Thinking Through Bathroom Renovations

Bathroom renovations nearly always include a new vanity or other storage options. Bathroom cabinets are a critical choice when planning and designing bathroom renovations Surrey renovations. Storage tends to be very limited in any bathroom, regardless of size.

In terms of total budget for your bathroom renovations, cabinetry is a relatively small item. The cost of the vanity or other storage cabinet of your choice is not likely to break the budget. Your choices about storage, however, have very important implications for space.

Whether you are renovating a bathroom built for two, a shared bath for the kids or a second bathroom, the size of the fixtures and the cabinetry makes a big difference. The smaller the room, the more important the size of fixtures and cabinets will be. All bathroom renovations involve choices between need for storage and available space.

If you have an older home and you want to bring it up to today's standards, you will likely need to do some very creative thinking and planning. Unless you have a much older home that was designed with big bathrooms, you are probably dealing with bathroom spaces much smaller than most buyers want today. You might be adding on to enlarge the bathroom or you might be making choices that enable you to maximize every inch of existing space.

If you are planning to sell your home soon, you might be concerned about meeting the requirements of Universal Design. These requirements include limitations of switch and outlet placement, floor finish, room to turn a wheelchair and accessible shower and tub areas. Choosing cabinets and vanities for these bathroom renovations may require custom cabinets.

Maximizing space in a small bathroom and creating the appearance of spaciousness might demand great creativity. For example, these bathroom renovations might require either a pedestal sink or a wall-mounted sink so you can leave more floor area open. This solves one problem, but where will you store towels and other items?

Deciding to make bathroom renovations without a vanity has serious ramifications. First, you eliminate your primary storage area. Second you remove the countertop area for decorative and toiletry items.

One solution is to approach bathroom renovations without traditional cabinets. In this case, you might set shallow cabinet into the existing wall. Only the cabinet door is not recessed.

Open shelving, cabinets with glass panel doors and creative placement of small shelves for needed items is one solution. For example, you might set glass door cabinets into the wall above the bathtub for towels and washcloths. A decorative niche could be used or soaps and sponges.