Guest Picks: Bathroom Remodel Items Worth the Plunge

olldbobbi I must have simple tastes, because of the four sinks, I like the least expensive one the best.

midmodfan How lucky you are, Bobbi! I always tend towards the Walker Zanger price range. lol

scarbowcow That Apollo Marble Vanity sink (second picture) - is it really only a couple of inches deep with a completely flt surface? How do you keep from splashing water everywhere? It looks like not much different from putting a tap over a countertop and turning it on. Does anyone have one? Does the water splash right out of the flat 'basin'?

calkelley well, when you design your shower room, be very careful.
We moved into a house with a bathroom redone to the price of $100,000 - Swarovski crystal chandelier and knobs, fancy bathtub (which is incredible), furniture vanities with light up sinks, marble walls and a large, glassed enclosure for the shower's multi fixtured heads (rain, 3 strip nozzles, hand held and another). Sounds great?
No towel bars (who wants to drill into marble walls - we're still too scared), the lights on the sink are very difficult to turn on (so what's the point), little storage in the vanities and hard to outfit with shelves. As for the fancy shower? Leaks like a sieve! Under the door - we have to refit the seal. Through the space where the door meets the glass wall whenever you turn on one strip nozzle set (no way to fix that). How attractive is a fancy shower when you have to stuff towels at the base to not flood the bathroom?!!!
Maybe I can sell the chandelier (not my taste) and pay for renovations to fix all the fancy things that don't work right.
my husband is less than impressed. I did buy him a freestanding towel rack I paid $12 for at a consignment store. I guess that makes it a $100,012 bathroom.
I do like some luxurious items. But practicality is tantamount. Don't get seduced by the impractical - like a sink that is so pretty but overflows or has water splashes out whenever you turn on the faucet to wash your face. After a month of using the fancy, pretty things and having to clean up the mess you make every time, you'll be so fed up you won't even notice its beauty.

icequeen241 Talking about pretty but impractical...My mom has a beautiful green glass leaf shaped vessel sink in the second bathroom... It's lovely until you turn on the water which used to shoot from the tap and straight up and over the front side of the sink...major lesson in trajectory and water conservation ( you could only turn the tap on very low). The faucet has been changed for a different style now, but the sink still has issues...water collects really quickly in the sink...slow draining. Oh well, it looks pretty!

annoulaxeni Ah, I can see I'm not the only curmudgeon here who finds these all foolishly impractical! As for that second Apollo sink and in response to scarbowcow's comment, my sister has one similar and it's astounding how irritating it was to use! Hers is in a smallish wall niche and requires wiping of the walls to at least some degree EVERY time you use it. What drunk day she let her designer make that choice for her, I don't know! For good reason, birdbaths are for the birds.

annoulaxeni To continue:

-- freestanding baths? if you have the space in the middle of a room, okay -- at least you'll be able to mop on all sides easily. Still, good luck rinsing yourself without turning your bathroom into a [dangerous] puddle

-- glass shower enclosures? Stunning in the showroom, aren't they? Ever notice what element's missing in the showroom? The water. Remember, that stuff which leaves telltale trails unless you want to stand butt naked after your shower with the squeegee and vinegar spray. That will get old quick. And never mind adding in soap scum and conditioner gunk.

Form follows function.

patricia beharry I think the vessel sink is a fad that is soon going to to live out its welcome. With the economy the way it is , who needs a fad? Remember the 60s? we all thought the furnishings were to die for.

olldbobbi Patricia, I hope all the above counter sinks find their way out the bathroom door. I brush my teeth in the bathroom sink and I can't imagine spitting in something so beautiful!

astraea Those very rounded free-standing tubs have got to be a bitch to clean, if you've got to get into it & are sliding around & trying to hold the side. They're probably very dangerous to use, unless you're a gymnast! Anyone think that because they're young, they'll never have a balance or injury problem, getting in or out of these tubs, is very shortsighted!

baziz we thought about a water room but its cold here in the winter and I figured the shower would be slow to get warm and steamy. I LOVED my Finlandia steam unit in our former home. These require that you enclose shower stall entirely in glass to keep the steam and that your builder includes a good fan system so the steam clears in 30 minutes after you're done (our fans were on timers so it was easy). A steam system in a luxurious shower is fabulous - after a long hard day, when you feel like a treat, or have a head cold and WAY more energy and water efficient that having multiple shower heads.

Lucy McLintic I think choices really need to be governed by the type of bathroom you have. What's impractical in one bathroom for one family might be fine for another. A guest bathroom for example can tolerate far less impractical choices. We have a vessel sink in our powder room because it's close to the living space and we wanted it to look less like a bathroom and more like a comfortable and pretty wash area. It works perfectly. If you want a vessel sink in a heavily-used bathroom like a master bath, an oval one is going to be less splashy than a round one and it needs to be fairly large - and at the right height. In a family bathroom, I agree undermounted is best, but for us, we don't need it to be especially deep. If you have a mixer tap you don't often need to fill it with water even to wash your face. In our case, shallow is ok but it needs to be wide so both kids can get to it. Scarbowcow - sounds like this won't be an option for you if you're going to use the sink heavily.

As for the tub, a freestanding tub is beautiful if you're only using it for baths. I can't imagine trying to shower in one. I'd love the luxury of a tub in our master bath, but we don't have the space so will go for a shower instead. The tub in the family bathroom needs to double as a shower so will have to be built in, like the rectangular one shown.

