Bathrooms can be busy places for families. Whether it’s fighting over shower time during the morning rush or trying to navigate a group tooth brushing session before bed, there can often be a lot going on in a small space. If this sounds like your family, below you will find some family bathroom ideas for those who are looking for an upgrade.
Give everything a space
With a range of people navigating one area, something that’s essential is to ensure everything has a space. Starting with large bathroom fixtures and down to everything from your loofah to your towel, you want to make sure that the room you have can actually contain everything it needs to contain.
Lauren from The Heaton Fam gave us her suggestion for how to approach this task: “When you're considering updating your bathroom, and you have to factor in the family, I think it's so important to keep in mind everyone's needs. Often, a bath is quite important when you have children, so if you have a small space you can now find small baths to fit! Also keeping in mind that you can pop a shower over the top of a bath to save space.
“You want to utilise available space, as well as light. A great way to plan your bathroom out and make sure everything has a place is to plot everything out on a piece of paper/card that is drawn to scale. This way, you can manoeuvre your main bathroom fittings around and see which plan fits your space the best.”
Petra from A Mum Reviews knows the challenges and told us: “For a family bathroom, there are a few things that are very useful, and, in my experience, they are: plenty of storage and somewhere to dry everyone's towels. The more people who share a bathroom the more storage space you need. An uncluttered bath is much more relaxing so ensure you have somewhere to store all the bath foam bottles, shampoos and bath toys to keep them out of sight.”
On towels specifically, Petra suggests: “With a family's worth of towels, a large, wall-mounted heated towel rail will ensure everyone can enjoy a warm, dry towel after their bath or shower. There are lots of large but space-saving designs that run all the way to the floor. A heated towel rail instead of a standard central heating radiator will also help keep the bathroom warm in autumn/winter.”
And, you should be sure to make use of every last bit of space, as Jo at Tea and Cake for the Soul recommended to us: “Try to fit cupboards in nooks and crannies to hide away bath toys and toiletries.”
Make it easy to clean
Cleaning a family bathroom is no easy feat, and it seems that little ones especially are able to make a mess in any space. So, when re-designing your bathroom make sure you consider cleaning it. It may be great having a range of exciting features but if you find they are likely to gather mould or are hard to work around when cleaning, they are not practical long-term solutions.
One way to do this well is to consider the materials you are using for your walls and floor. Using wall tiles and floor tiles can not only make cleaning easier as you just need to spritz and wipe down, but they can also go a long way towards improving your bathroom design. For example, white tiles can create the illusion the space is bigger and reflect natural light.
This is something that Victoria from Tackling Our Debt made sure to consider in her home: “Our previous bathroom contained a sink unit that was almost impossible to clean because of the tight angles. I wasted so much money on various cleaning products and implements, so if you can, consider the suite you choose carefully, enabling you to keep it looking sparkling for years to come.”
For those who keep cleaning supplies in the bathroom, Kevin from Metro Precision recommends: “Don’t let cleaning products clutter the vanity. And if you’re going to have cleaning supplies out, have them organised.
I have a couple of those rolling drawers that contain cleaning supplies, and then I have a couple of baskets that hold my rags.”
Add some colour
That’s not to say that a simple colour palette is always the best way to go, however. Those with a young family especially can really receive benefits from adding some pops of colour and make it a place the family enjoys being. Some easy ways to do this is by including colour within your tiling, get a coloured shower curtain or create a focal point that is coloured such as a vanity unit.
Corinne from Skinnedcartree suggested this as her tip: “A great upgrade for a family bathroom is to add some colour. With grey and more subtle tones being popular now, we often forget how much joy colour can bring us. A bright and colourful bathroom is a must for a family bathroom. There are many ways you can add pops of colour to your bathroom with towels, wall art, paint your radiator and with plants or flowers.”
Vicki from Blossom Education also had this issue in her home and told us how she upcycled to fix it: “We recently revamped our bathroom and painted it all white. It looked quite clinical, so I wanted to add some quirky finishing touches. I found an old swan-shaped planter, and we now use this as a toothbrush and toothpaste pot. A charity shop find repurposed and totally unique. I highly recommend trawling through your local stores to see if you can add a touch of kitsch to your bathroom.”
Colin from Iceni Magazine took a family passion as inspiration when redesigning his family bathroom: “We love spending days at the beach, so we incorporated that theme into our new bathroom. The suite itself is pretty understated, but we have beach hut prints on the wall. It's not OTT and we love it.”
Make it functional
Especially for those who are looking for small family bathroom ideas, functionality needs to be at the heart of your design. The last thing you want in an already cramped feeling space with a constant rotation of family members using are elements or bathroom accessories that don’t work practically or serve their function.
Karen from The 3am Diary explains the functionality issue she overcame in her own family bathroom: “One of the main things we thought about with our family bathroom is the taps - making sure they are easy to use is really important, both for older/less-mobile family members who may struggle with stiff taps, as well as children (and their friends who visit) in the household. When children are learning to be independent with their teeth brushing and toilet training, being able to self-serve when it comes to running water can make it more natural for them to get used to them - plus it stops you having to jump up every few minutes to help them. We love taps with levers as they're easier to use with mud/paint-covered hands too! Just make sure the water pressure isn't too crazy, so they end up having a shower if they turn on the taps too quickly!”
How to re-design your family bathroom:
- Give everything a space
- Make it easy to clean
- Add some colour
- Make it functional
With these tips, whatever the issue you are facing with your family bathroom, whether it’s not working for your needs or just needs a spruce up, you’re sure to find a solution. And, if you need more help, browse our bathroom options online – guaranteed to offer inspiration.
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