Helpful Hints: Bathrooms & Kitchens
Some houses have great bones and simply need a fresh coat of paint and a new
kitchen and bathroom to transform rundown, into happy and modern. But, a simple
process, this is not! A number of crucial elements need to align to produce functional
and beautiful kitchen and bathroom spaces. Following are some things to consider
before you embark on your renovation.
Style
 Keep a scrapbook or a Pinterest board to collect what you love and what you’re not
so fond of. Look for common themes in what you’re collecting, on both sides of the
spectrum.
 Colour can be great, but it can also date. If you’re brave, and red has been your
favourite colour since you were five years old, then go for it. But generally, we
advise clients to choose colours for items you can easily change if you tire of them.
Painted walls, coloured towels, accessories and furniture are easy to change with
the times. Fashionable feature tiles will date a bathroom quickly.
Our Favourites
 Our favourite tile showrooms are Elite bathrooms (Wooloongabba), Tilescope
(Milton), Stone and Tile Studio (Stafford) and Metro Tiles (Fortitude Valley). And
while we generally don’t like to ‘fake it’ OzTop Tiles at Logan have a brilliant fake
travertine at a great price!
 For bathware, Christiaans at Windsor is our top pick. See Handle This (Albion) or
Restoration Station (Red Hill) for all your handle needs, and always use Blum’s
Tandembox runners for your drawers as they are made to last and have a soft close
function that allows you to use drawers for heavy items
Kitchen Tips
 Dress up a plain kitchen with great bar stools. So many are boring so try Mulberry,
Milan Direct or Interiors Online for some great alternatives.
 If you’re tall, a 920 mm height kitchen benchtop is ideal. For our shorter home
chefs, we tend to use an 880 mm bench top height. Bench tops outside these
heights can affect your resale.
 A thick benchtop can be a great, fashionable feature in a kitchen but beware – you
often can’t fit a dishwasher under a benchtop that exceeds 40 mm! Choosing a 20
mm thick granite top can translate into more storage – in fact, 20% more per
cupboard.
 If your breakfast bar is the same height as your kitchen bench, choose shorter stools
– 650 mm is ideal.
 Use as many drawers in your kitchen as you can, that way you will achieve one third
more storage for the same space and it’s better for your back.
Bathroom Tips
 If your budget allows, take your bathroom wall tiles all the way to the
ceiling. It looks fantastic, and if you use a cheaper tile (e.g. $20/sqm),
it can easily enhance the quality of the finish.
 Did you know you could use wallpaper in a bathroom? It looks particularly
stylish behind a vanity basin matched with a framed mirror. Signature Prints
stocks Florence Broadhurst wallpapers – our favourite.
 Try to fill your bathroom with light. If you have limited windows, use a light
colour palette, mirrors, glass tiles that sparkle and anything else that will
help reflect light around the room.
General Tips
 Think about cleaning considerations as you plan these spaces. Try to avoid:
 gaps between freestanding stoves
 marble (it reacts to champagne, lemon juice and strong cleaners)
 timber surfaces near water
 bathrooms without ventilation (steam = mould)
 shiny stainless steel (perfect for knee high handprints)
 glass balustrades (require constant cleaning).
 Avoid high gloss floor tiles – just add water and they become too slippery.
They are best used on walls as they repel grime and are easier to clean.
Contact Your Architect today and talk to us about transforming your
bathroom or kitchen into the spaces you always wanted.