Understanding Bathroom Design - Child Ready Design

Understanding Bathroom Design - Child Ready Design


Professional bathroom designers are masterful at merging both function and form to create breathtaking results. In this eight-part series which I call "Understanding Bathroom Design," I draw on my experience working with some of London's top bathroom designers to explain this exciting field. This third article focuses on designing for young families.


Do you remember what it was like to be little? Bathroom designs that are child-friendly can be a big challenge. But with London's ever-growing population, young families are increasingly asking about child-ready design options. The biggest issue is always how to create a bathroom design that children won't quickly outgrow? We all realise that what seems fab to a 8-year-old at a London primary school could well seem drab by the time he/she turns 11 and enters the local secondary.


Children love colours, but London's best bathroom designers know when enough is enough. A great technique is to maintain a neutral shell by choosing cream or caramel for the walls and floors. Dashes of colour can be incorporated in the form of rugs, tiles and ornamentation. Some famous London bathroom designers love to rely on asparagus, lemon, blueberry or aubergine for a child's bath - and importantly these colours are much less overbearing and forward than (say) salmon or carrot.


The biggest bathroom design requirement for younger children is that there is sufficient space to move around. This can be quite a challenge in some smaller London residences. Some designers will include a mini-stool that children can step up onto to reach the washbasin. It can quickly slide out of sight when not needed. Touchfree taps reduce the amount of reaching for small hands, and the bathroom design team can even pre-set the temperature to make sure children won't get burnt.


Finally, a great idea is to personalise the bathroom design by pinning children's art or craftwork onto the walls. I have seen London family homes where the children painted a special tile underneath the washbasin, or the bathroom designer maybe allowed them to colour a mirror frame. This can add to the sense of fun and child-like delight.


In the next article in my series "Understanding Bathroom Design," I'll turn to designs for the elderly.



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