, bathroom furniture is enjoying a real resurgence in popularity, so there are now cabinets and cupboards available in just about every conceivable size, shape and finish. A fitted vanity unit will allow you to keep your basin area clean and organised, and for families with young children, wall-mounted cabinets can be a great way to safely store any medicines and supplements safely out of reach. The arrangement of doors and drawers is entirely down to you, but in a busy family bathroom, giving each member of the household their own drawer or designated storage area can make daily bathroom use run much more smoothly.

Soft-close doors and drawers are also becoming increasingly popular, as they eliminate the risk of trapped fingers, as well as any annoying (if accidental) slams! Many modern units will also come pre-treated with a moisture coating to ensure that they can survive daily bathroom life for a long time to come, because we all no how frequently splashes and drips can happen in a family bathroom!

Although heated towel rails look great and provide you with warm fluffy towels whenever you need them, underfloor heating can be a safer choice if you have young children, removing the possibility of accidental burns. Underfloor heating has improved in quality as much as it has decreased in price in recent years, so this is a really attainable heating method. Another heating safeguard is a thermostatic controller, which will mean that your bathroom water can never be heated over a set temperature (of your choosing), to give you a little extra peace of mind.

Remember that all of these new and improved safety measures have been designed to look great as well, so take the time to have a click around and find the ways to safeguard your bathroom that appeal most to you, and then simply find the styling and finish that will help you to create your ideal bathroom! Don't forget to add some of your children's art work in stylish frames as we do not want our bathrooms to look like a completely kid free zone, and there you have it, your stylish and practical family bathroom!

Get the Look: Cloakroom Bathroom

After the post I wrote early in the month about small bathroom ideas my friend Julie said she loved one of the ideas. She asked me if I could recommend to her how to recreate the look at an affordable price so I thoughts I would share my recommendations with you all so you could 'get the look' to!

1. Mirrored Cabinet

Pick up this fab cabinet from better bathrooms at just £65.95 you cannot go wrong. If you would prefer an illuminated mirrored cabinet then you could choose that as an alternative.

2. Taps

When I spoke with Julie she mentioned that she prefers chrome taps and to be honest for this style of bathroom I would suggest going for a chrome finish tap as they compliment the tiles and vanity unit much better. This cascade bath filler is £123.95 and it’s square features perfectly compliment the style of the basin. 

3. Basin & Vanity Unit

You have two options with the basin. You can either go for a basin that is built into the vanity unit or one which sits on top of the unit. Personally I prefer the basin that sites on the vanity unit but I have given you a few options below. They come in a variety of sizes and wood colours, if you would prefer a white unit they are also available.

 (Above) Barcelona 600 Black Vanity Unit £339.95

 (Above) Aspen 750 Wall Mounted Walnut Cabinet with Rec Basin £188.95

(Above) Aspen 750 Wall Mounted Walnut Vanity Unit £169.95


4. Toilet

A wall-hung toilet is a great way to save space and they also look pretty neat and tidy to. You can pick these up at a very low cost and they look very high quality. Below is the Venus Wall Hung Toilet £119.95.

5. Storage unit

In addition to the vanity unit Julie is after an additional storage unit to keep those bathroom cleaning products organised and most importantly hidden. Here are a few of my favourite. Below is the Mito 350mm Oak Slatted Unit at £211.95. The darker unit is the Mito Mid Height Walnut Slatted Unit which is at £ 306.95

6. Tiles

Tiles can completely change the feel of any bathroom and it is important to pick the right ones for the size of room you are decorating. Choosing a tile too large for a bathroom can make it feel small and cluttered. Here are a few that I feel would work best in this sized bathroom. Below is the White Travertine Tumbled Mosaic Tile and below that is the Polis Relieve Gris Tile.

I hope you have found this post useful, Julie will be looking to renovate her bathroom in the new few months so I will post some photos and let you know how it goes as I am sure she will be roping me in to do some of the painting!

Spring Bathrooms

So, its finally here, when I woke up this morning I could defiantly feel spring in the air, the fact that we gained an hour defiantly helped this spring feeling although I could see the faint sight of snow falling from the sky when I took the dog out for her morning walk (we will ignore that!). So what better way to start off Spring & April than with a little piece on spring design. One of my favourite spring themes for bathroom design is rustic. Creating a rustic bathroom is a sure fire way of making your bathroom space feel fresh and bright! Rustic bathrooms tend to use lots of wood and stone features, here are just a few of my favorites from rustic design... enjoy!!

You will see that many of the objects have been gathered from car boot sales and thrifty stores, this is a cheap way to create a designer looking bathroom. So give it and go and let me know how it went :) Thanks for reading, Helen Xx