If you think you have to spend a fortune on a shower or bathroom refurb, think again. You can now get a host of upgrades and improvements for a fraction of the price you used to have to pay, thanks to technology and design improvements. Transforming your bathroom from mediocre into something spectacular doesn’t require you to crater your budget. If you know what you’re doing, you can often get the job done at fifty perfect of your regular budget – perhaps less.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at why you don’t have to spend a fortune on a bathroom refurb and what’s driving prices down.
Minimalism Is A Hot (And Cheap) Trend
Take a look at the majority of the bathrooms on show on sites like Pinterest. Many of them retain a minimalist aesthetic, using as few patterns or colors as they can. Everything is about stripping back to the bare essentials and making it look good at the same time.
You would think that simplifying your bathroom puts it at risk of looking cheap and nasty, but that is often the opposite of the final effect. When you strip out everything and display only the essential features, you declutter, automatically making your bathroom look more luxe.
Add some attractive waterproof paint here and a few stylish shelves there, and you have yourself the making of something that could easily appear in an interior design magazine. Remember, you don’t have to introduce complexity if it doesn’t add anything to the room. In some cases, it can actually make things look more cluttered, reducing the overall appeal of the room.
Mass Produced Units Cost Very Little
Mass-produced baths, sinks, and toilets might not sound particularly exciting. But the longer the run, the lower the price. Manufacturers are getting much better at creating beautiful designs en masse, essentially copying the design cues of leading designers.
The fact that it is not the real McCoy is a problem for some ultra-luxury buyers. But if you’re just a regular person, it doesn’t matter a great deal. You can still get something that emulates the leading styles and is relatively indistinguishable from the bespoke pieces.
New Wall Materials Are Replacing Tiles
Tiles have been a standard bathroom feature for many centuries – practically for as long as we’ve had bathrooms. But there are two problems with them.
The first is the upfront cost. The price of the raw materials is around ten times higher than regular paint. And that’s just for your basic ceramic. If you go for luxury tiles, which many property owners want to, you wind up paying way more money.
The second issue is the cost of installing them. You could try doing it yourself, but unless you’ve tiled before, you’re looking for trouble. Mostly, you have no choice but to ask a professional to do it, setting you back even more.
Now, though, large format shower panel suppliers are offering a solution. The basic idea here is simple. Instead of buying individual, fiddly tiles, you purchase something equally attractive in panel format. Then, instead of using mortar, you either stick or screw them into the wall.
This method usually works out cheaper than tiles because of the low cost of the materials these companies use. Labor costs less too because they’re not so fiddly to install. Typically, you see options like this in commercial buildings, but there’s no reason they can’t make an appearance in your home. It’s a great money-saving device that can slash your next refurb’s cost while giving you a style you love.
Acrylic Is Replacing Spashboards
When you think about it, it is a wonder that acrylic didn’t make its way into the bathroom scene earlier. In many ways, it is the perfect cladding material. It is waterproof, attractive, and you can cut it to practically any size you like. The main difficulty is simply attaching it to the wall in a beautiful way. But recently, designers have become very good at this, incorporating bolt fixtures into the design.
Acrylic is also an excellent material for creating focal points in your bathrooms. Sometimes, you can leave the rest of the room how it is and just update your splashboard. It adds a modern twist, helping to make the room look more contemporary immediately. Often, it is the only thing you have to do to give the room a new lease of life.
Adding Plants Is Always An Option
Plants and bathrooms go together like Penn and Teller. What’s more, it is probably the cheapest and simplest thing you can do to alter how the room looks radically.
Plants tend to work best in primarily neutral bathrooms. The contrast of green on white helps to create a relaxing environment that instantly transforms your mood. You go from feeling stressed out of your brain to cool and relaxed for the couple of minutes you take for a rest break.
If possible, try to include monkey leaves in your bathroom. Not only is this houseplant bang on trend right now, but the big, Swiss-cheese style leaves instantly create the vibe you want when you shower.
Interchangeable Fittings Negate The Need To Replace Entire Units
Replacing entire bathroom units for the sake of it is a surefire way to increase your costs. Ripping out the sink or the shower is an expensive job.
Sometimes, though, the unit itself is fine – it’s the fitting that’s the problem.
Here again, vendors are riding to the rescue. You don’t have to put up with an ugly shower head or faucet any longer. Instead, you can whip it out for a better version with a universal attachment. Think rain showers and waterfall taps – both of which can massively enhance how your bathroom looks and feels.
Changes in technology and improvements in products mean that you don’t actually have to spend a fortune on bathroom refurbs anymore. Often, simple, inexpensive changes are all you need to revamp the entire room. That sounds like a trend we can all embrace.
