Bathroom Renovation — BEHRINGER.

20-Year old bathroom renovation

From institutional to warm and green

This originally rather impersonal bathroom was very much in need of an upgrade. Not only wasn’t it great to look at it, there were also some issues with it’s construction and plumbing.

My clients wanted something warm and inviting to relax in, but more importantly, it needed to be age-proofed. They intend to spend the rest of their lives in this house, so they figured they might as well prepare for that now while they are renovating anyway. A stipulation was that it shouldn’t look like it was made for the elderly though, meaning that great design solutions were needed.

The shower is prepped to allow a helper into the shower with you - without getting wet! The opening to the walk-in shower is wide to help someone in and sit on the built-in shower seat. Not one of those flimsy fold-down things, but a properly tiled, sturdy seat. There is a fixed and a removable showerhead. The water control setting are next to the shower entrance, instead of under the showerhead. This way the helper can turn the water on and off without getting soaked in the process. The shower tray is extra-anti-slip aka more anti-slip than is the current standard. All the towel holders in the bathroom double as grab bars.

The toilet has been placed with accessiblity in mind, with ample space around it. The towel holder is - you guessed it - a grab bar. There is no fixed toilet roll holder, but rather a free standing one. This way it can be moved to the most comfortable position when bending or turning sideways becomes difficult.

Finally I would like to give my compliments to the builder, he did a wonderful job with the instructions to make sure all the grout and tile lines are centered and flow into each other, for a clean and unclutterd finish. It made his job a little harder and bit more expensive, but the end result is more than worth it!

Before

The steam cabin was broken and moldy. The toilet was awkwardly positioned, wedged between the cabin and the wall. There were some plumbing issues so the bathtub wouldn’t drain properly.
Before

Overall it just didn’t look very inviting, but rather cold and institutional.
Before

The sink was hard to keep clean, every drop of water you didn’t dry would show on the glass countertop. The wall faucet was not movable, so doing a quick rinse of the sink was not possible. There was hardly any storage space either.
Render

This is the final design we came up with. It is entirely based around the green-gold mosaic my client saw in a store and wanted to use. The white panel on the wall is an infrared heating panel.
Bathtub

Here you can see the gorgeous mosaic. Pictures don’t do it justice, as they say. The grout has a slight green tint to it, to avoid harsh white lines.
Walk-In Shower

The entrance to the walk-in shower is just big enough to help someone in and have them sit down on the built-in shower seat against the right wall. The temperature and water settings are on the left wall, so you can use them without getting wet yourself after helping someone into shower.
The tower holders double as grab bars.
The shower tray is extra-anti-slip for safety.
Shower

There is a rainshower head as well as a detachable one, so you can use whatever is more convenient.
Washbasin

A more practical washbasin has been installed as well.
Notice the awesome work the builder did in lining up all grout and tile lines with the basin and the hanging cabinet!
Toilet

Again I have to commend the builder on their great work. Everything is centered and lines up perfectly; the centre wall seam goes into the centre floor seam, as well as the little shelf on top. Gorgeous!