There are almost as many choices for the bathroom as there are for the kitchen. Baths are no longer seen as purely functional for getting yourself clean. They cater for everything from bathing the dog to making love with your partner, from watching films to listening to music.



Some people like to go for the minimalist room with bath, shower, loo and basin with clean lines in pristine white with every other surface tiled while others prefer to make the bath room a place for total relaxation, making it sumptuous and cosy with carpets, candles and floating petals.

Not all homes these days are equipped with bathrooms. Some come with tiled cupboards that pass as 'wet rooms', a new fashion that saves space and consists of a shower with no bath.

Many people would not want to do without a bath as they serve so many purposes now. A morning bath with one type of product will wake you up and rejuvenate you - another at the end of the day with a different product will relax and soothe.

As far as bath products go, you could stand in a shop for a week and still be undecided. There are bath bombs that fizz, bath milk to make you feel like royalty, oils to soften your skin, creams to moisturise it, scrubs to slough it all off. From flowers to fruits, from herbs to salts and even minerals from the Dead Sea all are designed to do you good in one way or another.

Want a simple soap? There are none. You can have natural soaps, hand-made or home-made, you can have added ingredients, natural ingredients or synthetic ingredients. Bath products come in bar, wash or scrub form depending on what you want it for, what time of day you are using it and what your skin type is.

And long gone are the days when everybody had the same tin bath they dragged in front of the fire once a week. There is now a multitude of baths to choose from. You can have double ended for that sharing experience where no-one has to suffer sitting on the plughole or having hot taps dripping on them.

There are corner baths that were fashionable for a while. They make good space savers but are deceiving in that you don't actually gain any more room inside. Roll top baths and freestanding slipper baths are perfect for that period look while round baths and sunken baths give a look of true luxury and indulgence.

You just know that when you have visitors, they will make that dreaded bathroom visit and inspect it for cleanliness (or is that just a woman thing?) This is why it always pays to be prepared. Make sure the bath is always clean and shiny, that bath products are colour coded and facing the same direction and towels are suitably fluffed and displayed neatly. Water splashes are a complete no-no as are undesirable things left floating in lavatories.

Never leave reading material in a bathroom as this just encourages men to spend longer than necessary in there, thus leaving us all to pay the consequences for several hours after. Bathroom reading material should be limited to women taking it in there themselves along with armfuls of candles, bubble making products and ear defenders.