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What I Tell Clients Before They Spend $30,000 on a Bathroom

Reynard Lowell

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Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:21 - Mixer and Showerhead Placement
01:24 - Shower storage
01:59 - Drainage and floor tile
02:29 - Open showers
03:18 - Shower-Over-Bath Combinations
04:47 - Natural and Porous Materials
06:09 - Texture and Grout
06:25 - Dark Finishes and Hard Water
07:01 - Vanities With Poorly Planned Storage
07:20 - Pedestal Sinks in Main Bathrooms
07:40 - Storage in the Wrong Place
08:43 - Vanities at the Wrong Height
09:17 - Taps and Basins That Don’t Work Together
09:54 - Bathtubs That Don’t Suit the Room
10:34 - Bathrooms Without Enough Privacy
11:40 - Ventilation That Is Too Weak
12:34 - Using the Wrong Paint
13:26 - Lighting That Works Everywhere Except the Mirror
14:05 - Ordering Too Few Tiles

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20 Comments

@reynardlowell Creator 1 month ago Pinned

🏡 Design a home you love, without the overwhelm → https://rlowell.com/practicalhomedesign?utm_source=Youtube&utm_medium=pinned&utm_campaign=bathroom-design-regrets-&-mistakes-to-avoid

@leeboriack8054 1 month ago (edited)

As a designer, who sold wholesale to designers I suggest the following:
1. Cheap contractors can be very expensive!
2. Porcelain tile over naturally porous stone, soft ceramic tile or concrete tile.
3. Epoxy grout lasts far longer than standard grout.
4. Before demolition confirm all renovation materials are purchased and in your garage. Tcile, grout, backer board, all plumbing fixtures in house to avoid a delay on back order materials and delayed finish date.
5. When making selections at the same time, choose a plan “B “in case your first choice is on a long back order. This will save a lot of stress.

@reneeturner7137 3 weeks ago (edited)

I love the gentle but firm way you express potential problems. ‘Most marble bathrooms in luxury homes have a professional cleaner looking after them. If you do not have one that job now belongs to you.’ Beautifully expressed and low key hilarious 😆

@alystair 2 weeks ago

One detail not covered here is accessibility and safety, which are an important consideration. Can't have floors that become too slippery when wet, design for hand holds etc.

@icomefromcanadia2783 1 month ago

I actually hate rain shower head. They never have enough pressure, and more importantly I find them an absolute pain for actually washing your body because your head is always in the way of the direct water. lol. If you insist on having one, I think it's critical to have a regular angled shower head as well. Regular for actually showering, rainfall for relaxation.

@willyolio9590 1 month ago

ugh. Minimum grout/gaps is one of my main requirements for redesign. I think 90% of the aging/staining in the bathroom comes from scum building up within the grout between tiles.

@cyn4476 1 month ago

I just bought a house. The people who made the shower stall didn't check the drainage angles. And the inspector didn't catch it, either. The water pools on the tile at the base of the door, I had to put in a plastic strip to keep it from leaking onto the floor. After every shower, I have to push the water off of the ledge with a squeegee and dry it so it doesn't get gross.

They also did the same in the niche, it's sloped backwards.

I will eventually have to have the shower redone. It's brand new, so very difficult to spend that money after just buying the house. 😢

Learn from me, make sure before you sign off on a job or buy a house that no water sits where it isn't supposed to.

@volupheles 3 weeks ago

The open shower and lack of heat is a good point. Recently my shower door shattered and I spent a few weeks without one. Thought my hot water service had issues. Turned out it was the lack of a door.

@NFT2 3 weeks ago

Always a lot of actionable advice from this channel. Good on you for not padding out the videos with nothing.

@aapril4801 1 month ago

Very informative and well-organised video about the most common mistakes. I’d like to share something we really regret from our recent bathroom renovation.

We had a long, tileable shower drain installed. We have the same type of drain in another house, and it has worked perfectly for more than 10 years. However, the latest design we chose was a much narrower type. It looks beautiful and very sleek, but because of its narrow design, it only has a very small hair filter.

