Aside from the kitchen, your bathroom is the second busiest room of the house. Morning activity, throughout the day and at day’s end, your bathroom is a busy place. It’s easy to overlook how wear-and-tear takes its toll. Only when you start noticing darkening grout lines, sagging cabinetry hardware and dull countertops that it comes to mind that the bathroom is a couple of decades old, and begging for a change.
They may be the smaller rooms of the house, comparatively speaking, but the traffic patterns are intense, especially mornings and before bed. Between teeth brushing, shaving, showering, blow drying hair and applying makeup, it can be non-stop several hours a day.
Busy Bathrooms On a Grand Scale
Even though the bathroom takes a beating, it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be a beautiful, as well as practical, room. When designing a bathroom that hasn’t received a facelift in many years, you can employ practical elements in the high-use areas, and go chic in the lesser used nooks and crannies.
Where to Go Practical
Think about what takes a beating in a bathroom:
- Flooring
- Countertops
- Doors and Drawers
- Sinks and Tubs, and Faucets
In these areas use the best that you can afford. Think of quality and durability. Flooring should be able to withstand traffic patterns and constant vacuuming and washing. Countertops also need to be able to withstand all sorts of liquids and lotions, cleaning and a certain amount of scratching. Doors and drawers should have soft close mechanisms (also a must for the toilet seat and cover), and sinks, tubs and faucets should be of quality materials and finishes.
Where to Go Chic
Lighting can go chic – pendants, sconces and chandeliers are visible but rarely touched. While quality finishes are important in moist environments, you do not have to go over the top for the other components of the lighting fixtures.
Again, as long as finishes are of a better standard, you can create visual interest with less expensive yet innovative towel bars, mirrors and accessories.