Until relatively recently the bathroom was regarded as the Cinderella room of the house. Today, however, the bathroom is a haven of peace, for pampering and relaxation. Opulent and luxurious, technically advanced and eco-friendly, the modern bathroom has developed into one of those spaces where you can get away from it all and please yourself, comfortable and undisturbed.
But the vast majority of British bathrooms are very small. Whether in an older property or in a newly built home the bathroom is usually quite modestly sized and bijou.
And that’s where the ingenuity of the bathroom product designers comes to the fore. Members of the BMA are creating stunning new products for use in small spaces and are now succeeding where their predecessors might have struggled.
Very compact styles of WC and washbasin are featured in the portfolios of all the main manufacturers. Ingenious corner and short projection products are now quite common.
But it is probably the development of the ‘wet room’ which has done more than anything else to make the best use of the available space. Wet rooms are seeing rapid growth in popularity and are having a major impact on bathroom layout and design.
A number of manufacturers, members of the BMA, have designed ‘tanking systems’ which fully seal the bathroom against water leaks. A wet room, therefore, is a fully water tight bathroom with no separate shower tray and enclosure or screen. The ‘walk-in’ shower area is usually level with the surroundings but with a slight slope to the drain which is fitted directly into the floor. The shower unit and controls are fitted to one of the walls.
Wet rooms give a feeling of spaciousness and minimalism. They make the best use of the available space and don’t, necessarily, require a fixed shower screen. A new consumer’s guide to wet rooms can be found at the BMA website at http://www.bathroom-association.org/advice_wet_rooms.asp
More space?
Builders and householders with a little more space may decide to install a shower tray and shower enclosure instead of a wet room. An excellent new guide to shower enclosures was published recently by the BMA. The guide, which is essential reading, is one in a series from the BMA’s Bathroom Academy. It gives a very comprehensive review of the product range and provides reassurance and help for beginners with the fundamentals of what is available. A section is included on choosing the right product to suit end user needs and examples, images and descriptions are provided to explain the industry terminology.
The Shower Enclosures Industry Guide is available free from the BMA and can be downloaded in PDF format from The Bathroom Academy website at http://www.bathroom-academy.co.uk/guides2.asp .

So the bathroom, for most of us, may be a small space but the very latest designs of shower trays, enclosures and wet rooms make every bathroom space really special.

Further Information
For further information please email info@bathroom-association.org.uk or
telephone 01782 747123 and visit www.bathroom-association.org

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