Trends change, tiles get grout, and needs evolve. Stay in a house long enough and you’ll eventually want to give your bathroom a makeover. A fresh remodel can offer a more beautiful and functional design in a place you use daily. It can also increase your home’s overall value, prevent mold and mildew from accumulating in hard-to-spot places, and make your house more environmentally friendly by updating inefficient plumbing and fixtures. Say goodbye to that leaky faucet keeping you up at night.
When remaking a master bath, you get to be especially choosy and create an experience suited to yourself. There’s no need to worry about what guests are going to need or see. This is all about you and what makes sense for your lifestyle. Before you get started tearing out the plumbing, though, here are a few things to consider for your remodel.
Spatial Considerations
When you’re remodeling, the stuff has to fit the space, not the other way around.
It’s rare that people remodel their bathrooms with the hope of making them smaller, but it’s not uncommon for people to wish they had more space. Some people are able to accomplish this goal by pushing back a wall into another room or opening up a storage closet and replacing it with compact shelving. Before you start designing the blueprints, it’s good to know how much flexibility you have with the space available.
Get to Know Your Plumbing System
Don’t underestimate the importance of good pipes!
Maybe you’ve spent the last twenty years wondering why the toilet seems so inconveniently placed. It’s possible that was the only option available based on the layout of the pipes. If you’re not already familiar with the plumbing system in your bathroom and are considering rearranging the big items, this will be important to look into. You might also find there are necessary updates you need to make to the pipes. Knowing this early in the process can save you a lot of headache later on.
Consider Your Habits
This bathroom offers the best of both worlds.
How often do relax for a soak in a bathtub? In the 80s and early 2000s, it was trendy to have a hot tub style bathroom in the master bathroom, but just because it was trendy, that doesn’t make it essential. If you’ve lived in your home for 20 years and have never once taken a bath, feel free to change out that tub for an extended walk-in waterfall shower or expand your vanity for more counterspace. Think about what you use most in the bathroom and what you wish you had (ie., more counter space, a heated towel rack, a fancy shower head). Now is your chance to turn those morning grumblings into morning gratitude.
Down the Road Planning
A curbless shower can reduce the risk of tripping and falling later in life.
A lot of our recent home-building projects have been designed with aging in mind. That means homeowners want to be able to stay comfortable in their own homes without having to worry about accessibility issues down the line. While we might give a lot of attention to zero-entry floorplans, bathrooms shouldn’t be overlooked. Stepping over a high top edge can be challenging later in life. If you’re hoping to remodel your bathroom into something that’s easy use into old age, consider the benefits of having a walk-in shower. Depending on the size of your bathroom, this could be in place of or in addition to a bathtub.
Storage Space
You can always mix shelving styles.
No matter how fancy your shower is, toilet paper still needs a place to live. As you’re designing your layout, think about what you want your storage options to look like. Would you rather hide toiletries in a built-in closet or tuck things away in cabinets? You could also opt for exposed shelving to keep your beauty needs on display and in easy reach. When planning your storage, consider how much stuff you generally keep in your bathroom and whether you like to keep it on display or hide it away for a clean, uncluttered look. Whatever choices you make, there’s an option for you and we’re happy to help find it.
Keep an eye out for an upcoming Master Bath remodeling project where we’ll take you through the full transformation. In the meantime, check out our blog post on how to make your bathroom feel like a tropical spa.