Calkelly - sounds like a bad experience! I agree - no one wants a leaky shower! It has to be installed really well by someone who knows what they're doing. I hope you find a way to make it work without having to rip and replace!

lrcz I would advise to avoid the vessel sinks. I have a modern house and the builder put a vessel sink in all five bathrooms. The lower ones are OK, the higher ones are a mess. There is water everywhere. We are slowly replacing them. What a waste.

leslieg2013 To scarbowcow and others concerned about water splashing out of a low-profile sink, the secret is removing the aerator that comes standard on the faucet and replacing it with a LAMINAR (sometimes called a laminar flow). A laminar removes the air from the water stream to keep splashing to an absolute minimum. They are generally found in hospital settings.

Not all manufacturers have laminars that will retrofit onto their faucets. Ask before you buy. I have an American Standard Serin vessel faucet that I retrofitted (special order, of course). You will have better luck with commercial brands than "decorative" brands.

Here is a good article to get you started: http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Plumbing/laminar-flow-fixtures

textileaholic I love my glass shower. If you treat the glass with a product like Rain-X the water runs right off and cleaning is a breeze (and we have very hard water). Using glass added a perceived 3 feet of depth to my small bath.

The first sconce with the fabric shade I question. How do you clean that? I want to be able to wipe down all surfaces in a bath, plus the shade limits light and casts a colored glow so not good for make-up application etc.

stargazer51 I just read all the comments and remember somebody mentioned soap scum. Use only liquid soap in your shower and you won't have soap scum. The ingredient that makes it possible to fashion a bar of soap is the same stuff that stick to everything and feels tacky on your skin.

mrsben Lucy, re your comment on the Canopy Parisian Sconce; in my case the Spence one at $494.00 presumably U.S. funds 'would not fit the bill' (pun intended) as the same one in Canada would be at least double that in price. Now multiply that figure by two or three. Though pretty and obviously quality, IMO still hardly worth the expense for a bathroom. ºÜº

With respect to sinks, something I don't understand is why if not for any other reason than water conservation are they not made shallower. It is not like we bathe in them or we have 'giant' hands and for the argument of splashing water, if the faucet is properly sized for the unit and the fixture is equipped with an adjustable flow aerator the problem is solved.

On the whole, interesting idea book.

ploefff I redid my bathroom on a tiny budget but one luxery I allowed myself was a termostat for the shower. No more waiting for the water to get hot - it's just one of those things that makes getting up in the morning a little easier.

Ohh and it more economical and ecofriendly because you can turn off the water in between latherings because the water keeps the temperature when you turn it back on which saves both on water and money win-win

I couldn't find a picture of the one I have but this one is close to it although not as deep. It has a flat top that is the perfect place to keep my shampoo for easy access when showering.

mertkerr for icequeen241. have your parents get a different drain for their sink. they need one that is slightly rounded at the top (Mountain Plumbing teardrop) will keep the water from collecting at the drain.

Stevie Love my shower caddy & soap dish from a company I found here on Houzz: Innovative Product Sales International LLC
Be sure to check them out. Solved my geting everything organized and keeping it dry in the shower I just had refinished.

bettyboogie The easiest way to adjust faucet flow is to turn the valves under the sink down to reduce the flow, then you don't have the high pressure that causes splashing, might not solve all of it but certainly improves it. It's especially worth a try if you already have the sink and faucet. Also a good way to reduce water usage for faucets that don't take the adapter/restrictor or if your kids like to play in the sink. High water pressure is great for showers but usually not necessary for bathroom sinks.

ART2ARCH Vessel Sinks: Remember that the sink rim is at the height of a normal vanity sink so countertop is lower than normal vanity. This means if you replace vessel with standard sink you replace the entire countertop / cabinet as well to a standard height one.

astraea @Art2Arch - AHA .. another reason why designers/manufacturers must have come up with the vessel sink concept .. you have to replace the whole thing, if you want to change anything! Faucets too!

mrsben @Astraea: Agree with you that much is about marketing. Also in respect to the vessel sink, the concept isn't really new as some of the heirlooms that were my Great Grandparents consisted of decorative porcelain and glass hand basins that were utilized in every bedroom prior to the days they had an indoor washroom. (The basins were filled with hot water that was heated in a kettle on top of a wood stove.) When indoor plumbing was installed (they were the first to have it in their village) my Mother recalls that a basin was still used with a set of wall taps 'n spout installed and the water just emptied into the toilet to be flushed.

patricia beharry @mrsben, It was not that long ago. I am only 66yrs old, grew up on a small island with British influence in colonial times. The pieces were beautiful. I still have the Ewers (pronounced yours) and basin sets which included the chamber pots and all the other pieces for the soap and toothbrushes. All hand painted, on a wash stand. Some wash stands had a cut out in the middle to fit the basins in. Some pieces were saved, but sadly,
Oh, the hurricane, the hurricane.

mrsben @patricia beharry: Know exactly what you are referring to re the washstand with the hole cut out as one of my sister's have one of my Great Grandparent's in her possession together with a hand-painted basin with a co-ordinated jug plus a chamber pot. (No soap dish or toothbrush holder to my knowledge though. Will have to ask her.) Doing a rough calculation I think the pieces date back to at least 1904. A few other pieces are strewn about among other family members.
Those that you have sound wonderful and I am sorry to hear that some were destroyed.