How to Customise Your Bathroom

Designing and crafting a luxurious bathroom with a character all of its own can be one of the most satisfying aspects of undertaking a remodelling, renovation or restoration project. Knowing how to get started on a custom bathroom project, with products built to your exacting specifications, can be a little bit daunting, though—it can seem like there’s just so much to do. So, let’s take a look at what you need to consider.

Contents

Select one-off fixtures, fittings and decorations

Choose custom design specialists with whom to work

Budget for your made-to-measure bathroom

Consider how to replace bespoke features

Select one-off fixtures, fittings and decorations

First thing’s first—define your goals for the finished bathroom. Are you ready to commit to the idea of a fully customised bathroom with unique fixtures and fittings throughout? Sourcing one-offs that reflect your own individuality can be quite the undertaking. You’ll need to consider:

• The bathtub—choosing a bespoke bath means choosing the centrepiece of your custom bathroom
• The shower—a bespoke statement shower can transform and define a bathroom
• The washbasin—handcrafted bathroom sinks can add rustic charm or high-end minimalism to your space
• The cabinetry—made-to-order vanity units and other storage solutions allow you to plan the space to your exact needs
• The tiling—hand-thrown ceramics, painted, glazed and fired by a specialist, will add unparalleled individuality to your washroom
• The taps—custom metalwork can emphasise either high technology or traditional techniques in your finishing touches
• The paintwork—colour-matched paints that complement your space will make it truly your own
• The wallpaper—hand-stencilled or block-printed wallpaper gives the ultimate high-end finish to your bathroom—just make sure it’s resistant to moisture.

Choose custom design specialists with whom to work

Now you’ve thought about the various custom products you’re going to need, consider who you’ll need to work with to get them.

You might, for instance, choose to work with an artisan, such as a carpenter on your made-to-measure cabinetry, a ceramist on your bespoke tiling or a sculptor on your hand-carved marble bathtub. Specialist craftsmen like these will be expensive and their work may take a long time to produce—however, it will be truly unique to your requirements and, as such, to your home, too.

Generally speaking, you can tell the difference between artisan-produced and factory-produced goods based on the imperfections of the former. It’s these rough edges that people tend to actually be looking for in artisan work—the visual giveaways that something has been worked literally by hand. Their rarity gives them their value.

If you still want that custom, one-off feel, but prefer a more perfectionist finish, however, you might consider working with a bathroom company that deals with made-to-measure factory producers.

This “best of both worlds” solution means you can have a bathroom that’s completely reflective of your individuality and style, but that’s also a little more time and budget sensitive.

If you don’t quite trust yourself to source your own products and would rather leave the customising to a professional, you should consider working with an interior designer. A great interior design firm will not only choose the products for you—mixing and matching them to create a space that’s uniquely yours—but will also manage any contractors and ensure quality control.

Just be mindful that, whilst the overall effect of the bathroom put together by an interior designer will be customised, the products themselves might be off-the-shelf options from a reputed manufacturer—which is, of course, fine, as long as you’re aware up-front.

Finally, if you’re thinking of redesigning the space entirely—such as knocking down walls, rerouting plumbing or building new walls—you might want to consider bringing an architect in. Working with architects will open up your customisation options, significantly. Especially if you’re looking to extend the space, locate the bathroom in an entirely new building or rearrange the floor plan.

Budget for your made-to-measure bathroom

Designing a custom bathroom can be a costly endeavour and you may wish to pull back some costs wherever you can in order to offset the price you’ll pay for one-off fixtures, fittings and decorations. So, get creative with your budget and balance out your splurges with a little bit of cost-saving here and there.

Think about whether you actually want everything to be customised or whether you could compromise a little bit. Does every last detail in the bathroom have to be a one-off or can you mix in a few off-the-shelf elements without impacting negatively on the overall aesthetic? If so, this could help you save a lot of money.

Price out everything as if it were being made to measure and write down your total. Then start over, switching out custom prices for off-the-shelf prices wherever you feel you might be able to make the compromise—be brutal and really hack away at that list. Now write down that total. How much better does that look? OK, now you can go back and replace a few of those custom items until you find a budget you feel comfortable with.

Finally, think about the tradesmen you’re going to work with on putting your bathroom in. Maybe you can put more money into bespoke fixtures and fittings by installing your own bathroom. If not, and you do need to work with tradespeople, use a website like myjobquote so that you can get professionals to bid for your business. You can save money by going with the lowest quote—just bear in mind the old adage that “you get what you pay for” and the cheapest won’t necessarily deliver the luxury standards you’re after.

Consider how to replace bespoke features

Understanding how you can replace custom bathroom features that stop working, break or go missing is a big part of the decision-making process when considering a made-to-measure interior. After all, it’s so much easier to just nip to your local big-box retailer and pick up the part or get them to come and replace it. A boutique bathroom is a very seductive proposition, though—so it’s worth looking into your options.

There are two main circumstances within which you’d want to replace custom bathroom features:

1. To renew out-of-production antiques

If you’ve moved into an older property with a stunning old, handmade bathroom, you might wish to keep some of those original features. But what if elements are broken, missing or simply not working—how do you replace those antique, made-to-measure flourishes?

Well, the easiest way is to upcycle those antiques, simply by creating a cool, shabby-chic clash between old and new, such as adding a custom vanity top to an antique cabinet. This gives you great design flexibility and empowers you to really express your personality by creating something truly unique.

The more time-consuming and probably more expensive option would be to find an artisan to create like-for-like replicas of the broken or missing parts, such as a sculpture firm to create lost wax casts for antique taps or an enameller to bring back an old cast-iron bath to its former glory.

2. To future-proof your new handmade bathroom

When you invest in a custom bathroom, it will likely come with a guarantee from whoever crafted it. It should certainly have been built to last, considering the time, effort and financial investment to make it. So, the simple purchasing of a custom bathroom is an act of future proofing in and of itself.

However, it never hurts to be overly cautious about such things. So, when you customise your bathroom, consider buying extra parts—feet for the bath, plugs for the basin, “hot” and “cold” markers for the taps, etc. Buy extra handmade tiles and extra rolls of bespoke wallpaper. If you don’t do it now, you could end up kicking yourself a decade down the line.

Finally, think about working with a manufacturer who creates bespoke products, but who has a factory operation so that they offer standardised parts and processes. Here at Riluxa, for instance, we offer clients individual, made-to-measure bathrooms, but because we work with trusted factory providers, we’re not reliant on individual craftspeople to make any replacement parts.

Creating a one-off bathroom that’s completely unique to your style and taste is an exciting part of the home remodelling journey. Have fun with it, be yourself and never compromise on quality. It’s all about balancing who you are with the products and spatial planning that enable that to really come out.

Looking for something else to read? Check out our guide to Sustainable Bathroom Design.