Bathroom design in Newcastle NSW

Too often, function wins over style for many renovators; be it home renovators or professional bathroom renovation companies. Swish Concepts has been involved in bathroom design in Newcastle NSW for many year, so here are our recommendations –

Every millimetre of your bathroom space is precious, so take the time to look at your floorplan. In my profession as an interior designer I see bathroom after bathroom with wasted space or badly configured.

Just changing your window can make the space function better, or ask your tiler to tile into the reveal of the window; which then allows you to have your shower space adjacent to the window. Also moving the door can free up precious corner space.

There are so many toilet designs, so you are spoilt for choice. Think about these things before you purchase a toilet unit –

• Is the ‘drop zone’ big enough. Make sure there is ample area in which the water sits, so you aren’t always cleaning the bowl.
• Do you want to hide the water inlet to your toilet. Look for a cistern that allows you the choice for water going into the back of the cistern or from the side.
• Always purchase a ‘back to wall’ unit. They sit neatly against the wall and eliminate the ugly space behind the toilet that is so hard to clean.
• Make sure your toilet has a choice of S or P trap, so your plumber can connect to either configuration.
• If you like the idea of an in-wall cistern, make sure you are able to open the space up on an adjacent wall if maintenance is required during its life. We design the bathroom space so the walk-in wardrobe or wardrobe cupboards are on the adjacent wall to enable a removable panel to be installed.

Make the shower recess as large as you can and consider a frameless screen or panel to give you the best visual lines to the space. There are a huge variety of tapware options for you to choose from, but I do recommend that you have two shower head options – one a fixed overhead unit, which could be a rain shower, mounted on the ceiling or a more traditional wall mounted shower arm and head. Also install a hand held shower head; always great if you won’t want to get your hair wet or perfect if you just want to wash your feet.

Choose the largest vanity you fit into the space and look for a wall hung vanity unit, especially if your space is small as it gives the illusion of more floor space by exposing more of the tiles.

Lighting and mirrors give you the luxury you deserve, so don’t skimp on downlights, heating/light/air flow units and over mirror lights; which make applying makeup a breeze. Run your mirror along an entire wall to trick the eye into thinking it is a larger space.

To give a seamless feel to the space, choose large format tiles for your walls and have them grouted in a colour as close to the tile colour as possible. Don’t be afraid to combine 3 or even 4 different tiles in the space to give an interesting layered effect.

Your tapware can make or break a good bathroom design, so always spend a little more on tapware to really complement your space.

Helen Brunsdon
Swish Concepts
Call: 0411 440 140