A bathroom remodel is one of the most common home upgrades out there. There’s a good reason for this: renovating a bathroom is one of the smallest and cheapest remodeling projects you can undertake while also being one of the most impactful. This makes it a very worthy investment. But only when it’s done right. So, if you’re considering a bathroom remodeling Los Angeles project, you’ll need to make sure everything goes smoothly. The first step toward that is knowing which bathroom renovation mistakes to avoid. This will give your remodeling project a solid foundation to build upon and pave the way to success.
Bathroom renovation mistakes to avoid: planning and preparation
Before you start taking down tiles and breaking down walls, you must first plan out your renovation project. Unfortunately, already in these early stages, you can make some cardinal mistakes.
#1 – Underestimating the importance of detailed planning
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to assume that planning doesn’t matter much. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The plan acts as a guide to your entire project. So, it is necessary to develop that plan early on and share it with Top Rated General Contractors Los Angeles so that we know what you’re looking for as well. Think about what kind of changes you want to make, when you want to renovate, and how much money you can spend on the remodel.
#2 – Not taking the numbers seriously (measure your space and measure your budget!)
Measures are very important in the construction of any kind. So when you’re planning to remodel your bathroom, there are two numbers you want to pay attention to:
- the dimensions of the space you’re working with: unless you’re rebuilding a part of your home, you’ll need to fit everything in the same four walls that you start with so measure how much space you have and how big the furnishings you want are to ensure that you’re not buying a tub that’s too wide or a washing machine that takes up half the wall
- the size of your budget: you’ll only have a limited amount of money to work with and it’s important to know just how much in advance so that you can properly allocate that money to different expenses
#3 – Biting off more than you can chew
It is certainly possible to remodel a bathroom by yourself, especially if you have some past experience with similar work. However, it requires a lot of work and time. If you don’t have the time, energy, and know-how to put into renovating your bathroom quickly and efficiently, then it’s best to leave the job to our team of general contractors Santa Monica. The bathroom is a room we use multiple times on a daily basis. So you need it to be functional as soon as possible. And generally speaking, contractors will get the job done faster than you would.
Bathroom renovation mistakes to avoid: practicality and functionality
All rooms in our house serve a purpose. But none put that purpose above aesthetics quite as clearly as the bathroom. You need to keep this in mind when renovating: functionality should come first.
#4 – Choosing design over functionality
An average person spends more than 180 hours per year in the bathroom. It would be nice to spend those 180 hours in a room that you like. So interior design isn’t unimportant when you’re renovating the bathroom. However, your primary focus should be functionality. Make sure your plumbing works, your shower or tub is big enough to fit you, your washing machine can connect to electricity, etc. It doesn’t matter how pretty your cabinets are if you don’t have enough space to open them properly.
#5 – Not planning for enough storage space
You probably don’t even realize how much stuff you keep in the bathroom from towels to toiletries to cleaning supplies. So when you’re planning a new bathroom design, make sure you’re leaving enough space for storage – both in the form of cabinets or in the form of floor space.
#6 – Choosing the wrong fixtures and furnishing
There’s no real furniture in the bathroom but there are other things you’ll need to pick out instead. Things like a new toilet, a new shower or tub, a new sink, cabinets, towel racks, light fixtures, and more. It’s important to make sure they all serve their purpose and fit within your bathroom. Bathrooms are typically pretty small rooms. So you need to make sure your fixtures and furnishings are suitable for the space you have.
Bathroom renovation mistakes to avoid: design and aesthetics
Finally, while functionality should be your primary concern, aesthetics is not to be disregarded either. You do want to make your bathroom look good too so you should avoid making mistakes in its interior design.
#7 – Not committing to a theme
An elaborate antique claw-foot tub right next to a sleek, dark marble, modern countertop is not going to look good. You want all your fixtures and furnishings to fit more-or-less the same theme. Pick dark or light, pick modern or old-school, pick matte tiles or shine, pick gold or silver highlights – just pick something and stick with it.
#8 – Poor layout planning
Because bathrooms aren’t very big, you need to make sure you’re using every inch of the space as well as you can be. So put all your furnishings on the walls and in the corners if you can. That way, you’ll free up enough space to move around as well. Some of this will depend on your plumbing and wiring but typically the choice is to fill the corners with the bigger pieces – shower, sink, washing machine, toilet. Just make sure your door doesn’t open to the toilet or something silly like that. You don’t want to find yourself on a top list of worst bathroom designs because you messed up something as obvious as that.
#9 – Not paying attention to lighting and colors
For fairly obvious reasons, bathrooms don’t typically come with very many or very large windows. So you’ll be getting most of your light from light fixtures. Make sure they’re strong enough and placed well enough that you can see yourself in the mirror properly. Neons are a popular choice, at least above the vanity area. But don’t make them too strong or you’ll hurt your eyes. Finally, don’t paint or tile your bathroom completely in dark colors. This will make it seem much smaller. Either use light colors or combine light and dark.
Minor bathroom renovation mistakes to avoid
If you stay away from these major bathroom renovation mistakes to avoid, you’re on the right path. But if you really want to make your bathroom perfect, you’ll also want to pay attention to details. This means installing good and quiet ventilators to keep the airflow going, getting matching fixtures so they don’t clash, using water-resistant paint (glossy finish), getting quality grout for your tiles, properly anchoring your towel racks, and more.