The filter gets blocked by hair every few days, so it needs to be cleaned very frequently. It is quite inconvenient, and honestly, I would not recommend choosing this type of drain.

So, when choosing a shower drain, it is extremely important to check the size of the filter inside, not just the appearance of the drain itself.

We learned this one the hard way! 😅

@NancyD_If_You_Please 4 weeks ago

Our first house (of 2) had the vanity in an "alcove" of the primary bedroom. Toilet and tub/shower in it's own tiny space. We vowed we would not to THAT again.

Second house and they didn't offer a DOOR on the bathroom. Toilet was in a WC with a door, but everything else? A doorway, but no door. We insisted on a door. That closed. With a latch. In otherwords A DOOR. My husband gets up early. I go to bed late. Our chihuahua would rather pee on the cushy bathmat than go downstairs and outside at night. We NEED that door. We shut the door at night, the Chi goes where she's supposed to. The person in the bathroom doesn't disturb the person sleeping. I don't understand why that isn't OBVIOUS to home builders. And why more didn't insist. We may be the only ones in our development.

@BlazingBrother 2 weeks ago (edited)

This is next level advice. Excellent video.

We renovated a big closet into a bathroom in our main bedroom when we moved in over a decade ago. Most of your tips we got right, but some like the electrical outlet for essential grooming devices you would expect to have (plus everything else) we failed on and I’m starting to have to dream up add on solutions.

But your point that you drove home about spending the money on serving the people living in the house rings true for me. I was very glad my wife and I gave it a lot of thought because it does have a big affect on your comfort, day to day.

@gtlfb 2 weeks ago

Visited a cousin and wife recently who asked our thoughts on their planned bathroom remodel. Of course, it included one of those sculptural tubs. As gently as possible we suggested that was not a good idea. Those tubs are very difficult to access, especially since there is no good place for aid bars (like us, they are in their 70s), and are a pain to clean around. But they wanted one “for esthetic reasons”. sigh…
The odd thing is, cousin’s sister, a few years earlier, had done an elaborate bath remodel that had one of those tubs, and they admit they immediately regretted it. I tried using it once and had a terrible time getting out of it safely. I think now it is a large clothes hamper.

@LJ-yt2io 1 month ago

All excellent tips packed in one video, delivered without silly hype. I recently renovated an older home using common sense. Resist the trend to put your bathroom products on display through clear glass in the shower area, use frosted glass instead which is also easier to clean. As a pleasant surprise, the new lower flow shower heads I chose produce far less overspray and steam than the old ones, which eliminated the need to upgrade ventilation.

@AKLind907 2 weeks ago (edited)

Building our own house as general contractors ourself was the best thing ! We own a plumbing company and my husband being a plumber specializing in new construction he knows the ins and outs of every stage of a house build. I know we didn’t think of everything, but we did for 90% of it and I feel very fortunate! He tells me about some of the designs people do and how much he couldn’t stand it. So by the time it was our turn to build we knew all of the things we definitely didn’t want along with what we for sure did. Hearing about the headache some people go through since they just don’t know certain things and then it’s too late to do it right is just painful to listen to.

@jsun1993 2 weeks ago

I don’t know why I was recommended this? But I ended up watching it all lol

@choryferguson2196 3 weeks ago

These are BRILLIANT considerations; you're making me feel a LOAD more confident in making the planning decisions. Many thanks!

@phunk8607 1 month ago

Send this to my family. They fucked up everything in the Reno.

@Boogies_Mom 1 month ago

Another thing to consider is access panels for plumbing from other rooms than the bathroom so you don’t need to dismantle your shower surround to make repairs.

@jkkay477 1 month ago

2:22 Don't get linear drains! They look nice but are a nightmare to keep clean. Clumps of hair get caught on the supports underneath and need to be cleaned out every week or so, a pretty gross job.