Whether you are building an altogether new bathroom or altering an existing one, designing your bathroom carefully may be more important than you might think. Your bathroom should provide comfort and efficient functionality while occupying the minimum space possible. For this purpose, it is worthwhile to spend some time and effort in selecting the items that go into your bathroom, such as showers, bath, basin, toilet and taps, with care, and planning the room elements and layout meticulously.

If you are building a new bathroom, the first step in planning your bathroom is to decide the size and shape. To some extent, both of these may be constraints imposed by existing or proposed building plans. If you do have a choice, you can choose from a number of shapes, including square, rectangular or L-shapes oriented in a variety of ways. Select a shape that appeals to you, and is consistent with the rest of the building. You should also keep in mind the room elements and fittings that you are planning to add. Make a sketch of the proposed bathroom to scale.

If you are planning alterations in an existing bathroom, or planning to construct a new bathroom in an existing building that offers you limited choices regarding the shape and size of your bathroom, you will have to do further planning within the given dimensions. In that case carefully measure the dimensions of the bathroom and make a sketch.

Once you have the bathroom sketch ready, the next step is to plan the room elements such as doors and windows, and the fittings that will go into the bathroom. Decide on the type of basins, baths, showers, toilets and enclosures that you would like to have, and then decide on the finishing touches for example the stunning Italiano free standing wave mono bar designer mixer. Remember that you are probably going to spend a number of years in the building that you are constructing, and each day during those years is going to see you preparing yourself for the day, and spending time in the bathroom that you build. Obtain the details regarding prices and dimensions of the fittings that you plan to install. Also plan your bathroom to suit the fittings that you plan. For example you could place a Latium white freestanding cabinet or you could fit it into the wall, in which case your wall should be designed to support it. Similarly, you could install a frameless square shower enclosure, provided you make sure there's room for it. You can easily get these details from the website of a good organization such as Bathroom Evolution that deals in bathroom products.

You can take a cue from plant layout engineers and use either paper templates or a computer to place the templates of the fittings in the sketch of the bathroom to determine their positioning. Move the pieces around and visualise the way the bathroom would look, feel, and above all function, with the fittings placed as they are. Take some time to decide on the colours. How do they blend with the surroundings? Can they be maintained easily, particularly in your kind of situation?

Once you are satisfied, get the help of a professional, if required, and make any final touches to the design before proceeding with the construction. You can order the selected products online from Bathroom Evolution, which offers you more for less with triple guarantees on price, quality and satisfaction.

Come back next month for the second article in this series where we discuss how shower enclosures impact how you design your bathroom.