Everyone loves to look at show homes or interiors magazines and imagine their house looking the same once they redecorate. However, the truth is most of us own far too much stuff to have the pristine, clutter-free rooms that would look perfect in glossy magazines.
Lots of homeowners find this to be a problem when renovating their bathroom, as the current trends are for open-shelving, floating sinks and hanging mirrors. While these look great, fitting them means you won’t have much storage in your newly-decorated bathroom to hide all the clutter you don’t want on show.
So here are some suggestions on how you can store your bathroom products without scrimping on style.
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Vanity units
If you want to keep your toiletries, towels, and hygiene products out of sight, there is no two ways about it, you need to have a cupboard in your bathroom. Vanity units are the easiest way to fit in storage, offering shelf or drawer space underneath your basin.
To keep it looking on trend, opt for a sink that sits on top of the worktop as opposed to being built in. This will also give you more storage space in the unit.
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Recessed shelving
Look closely and you’ll notice that images of shower cubicles in magazines don’t contain any shelving. But, think about it, where are you going to keep your shampoos and shower gels?
Some people end up storing theirs on the floor, but bending down to pick them up every day will be very difficult for people with mobility challenges who need accessible shower rooms.
So, if you don’t want to store them on the shower floor, you’ll need some sort of shelving. You could either opt for a metal shelf with suckers that stick to the tiles or one that hangs around the tap, or you could build in a recessed shower shelf when renovating the room.
Of course, this needs to be considered before work begins on the bathroom, so don’t leave it to the last minute to think about shelving.
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Fitted shelves
If you have recesses in your bathroom, don’t leave them empty as these are ideal for made-to-measure shelving. Instead of filling the space with units that might not fit exactly in the space, hire someone to create shelving to the precise measurements.
Although a lot of your items will be on display, you could keep these to the things you’re less bothered about people seeing, such as rolled-up fresh towels and labelled boxes where you can store things like nail polish or shaving items. It’s best to hide medication, toilet spray and spare loo roll in another part of the bathroom.
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Hidden laundry baskets
It is easy to dump the day’s clothes on to the bathroom floor when getting ready for bed, but if you have a hidden laundry basket, this will make it easier to clear your dirty things away instead of leaving them in a pile.
Laundry baskets can take up a lot of space and look unsightly when they begin to overspill, so having one hidden in a cupboard or with a lid means you can be discreet with your dirty clothes while keeping your bathroom stylish.