New bathroom - where to start?

It doesn’t have to be beige or grey. We have very similar to these but layer in a chevron pattern.

Wow, thank you for everyone's contributions. I'm going to take it all on board and make a plan....

Villeroy Bosch has some lovely colours:

www.villeroy-boch.co.uk/bathroom-and-wellness/inspiration/bathroom-design/colour-in-the-bathroom.html

we built a bungalow from scratch - my bathroom advice for what its worth:-
lever taps not twist - esp in bath so you can use your toes!!
high loo (comfort) for later arthritic joints.
if we could have afforded it I would have put in a japanese loo.
Bath that is easy to get out of (forget those crazy huge claw footed ones!) Always have a shelf alongside to perch bottles etc (or glass of wine and radio!!)
shower(as large as you can afford) that is fairly accessible for later years
we did a tiled floor but now I would put in a totally non slip one like in some wet rooms
look at pinterest
enjoy

IME local companies usually offer a better service than national ones, as they rly so heavily on reputation in the area.

By coincidence, I've just had an email from my company to say that everything is on track for the start date (about 3 weeks hence) and that they will come round to go through everything with us before they start. We had the kitchen done last winter - again a local company - and they did the same.

Based on that recent experience, I would advise that you choose a company that has a dedicated project manager, so you don't have to keep the numbers of a range of people if you need to contact someone, or ring a contact centre who doesn't know your job well. It is also better to have the workforce 'on the staff' as subcontracted. We found this when the kitchen timescale overran. As everyone worked for the kitchen company, the team was able to stay with us until everything was sorted. That might not have been possible if, say, the electrician had another job waiting, or the plumber had to keep leaving to quote for other work. There will usually be a few trades involved, and just having one person offsite can hold things up for ages if their input is needed before someone else can get started. When there is a dedicated team, they are used to working together, and they all report to the same PM. It's really only when things go wrong that this sort of thing matters, but it's so much less stressful if all you have to do is call a named person and know that s/he will sort it out.

These people are amazing for inspiration:

westonebathrooms.com/inspiration/

My DD used B&Q and it was a disaster from start (when they didn't turn up at the appointed time and date) to the finished product which was shoddy.

My neighbour used B&Q they were good, very patient with her as she kept wanting to change the plans. They supply basic to high end products so a price to suit everyone.

We had our big bathroom done around 3 years ago as part of a house refurbishment. One company did our kitchen, utility and bathroom. We visited the showroom and plans were drawn up on the computer.
In the last 12 months we had our en suite redone.

There were a couple of routes, one was going to a plumbers merchants to choose what we wanted from a showroom and additional catalogues. They came out to measure and quote and gave us contact details for fitters.
We also had quotes from bathroom fitters.

In the end we visited a family owned bathroom showroom and I felt that he really listened. Everything was tailored to our wishes and budget.
I had ended up with a mainly grey and white main bathroom which wasn’t really my choice.

I chose a lovely dark blue sink cabinet for the en suite. I’d wanted that in the main bathroom but was told it was a fad. They also had some lovely sage green.
As there’s building work involved you will need preparation work first or find a firm that can do everything.

Good luck with your move and project

I have to say, it’s as easy or hard as you want it to be. I’m someone who doesn’t get the opportunity to redo very often so I’m super picky 😂

I got our lovely electrician to twist round six of the lights in the kitchen so the fixing screws were all facing the same way and only visible from one place in the kitchen.
I coloured the copper fixings under the sink to completely match the tiles behind.. I bought huge genuine Victorian hinges for a door - they took probably a year to source.
I recently got hold of some old stock slotted brass screws screws for another door - they are exactly like the remaining Victorian ones in the old door which is currently being copied by out carpenter.
The downside of my pickiness is that I live with things that are just waiting.. like my door which had to come off while I sourced the identical hinge…

Some places do specialise in more fabulous bathrooms than the standard offering. Have a look at magazines online - Elle decoration? Interiors?

I hope you enjoy the process and end up with something you truly love.

My new bathroom starts very soon. We started shopping around in January, and it's taken till now to decide what we want, find the right people and get to the point where they can fit us in.

The system was that we rang a few companies, someone came out and worked out the options, which they sent us for consideration, we discussed and let them know our preference, and they got back with quotes. They didn't quote at the start, as it is too expensive to do several diagrams and keep changing them in line with queries - I found this odd at first, but I understand it now.

We decided on a layout and chose the items, tiles, flooring etc, as well as which company to go with. They are doing everything - knocking through from the separate loo, installation and plumbing, tiling, new ceiling, flooring and electrics.

You can choose items yourself and find a company to fit, which might work out a bit cheaper, but if anything goes wrong it will be up to you to sort it out with the suppliers. A full-service company will do everything and deal with anything that crops up.

Ours will take a couple of weeks, but as I say, this involves a little bit of building work, and also moving the loo, which is a bit more complicated than usual.

Would recommend Plumbworld for lots of options for bathroom goods, and their customer service is really good. We chose tiles from Topps Tiles - they had lots of colours and choice.

However, my mum is having a shower room refitted right now, and she has opted for shower panels, so no grout, for easier cleaning. We found the panels at Easy Panels.

Morning, when we had ours completely gutted and refitted we got quotes from various bathroom fitters recommended on Facebook/ our friends/family etc.
Then we went with the ones we thought were reasonably priced and also who could do it- some were not available for months. As it was, the firm we chose came and viewed in August 2022 but couldnt actually start til October 2022 as they were so busy.
They asked us what we wanted and left us brochures which had bathrooms photos/ colour options/designs etc which would meet our requirements.
I had also gone on line previously to that meeting and found photos of what I'd/we'd like and they worked with those too.
They completely gutted the old bathroom taking away the rubbish each day /clearing up after themselves etc and after 2 and a half weeks we had a beautiful modern shower room which is still a joy - which sounds daft but its true!
They fitted us in around other jobs, sometimes coming in at weekends to get a stage completed so that the next one could begin.
Hope you get sorted soon.

I must add we had a wall removed to join two rooms in the kitchen. I had a structural engineer plan that even though my builder was confident it would be ok as not load bearing. In the end I’m sure it was over-engineered but I was ok with that.
The council were happy and everything was signed off correctly.

I drew a to-scale plan of the area first, chose (and bought) all the pieces myself. This was when we redid our cloakroom. I even selected the parts of the plumbing I wanted on show. I got numerous tile samples, and just to be certain of placements in there, technical drawings of the toilets I liked. I visited showrooms to make some of my final choices and then employed a plumber, tiler, electrician and joiner. I painted it myself and chose and put up some wallpaper.

I did the same pretty much when redoing the kitchen I chose absolutely everything and started with my own scale drawing. I employed all the workmen and oversaw all the work. It went smoothly. I like the process.

My mother-in law went to one company when redoing her bathroom and chose from their offering. She did it in one afternoon. They hired the workers and oversaw the project.

Its horses for courses I think…

If you don’t want all the complexity of choosing piece by piece then I’d go onto say, Instagram, find what you love, and choose a company who can deliver it for you.

Exciting times!
Good luck!

Start by consulting an architect or a architectural technologist. They often do a free initial,consultation.