The 3 Most Overlooked Necessities in a Bathroom Remodel
Project: Salt Lake City to Philly
Photo: Kate Raines
When a bathroom is remodeled there are a lot of decisions to make. Typically, the physically larger things like the vanity, tub/shower and toilet tend to overshadow important details that will influence your day to day routine. There are three major things that are often completely overlooked and end up being an afterthought.
Towel Bars
I can’t tell you how many times I’m given a set of construction documents to use as a base for our interior design drawings and we need to add in a wall or reconfigure things a bit just to make space for a towel bar. If you’re taking a shower, you’re going to need a towel at some point. However, this somehow often gets forgotten and then a towel bar is jammed into the space somewhere. Of course, you can still use a towel hook, which isn’t the end of the world, but towels dry better if they’re spread out on a towel bar.
Project: Retro Garden View
Photo: Kate Raines
Outlets
If you blow dry your hair, use an electric razor, or charge an electric toothbrush, placement of electrical outlets is key. We place outlets in electrical plans according to whether a client is right or left handed. We also consider how empty they prefer their bathroom vanity countertop. If they like everything pretty minimal, we’ll investigate placing an outlet inside the medicine cabinet or a vertical vanity side cabinet, like we did in the Retro Garden View project pictured above.
Full disclosure, we specify outlets at the vanity for every bathroom renovation but we usually photoshop them out of the photographs.
Shower Storage
Who stores their soap, razor and shampoo bottles on the edge of the tub or the floor of their shower? It’s annoying, right? Things fall over all the time and there just isn’t enough space. To be honest, it’s also unsafe. If a soap bottle falls over and you don’t notice, you could easily trip over it and slip and fall. A pretty simple solution is having a shower shelf or niche like the one pictured below.
Project: Salt Lake City to Philly
Photo: Kate Raines
And don’t just pick any shower storage solution—really evaluate how much space you need to store all your bottles, soap bars, and razors. If you have curly hair like me, you know exactly what I’m talking about (we tend to use a lot of hair products). If you choose to use something with multiple shelves I always recommend measuring your tallest bottle and making sure that it will actually fit.
The key to remodeling any space is not just thinking about how much better it will look. The space should also improve your daily routine. Think about how you’ll use the space every day and what can be changed to make the space more enjoyable. Your home should be adjusted to meet your needs, not the other way around.
