The Modern Way to Maximize Your Bathroom Space

Homes are getting smaller which means that bathrooms are getting smaller – and for the most part, bathrooms were never all that big to start with.  Not only is floor space shrinking but we’re increasingly needing to find ways to do more in less space and fortunately those involved with home design are stepping up to the challenge.  You might have noticed the trend of creating multifunctional spaces and the fact that not only is there a far greater range of multifunctional furniture but that it is getting better and better in just about every way.  Bathrooms, however, tend to be the exception to this rule.

Bathrooms are still very much “one-use” areas

For the vast majority of us, having privacy in a bathroom is a non-negotiable, which means that making bathrooms open-plan so as to incorporate them into multi-functional spaces is just a non-starter.  Therefore bathrooms remain largely “one-use” areas and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, it can be very pleasant to have one part of the home, which is shut off from everywhere else and can be turned into your own little place of peace and tranquility.  This is exactly why “home-spa bathrooms” have become so very popular over recent years.

The secret to an effective self-contained bathroom is to have everything you need in it and the best bathrooms have enough storage not only for there to be a place for everything but also for it to be easy to put everything back in its place, ideally and the very best bathrooms also have space for a few non-essentially which help to enhance the room.  That’s a big ask for a small space, which is why many people have been turning to luxury shower cabins as a way to turn bathing on its head.

Shower cabins, the new, old-fashioned way to take care of yourself.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see that the main reason baths have been so popular for so long is because they make minimal demands on plumbing.  You fill a bath, get in and then top it up as, when and if required.  That’s all.  There are, however, three key downsides to baths.

The first is that they gobble up bathroom space.  Not only do they take up floor space, but to all intents and purposes, they take up all the vertical space beside and above them as well, because it has to be kept clear to ensure not just access but also safety.

The second is the economy.  Baths use up a lot of water and they use a lot of energy to heat that water.  What’s more that water starts to go cold the moment it leaves the tap and so if you want anything more than a short bath, you have to drain off some of the original water and replace it.

The third issue with baths, as we touched on earlier, is safety.  Parents may think they are safer for children, but actually that’s not true, the simple fact of the matter is that you can drown in a bath and while this, thankfully, only happens occasionally, it does happen.  It’s also fair to say that anyone with reduced mobility can struggle getting into and out of a bath.

For all of these reasons (probably mostly the first), people have been turning to showers, although up until recently that has often been with some reluctance.  Showers have also been around for a long time but for most of that time they have been either accessories to baths (for when you needed to get clean quickly) or for people who, for whatever reason, just couldn’t have baths.  As homes continued to shrink, however, the practical advantages of switching out a bath for a shower became too obvious to ignore, particularly since shower manufacturers were continually upping their game in terms of functionality and features to tempt people away from baths.  The latest development in shower technology is the shower cabin, which offers maximum luxury in minimal space.

Features the whole family will love

Possibly the first big win with shower cabins is that they are self-contained cabins, so no more tiling and no more tile-cleaning!  Step inside them and you will find enough modern features to impress even teenagers.  To begin with, you usually get two showers – a standard one for quick cleaning jobs and a monsoon one for that “washing-in-a-tropical-rainstorm” experience.  You’ll also get some form of lighting, for basic-but-effective LED safety lighting to full-on color-changing lights and an FM radio.  You may get Bluetooth connectivity as well.  If you don’t use it, teenagers and young adults will enjoy it.  You don’t have to worry about their phones because shower cabins keep all the water and steam safely inside.  Speaking of water and steam, some shower cabins come with hydrotherapy massage jets and a few also have steam generators, usually complete with aromatherapy modules.  So basically, you can have a complete home-spa in a very small space, plus you save on water and electric and you also eliminate all the safety issues associated with baths.