When you have children, there are many features of your home which need to change. There are the well-known ones, such as installing childproof locks on cupboard doors and even redesigning a room to be a nursery and later a child’s bedroom. One room which you may not think about initially is your bathroom.

Today we’re going to look at how you can make your bathroom practical for your whole family as your children grow up but still ensuring it’s a stylish room you can enjoy and relax in when you want somewhere to unwind.

Flooring

When you’re thinking about practicality in a bathroom, the flooring should be one of the first things you think about. Some flooring options are completely unpractical for a bathroom and should be avoided at all costs. Carpet is a prime example of this. Because your bathroom floor is going to get wet in places, carpet is not the right choice as bacteria and mould can develop in the carpet.

The flooring you choose should be water-resistant, so going with vinyl or ceramic tile is a good option. Vinyl flooring does have the advantages of being softer underfoot, more durable, easier to clear and working well with underfloor heating. While both of these options are practical, they are also very stylish. You can also create some fantastic designs using floor tiles, either vinyl or ceramic, which can reflect modern styles with minimalistic or geometric patterns along with more traditional designs to really bring a spa feel into your bathroom.

Storage

Any parent will know that when you have children there tends to be a lot of stuff around your house. One of the best, and simplest, things you can do to help any room look more stylish while also making it more practical is to improve the storage facilities. Clutter can make any room look untidy and, in a bathroom, which often isn’t the biggest room anyways, this can have a real impact on the practicality and aesthetic appeal of the room.

As everyone in the family will have different products they use, it makes sense to have separate storage facilities for everyone. This can be as simple as assigning a draw or shelf within a cabinet for each person or sorting items into little boxes to keep them tidied away. Making sure your kids understand that items need to be put away once they’ve been used is a valuable lesson, and the bathroom can help you teach this if you create a space for all their things.

Towels are obviously a crucial part of any bathroom, and when you have a lot of them for your family, storing them can be challenging. If you have any free wall space that you’re looking to use, why not consider some open box shelving. This can be a great solution to solve your towel storage problems as you can roll them up and stack them away neatly without needing a large amount of shelf depth.

Splash-proof walls

Making sure your walls are protected from moisture is just as important as the floors of your bathroom. With young children, splashing around in the bath can be really fun, and allowing them to play a little while bathing them can help them enjoy the experience more.

With this comes the risk of water splashing onto other surfaces, including your bathroom walls. If they are just painted or covered with wallpaper, this can lead to issues with damp and potentially damage the look of the wall. Using splash boards or even putting tiles up the wall will help protect the wall and also look great.

While you can continue the same tile pattern from the floor up onto your walls, changing the tiles allows you to create some nice colour and pattern contrasts. If you have a heavily patterned floor then choosing a more minimalist tile, maybe even all one colour, for your walls can create a sophisticated and stylish look while being practical. It’s also worth saying that you don’t have to tile right the way up to the ceiling, even halfway up the wall can look great while also helping protect against water splashes.

Hopefully, the tips highlighted above can help you if you’re looking to make some changes to your family bathroom. While it might not be a room you spend the most time in, that doesn’t mean your bathroom shouldn’t be a great room that you and your family enjoy using.