Brilliant Bathroom Remodeling Ideas You’ll Want To Pinch

Restyling the master bathroom can be a lot of fun. Trying to eke more practicality out of limited space is always a rewarding experience, even if it is a little frustrating sometimes. 

How you should go about getting the most out of your bathroom experience, though, isn’t always obvious. Sure, most of us understand the benefits of a double vanity or water-sparing shower head, but it’s the little tweaks you can’t think up off the top of your head that yield the most benefit. Small details really matter in the bathroom.

In this post, we take a look at some of the best bathroom remodeling ideas we’ve seen in our travels around the internet. In fact, some of them are so good that you’ll want to pinch them. 

Install Fan Timer Switches

When you turn your bathroom light or shower on, your electric shower fan automatically starts whirring up and exhausting air from the room. If you’re taking a long, hot shower, that’s a good thing. But if you’re going for a rest break, then it doesn’t offer as much utility. 

The trick here is to install fan timer switches. Instead of just waiting for the fan to switch off after a predetermined length of time, you can set it manually, telling it how long you’d like it to run. 

For instance, if you’re just going to the bathroom to relieve yourself, you might only leave the fan on for five minutes. However, if you’re planning on spending an hour in the shower, you might want the fan to run for at least 30 minutes after you leave to get rid of all the condensation. 

Here’s the solution: get an electrician to change the wiring to your fan and install timer switches, instead of just relying on the clock pre-installed by the original builder. Get them to fit a unit with on/off options, plus individual 5, 10, 20, and 30-minute timers. This way, you can quickly select how long you want the fan to run based on your particular bathroom activity. 

Tile Your Shower

Tiles are a great way to create focal points in bathrooms, but most people don’t know how to do it effectively. They tile the entire interior, believing that that’s the way things should be done, but that’s not always true. 

One approach is to create a focal point instead. Here, you tile a portion of the bathroom while leaving the rest of it looking neutral. 

For instance, if you are feeling adventurous, you could install a tile shower. These look great and serve a practical purpose, too. 

You could also tile one wall in an interesting pattern, perhaps around the bath or vanity, while leaving the rest of the room plain. Again, this has the effect of creating a focal point that brings the whole room together.

Use Floating Shelves For Extra Storage Space

Shoehorning sufficient storage space into bathrooms is often challenging. Vanities and medicine cabinets rarely do the job. 

Don’t panic, though. Almost all bathrooms have nooks and crannies where you can place floating shelving to deliver more storage space. 

The nice thing about floating shelving is that you don’t need to rummage around for the things you need. You just place towels, bath bombs, and potpourri where you need them. 

Add Outlets To Vanity Drawers

One of the perennial problems of the bathroom is that it doesn’t provide any outlets for all your creature comforts. You’d love to be able to make yourself a coffee while patting down your body in the morning, but you can’t because you simply don’t have any electricity supply. Granted, water and wiring don’t mix. However, if you are careful, you can make your bathroom just as functional as any other room in your home.

One cool idea is to add outlets to vanity drawers. These mount on the inside and have a cord and hinge attached that allows you to pull out the drawer without severing the electrical connection. Outlets like these are great for hairdryers, coffee machines, and heaters. 

If the idea of full-blown electrical outlets is a little scary for you, then you might want to try USBs instead. These operate at significantly lower energies but still provide plenty of utility. 

Add Heated Flooring

During the winter, braving the bathroom is a challenge. When temperatures plummet, the last thing you want to do is strip off and get in the shower. 

Installing a bunch of radiators is one option. But if you really want your bathroom to look great (and avoid central heating clutter), then your best bet is heated flooring. 

The way it works is actually simpler than you might imagine. And, unlike regular central heating, it doesn’t rely on water and gas. 

Underfloor heating engineers install a sheet with a metal wire running through it and then tile on top of it. The wire resists the flow of electricity, creating heat which then dissipates energy to the surrounding material and, eventually, the air above. 

Underfloor heating is gentle, so there aren’t any super hot surfaces that could hurt children. And it heats rooms uniformly, so the moment you step into your bathroom, you’re comfortable. 

Get A Heated Toilet Seat

With utility bills rising, many people are getting smart about how they heat their bathrooms. Instead of heating the entire room and, therefore, the toilet seat, why not just heat the toilet seat by itself?

While it might sound like an unnecessary premium investment, it actually has practical value, warming the person, not the entire room. In an era of high energy costs, targeted heating makes a lot more sense. 

Unfortunately, being the bathroom, you can’t just plug-and-play heated toilet seat products. You need to do some planning around them. For example, you need a compatible wall socket nearby to accept the plug. And, if you plan on keeping your existing toilet, you need to make sure that it is compatible. Otherwise, you’ll be forking out even more money. 

Get Out Of The Habit Of Always Installing Bathroom Lights

Many homeowners believe that bathroom lights are the only permissible lighting type in bathrooms. However, as many designers have proven over the years, that’s not always true. You can have frilly, artistic designer lights in the bathroom and actually improve the appearance of the room. 

Nontraditional lighting in the bathroom can be a little “love it or hate it.” But if you enjoy an unconventional approach to interior design, it’s worth a shot. Ultimately, if you don’t like it, you can replace it with something else. 

Be careful when choosing bathroom lighting. Choose simple, warming light shades that complement the rest of the room. Beige or light brown are both good color choices and help to offset some of the harshness of the tiles. 

Add Helpful Shower Niches

Shower niches are a smart and beautiful way to add utility to your bathroom. Instead of relying on ugly trays, these built-in storage spaces for soap and flannels go directly into your bathroom design. 

What’s more, you can make niches as big or as small as you like. Some people prefer dainty versions with space for a bar of soap or razor, while others prefer them to take up the entire wall of their shower unit.

Ideally, you want enough space for your needs. If you’re Spartan in the shower, then a small niche should suffice. However, if you love indulging in products, then you’ll want something considerably larger. 

Ditch Your Boring Round Drain

Have you ever noticed how luxury hotel bathrooms always have square or octagonal drains? It’s a small change superficially, but it can have a giant effect on how you feel about the space. 

When choosing a new shower drain, it’s a good idea to pick one that complements your existing hardware. The theme of your bathroom when looking down at the floor should be the same as anywhere else. 

What’s interesting about square or non-standard drain shapes is that they all come with backing hardware that allows you to connect them to round drain pipes. Therefore, you don’t need to worry about ripping out your existing plumbing. In most cases, it is a quick and easy job. 

Don’t Bother With A Shower Bench

When designing a luxury bathroom, many people instinctively believe that they need a shower bench. But how many people actually use them? The answer is practically no one. 

One idea is to install a built-in shower bench and make it part of the fabric of the room. But if you explore what people use these for, it’s rarely for sitting. Most of the time, it is for storing shower gel, soap, and shampoo. 

There’s also the cost. Adding a shower bench to a bathroom is notoriously expensive. Homeowners often wind up paying upwards of $500 for something that they will hardly use. It just isn’t worth it. 

In summary, there are many brilliant bathroom remodeling ideas out there. However, occasionally, one or two come along that are so inspiring that you just have to try them yourself.

How you should go about getting the most out of your bathroom experience, though, isn’t always obvious. Sure, most of us understand the benefits of a double vanity, the installation of new floor or water-sparing shower head, but it’s the little tweaks you can’t think up off the top of your head that yield the most benefit. Small details really matter in the bathroom.