Recent surveys have indicated that the bathroom is a key area affecting potential buyers in their choice of home. Here’s how to make the most of your smallest room.

You only have to look at the bathrooms in high-end show homes to know how important the bathroom is in the purchasing decision of a home. New house builders have done their research and even in the smallest homes and smallest bathrooms, they will have made them appealing to our senses and our desire for a little bit of luxury in our bathing experience. Soft towels, scented soaps, shiny taps and gleaming tiles all contribute to the atmosphere of a private haven. The reality of many bathrooms may be far from this ideal with grubby grout and dated, patterned ceramic tiles but the purchase of a new home has much to do with fulfilling a dream.

But, of course, before you can fulfil that dream you will probably have to sell your existing home, and, whilst an attractive bathroom will help to sell a house, similarly an unattractive bathroom will put off potential buyers of your home. So when preparing your home to show to potential buyers make sure you focus some of your time and energy on making the bathroom look as good as possible.

The first area to concentrate on is clearing out the clutter to make your bathroom look as large as possible. Remove children’s toys (maybe keeping just one favourite bath-time toy), and excessive bottles of shower gel and other toiletries; such items not only cause clutter but make the space very personalised and prevent potential buyers from imagining themselves living in the house. Consider buying a few luxury toiletries and fluffy new towels to display when potential buyers are viewing – after all you can take these with you when you move to help you start creating your new luxury bathroom.

If you have a shower curtain then these very quickly become mouldy or discoloured so replace it with a new, clean one – maybe one that complements the colour of your new towels. And make sure that the room is always well-ventilated – damp, musty smells will quickly build up in even the cleanest bathrooms simply due to the constant damp atmosphere created in them every day.

The next area to deal with is cleanliness: scrub the toilet, clean the sink and the bath, and polish the taps. If you live in a hard water area and don’t have a water softener then these cleaning tasks are a real chore and will need to be done every time you have a viewing if you wish the bathroom to look its best – taps in particular really suffer from limescale build up from hard water.

Next, tackle all the tiled areas, both walls and floors. The tile surfaces around the basin, bath and shower area can become dull from the build up of soap scum and mouldy or discoloured grout can add to the neglected look. There is a whole range of cleaning products aimed at returning our bathroom tiles to their original glory so chose the one best suited to you needs, not forgetting good old-fashioned bleach for cleaning the grout.

If the grout between your tiles cannot be rescued by good, old-fashioned scrubbing then consider removing all the grout and replacing it or, in the worst situations, consider replacing dated ceramic tiles with shiny new porcelain tiles. An updated bathroom could just be the thing that clinches your house sale.

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Considering the Space – Doubling Up

Your first task is to consider the space your have available for your bathroom design – whether your bathroom is large or small, layout is very important. The majority of standard bathrooms come with bath, shower, toilet and sink. However, to create a space that works for both of you, a large shower or double shower could be the perfect solution! Or perhaps a large bathtub – which might also inject some romance – if you can get 5 minutes peace that is! Using an online room planner is a great way to see your bathrooms potential. A double basin is also an obvious his ‘n hers addition to your bathroom, but this shouldn’t be a decision you take lightly. Having two sinks allows you the space and facilities to get ready quickly morning and night with the battle of who’s going first, but also creates more clutter and gives you less counter space.

Mirrors and Décor

Mirrors in a small space are great at opening up a room, so placing two mirrors or one large mirror over the double basin will not only serve as a practical component but will help your bathroom feel more spacious. Decoration of your bathroom can be tricky and this is something that you should carefully consider together. Usually going down the route of a neutral colour scheme is the safest bet. However adding some touches of glamour – for example, designer tiles with some shimmer will help give your bathroom that extra bit of romance and luxury to make your space feel special.

Toilet matters

When it comes to the rest of the bathroom suite, installing a wall mounted toilet, can really make your room feel bigger. Wall mounted basins mean that you will have more space for storage underneath to hide those bathroom items you like to keep out of sight.

Storage options

Storage can be added around the double basin, ensuring that you are making the most out of the space you have available. Separating this into to his n’ hers drawers or cupboards will help keep you both organised without clashing over who’s products are where? And maybe even whose products are who’s?

If you have the room, adding more storage can be helpful for storing towels, toiletries and cleaning products – freeing up more space elsewhere in the house. Building storage or furnishings that purposefully fit a space will help make the most of your home, making sure that you cleverly make use or wall space as well as floor space is essential to making your bathroom layout work to its full potential.

Once your couples bathroom design is complete, you’ll have a sense of satisfaction that you both have your own bathroom space, but with a touch of togetherness too.

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1. Space & Money

Let’s be honest: budget is a big concern for any potential homeowner. While you want to make sure that you don’t skimp when buying a house, as you will be living in that home for many years to come if not for the rest of your life, you also don’t want to go deeply into debt over your home. This means that space and efficiency must be carefully considered. A home design that incorporates a Jack and Jill bathroom saves considerable space and money, especially if they have larger families than usual.

2. Equalite et Fraternite

The kind of community that a Jack and Jill bathroom fosters depends on who is sharing it. Specifically, if your children are sharing the bathroom, this forces them to learn how to compromise, how to live together, and how to share. We can talk about instilling these lessons into our children all we want, but it is only in having to truly make these ideals work in real life that they can become a part of your child’s personality. By making sharing and compromise a part of a very basic part of their everyday life, children learn this lesson in a very deep and real way.

3. Renovations Demand It

Up to  now, we’ve discussed the Jack and Jill bathroom within the context of a new home, but what about an old home – why would you choose to have a bathroom of this sort installed into a new home? Simply put, sometimes you don’t have a choice. The design of an older home can make it difficult if not impossible to have a new bathroom installed, whereas it is far more space-efficient and even architecturally sound to install a Jack and Jill bathroom. In such cases, the choice is obvious!

There are, of course, some drawbacks to this bathroom and home design. First, the bathroom is locked between two bedrooms, and so it is inaccessible from outside those bedrooms; one must enter a bedroom in order to access the bathroom. When you’re a guest in someone’s home, that can be difficult to do, especially if someone is in those bedrooms – talk about awkward!

You can install a third entrance, but that starts to create some real chaos in the Jack and Jill bathroom as you provide more points of access and entry; after all, this is already a somewhat crowded bathroom. Allowing it to become more so may make it a real point of contention in your household, which is surely not the point of this bathroom design! Ideally, the Jack and Jill bathroom encourages harmony, community, and family togetherness. It also saves money and space – so what’s not to love?

+Ken Uhrich learned long ago how to share, which is why he regularly blogs and gives home improvement tips on the Custom Home Group website.

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