Custom Search
|
|
Revitalise Your Bathroom
Luckily it is easy to breathe new life into a bathroom, cheaply and quickly. Just follow some or all of the following interior design tips to surprise your family and house guests. Cleaning It is obvious really that bathrooms need cleaning, but from time to time they need a thorough deep clean, all over. Good old fashioned scrubbing is necessary to remove build up of soap scum, and dirt from floors, tiles, glass and surrounds, but treat acrylic baths with care; use proprietary bath cleaners to be on the safe side. Get inside your shower with a spray limescale remover to lift limescale and scum off the glass. You might have to do this whilst you are taking a shower! Also remember to clean the air vent or extractor fan. These are often overlooked despite being a magnet for grime and gunge. Open the window regularly to get fresh air in. This will get rid of dank smells and also will reduce the humidity in the room, often a cause of mould or fungus. Tidy To help keep dirt at bay in future it is a good idea to cull the variety of half used bathroom potions (Do you really need four half used tubes of toothpaste?). And to be ruthless with make-up and other items that no longer are in fashion or in use. Also find somewhere in the bathroom to store a dedicated cleaning kit in a plastic tray or container. If you have to go to the kitchen or the garage to get materials, you probably will not and the bathroom will gradually deteriorate again. Add a Splash of Colour Shower curtains do not last for ever, even with regular cleaning. Nor are they particularly expensive. So you probably can afford a new curtain, and therefore a new style at least once a year. Do take care to chose a curtain that coordinates with the colour and style of your bathroom. Another cheap but effective way of refreshing a bathroom is to repaint the walls. Usually bathrooms are small so this is a quick and cheap option. Bathroom walls suffer more than most from dirty or wet hands, steam and moisture, and repeated attempts to clean them. Just make sure you use a paint suitable for wet or humid environments. Waterproofing It's absolutely vital that all cracks and crevices are watertight. Get down on your hands and knees to inspect all seals. If in any doubt remake silicone seals, though with the right material and craftsmanship these should be good for 5-10 years. For a good seal it is vital that the surfaces are thoroughly clean and grease free. You can clean with general purpose bathroom cleaner but then finish off with a degreasing solvent like acetone. Tiles usually are hard wearing and long lasting but the grout used between them rarely is. Use a knife to carefully scrape out old, flakey and dirty grout and then re-grout to give your tiled wall an instant makeover. Accessorise In many bathrooms you will find old accessories often cluttered with bottles, sachets and containers of make-up, soaps and unguents of all sorts. These bowls, baskets, trays etc are also often full of dust and often water stained. Chuck them in the waste bin and start again. The same for vases and dust and dirt traps such as wicker work, grasses, bamboo and so on. On the subject of the waste bin, are you using metal or plastic? They are easier to clean and more hygienic than natural materials such as wicker or rattan. If you have dressing gowns why not fasten some hooks to the door or wall to stop them piling up on the floor. Another cheap way of freshening a bathroom is to invest in a new set of colour coordinated cotton towels. Consign the old ones to become floor rags. Accessorising a bathroom is cheap and it is fun to experiment since any style disasters are not permanent and are cheap to put right! You can try different styles till you find the one you like and you can try different interior design styles in each bathrooms around your house. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Bronia Suszczenia is co-founder and Creative Director of Art from the Start Ltd a firm of interior designers in York, England. She designs projects ranging from dressing a single window, designing interiors for new homes, right through to refurbishing whole hotels. Visit www.art-from-the-start.co.uk to see more FREE design tips, to see the design portfolio and to learn about the unique Room-in-a-Box interior design service. |
|