Bathroom tips and ideas

Proper waterproofing of the wet area is very commonly overlooked and needs your attention, whether its a DIY project or you are hiring help.
Some believe PVA is an universal solution, unfortunately it is not. It is excellent for improving adhesion of the tiles but to keep water out of your walls you need a specialised product like BAL WP1, Ardex WPC or Wedi boards.
While you might get away with not waterproofing a solid wall, especially with good ventilation and less than heavy usage, it is a must for hollow walls.

Large porcelaine tiles have proven to really create space. The bathroom to the right was about 170 by 240 cm and, to use the words of the owner, looked like a cupboard when empty. The big /60x40cm/ porcelaine tiles made a real difference. Moreover, their edges look nice and tile trims are not needed, which adds to the classy look.
The only downside is they are hard and brittle - you will need nothing less that specialised industrial strength tools to cut and drill them.
You can click on the pictures to see them in higher resolution.

Other ways of achieving a space creating effect include fitting a clear shower screen and large mirrors, as seen in the bathroom installation to the left. You can also cosider incorporating a horisontal line in the tile installation and depending on the size and quality of tiles, it might be better not to tile all walls ceiling high. Large porcelaine tiles look very well, but with ceramic and especially smaller ceramic tiles you might be better off painting some part of the walls.
Fit plenty of lights and bear in mind that spot lights create shades on the face - if you have them fit a source of light at the basin mirror.