How to select baths or showers to go with your porcelain tiles
Porcelain tiles are amazing, and they can be used for many different applications, such as outdoor patio tiles, driveway tiling, wall cladding, decorative slabs, beautiful flooring, work surfaces, vanity tops, and many other functionalities. This is all because porcelain comes in many different forms. You can find porcelain in many different thicknesses, sizes, shapes, designs, colours, textures, finishes, and the list keeps going in the ways that porcelain can be different. Consequently, porcelain has become increasingly more popular over the past years within the market, as it carries many desirable features. For instance, porcelain is very competitive on price relative to natural stone (such as marble or limestone), and in some cases, it is even less than half of the price of natural stone. Furthermore, porcelain is highly stain resistant, and barely water absorbent. This makes porcelain great to use behind the shower, as a dining table, worktop or anywhere else, because it does not have pores on its surface, and so does not allow any liquids to leak through into the stone body and running the glamorous pattern. Tiles are the most important things to consider when looking to make a new bathroom, but they are not the only feature, so we will take a look at the importance of some bathroom features.
Things to consider in a new bathroom
Bathrooms are a very important aspect of a home. They must be places which look very clean, airy, and relaxing. Bathrooms are where we get to refresh ourselves, and so they must be visually spectacular to gaze at, and they must be very and tidy in addition to being practical. Resultingly, there are many different factors to consider when creating a new bathroom, not only the porcelain tiles. Initially, this may seem a little overwhelming, but when delving deep into it, you will find that it is actually a very enjoyable process to go through. Within the bathroom, you must think of what necessities you have got, such as a toilet pan, sink, shower/bath. However, you must also consider what your preferences are, and try to fit in as many of the desirables into your bathroom as you can, such as mirrors, cabinets, and other sort of furniture, without limiting your movement space, because as mentioned earlier, a bathroom must be very airy and refreshing. Tiles will also play a big role in that, as we recommend subtle tiles for small bathrooms with no windows, however for big bathrooms with big windows, we would suggest exploring more exotic options with striking themes and patterns…it all depends on the space, the furniture and your preference.
Shower or bath?
The first thing that must be thought of in a bathroom is whether you require a bath or a shower, and this a vital decision as bathtubs do take up a very large amount of space. Therefore, we would recommend that you only choose to go for a bath if you have got enough space and if you know that you will often make use of it. There are also many different types of baths, in many different sizes. To begin with, you can either opt to go for a plastic bath, or a ceramic one. Ceramic ones are heavier and feel nicer to be in, however their surface chips more easily compared to the hardened plastic ones, and also they are a little more slippery. Therefore, depends on your needs and usage, you can weigh out the pros and cons of each one. In addition, baths can come in freestanding or back to wall form. Freestanding will require longer taps and handsets compared to the back to wall bath, which will mean more exposed pipework. However, even though you can hide the pipes with back to wall baths, you will require a specially designed panel to cover up the exposed parts below the bath, which might not suit your preference.
Even with showers however, there is quite a lot to think about, for instance showers can either come with a tray, or wet room style. With regards to shower trays, there are many different shapes and sizes available on offer, in order to fit perfectly into your bathroom and provide as much practicality as possible. In terms of wet rooms however, this is where all the porcelain talk kicks in, because in order to have a wet room, the tiles within the shower enclosure at least need to be very textured and slip resistant, however, they must also look nice and flow with the rest of the tiles in the room (or create a contrasting effect, depending on what you prefer the look of). Showers can also either come as an enclosure, or as a simple side panel with an open shower feature, which looks more modern and unique, but will only work in large bathrooms in order not to soak everything with water during each shower.
Whether you intend to go for a bath or a shower after considering all options in detail, you must then think of the colours and themes that you would like in your bathroom. This is because baths can come in a variety of colours, and so you can choose to go for a greige bathroom for example, instead of a plain white, just to make your bathroom more unique and colourful, and match the tiles with the bath. Similarly, shower panels and frames can also come in a wide variety of colours that can be made to flow with the tiles. Moreover, the theme must be chosen, whether you would like square shapes, or round shapes, or traditional style shapes to go across your whole bathroom, because even the theme can be reflected upon the shower and bath.
We can see therefore that bathrooms are very important spaces to renovate regularly, and the first thing that must come to mind when creating a new bathroom is the shower or the bath, and how this is going to fit in with the tiles chosen or will be chosen for the entire room.
