I recently did a walk through with a client for their extension project in Burwood. Easily this was a $500,000 project. My scope was to design the kitchen layout and specifications. However, the client did the design implementation. During the walk through I noticed some problems in the bathrooms. Here are the top 3 things that ruin a bathroom renovation.
Direction of shower door opening
When planning a bathroom layout, the direction the shower door opens is important. The reason being is that you want to be able to easily access a towel just by reaching out. Nobody wants to step out of the hot shower, and into a cold space just to get a towel.
This was a problem I found in both the ensuite and main bathroom in the Burwood project walk through. This is a disappointing outcome after spending $500,000.
The client offered some explanation the builder communicated to her, but I think this is laziness. It’s not how the bathrooms were designed and for some reason the builder did his own thing.
Which is why I think it’s important that the interior designer remains involved through the construction phase to ensure design implementation occurs as planned, specified, and approved by the client.
Only one towel hook
There might be a debate about the value of having a heated towel rail and towel hooks but in this case the client wanted both.
However, in both bathrooms there was only one towel hook. And due to the problem mentioned above about the shower door opening, the hook was placed in a weird and awkward spot on the wall.
The hook was out of place and had no real functional purpose. I think hooks are like a collection, and work best in threes.
Badly placed heated towel rail
Heated towel rails are nice to have, not a must have. The reason I think they’re not a must have, is because bathrooms in Australia are generally well ventilated. This means your towel is likely to dry before its next use if hung cleanly.
But I get the appeal of a toasty towel that has been heated. However, the placement of heated towel rails is equally important as the location and quantity of towel hooks.
They need to be near the shower so the user can easily place the towel on the heated towel rail just by reaching out. Rather than having to walk to the other side of the bathroom.
In the case of my Burwood project, the heated towel rail was placed directly behind the door. Without a door stop the door easily smashed into the heated towel rail.
We like to think the relevant trade would question this placement and confirm with the client before installing but they don’t. Which is why it’s important to have your interior designer on site for design implementation.
