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Bathroom Design Checklist
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Besides helping to organize your planning efforts, a checklist like this one can educate.
• Design appeal. What makes your baths special? A platform tub, twin lavatories, even nothing more than unusually handsome accessories can set a bath apart from the ordinary.
 • Materials. Wall coverings, paneling, flooring, tile treatments, counter tops — think of a bathroom’s surfaces as its clothing. Just as the way a person dresses makes a good (or bad) first impression, so does the way you “dress” a bath. You want it to be in style, but not so gaudy or extreme that it turns people off.
• Color. Are your baths maximizing the appeal of color? Have you selected tiles, wall coverings, flooring, laminates, accessories, and fixtures for their color impact? Even white fixtures can look stunning when they’re set against a richly colored backdrop.
• Fixtures. The fixtures you choose tell a lot about the level of quality, not just in the bath, but throughout the entire house. Increasingly, people are aware of what distinguishes a competitive fixture from mid-range and high-end versions. Often, too, adding one additional fixture, such as a bidet, second lavatory, or stall shower can clinch the look.
• Storage. Early-day houses had no closets — or baths, either, for that matter. Today you wouldn’t think of building a home without closets, but it’s easy to forget that storage is just as important to the way a bath functions as it is in a bedroom or kitchen. Because bathroom spaces are tight, varying  bath storage facilities and tailoring them to the items they’ll hold usually works better than simply providing a big, bare closet or cabinet. Think about all the things a typical bath has to accommodate then try to provide niches for each of them.
Examples: Can you find a spot near the toilet for extra rolls of tissue? How about the bowl brush and cleaner? Does the lavatory area have places for a hair dryer, curling iron, electric razor, and toothbrush?
Continue this mental inventory and you’ll soon see if storage in the baths you’re building measures up to today’s standards.
 • Lighting. Too many people still light a bath with nothing more than a ceiling fixture and a medicine cabinet unit. For just a slightly greater investment in wiring and fixtures, you can create bathrooms that shine with appeal. When you think about lighting, consider sunlight as well as electrical sources. Often all it takes is a slightly larger window or a small skylight to brighten a bath with cheery, thrifty solar energy.
• Cleanability Maybe some day in the future baths, like ovens, will be self-cleaning. Until that time, however, you need to consider how much work will be needed to keep a bath at its best — and stress easy-upkeep features.
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