Five Bathroom Remodeling Resolutions for 2019

Those first few days of a brand new year have us all looking forward to changes and improvements that will make our families lives better. While many new year resolutions focus on diets and exercise, we see an influx of calls from local homeowners early in January asking about meeting with us in our Crystal Lake office.  Some come prepared with printed "dream Bathroom" photos or a wish list of features they want their new bathroom to include. Below we've detailed the FIVE most frequently requested improvements when remodeling a master bathroom:

1. Heated Floors: While the custom tiled bathroom trend shows no signs of stopping in 2019, one great feature for soon-to-be-tiled floors that may be overlooked is laying down a floor heating element. New systems can be controlled with a dedicated wall panel or even with your favorite smarthome hub. Take a look at this photo series from our recent heated flooring project in Campton Hills, IL - just outside of Saint Charles. 

2. Shower Benches & Shower Niches: Going hand-in-hand with that new custom tiled shower is also the request for built-in shower niches and a shower bench as well.  New shower niches are not only beautiful visual accent points for design, they are also functional by keeping soap, shampoo and shavers within easy reach. Be sure to read our "Shower Niche Necessity" article from 2017 and see the start of a new shower bench being constructed for a Wonder Lake, IL client earlier this month, below. 

3. Expanding Bathroom Storage Space: Organizing your bathroom space can mean the difference between having a bathroom that looks like a magazine picture or having something that looks like chaos. Unlike ten or twenty years ago, in 2019 we have "appliance trays" and "divider drawers" and even old medicine cabinets have new features compared to the century past.  Be sure to read our blog post from this past August to learn more about "Four Organizational Ideas for Your New Master Bathroom"!

4. Sounds Smart: We are certain that a few of you reading this early in 2019 likely received or gave a smart home hub during the holidays. Regardless of what brand or model of hub you have, odds are good we can integrate it within your new bathroom.  With control of lights and towel warming racks being pretty common, probably the most poplar discussions are about smart speakers for great music, podcast listening or just getting the latest news and weather reports as you prepare for a new day.  One of our favorite devices is a combination low-noise exhaust fan that has a bluetooth speaker built-in that can easily connect with your Alexa or Google home hub - details available within this past blog post. 

5. Universal Design: We simply could not write a post talking about the bathroom remodeling resolutions for 2019 without talking about Universal Design. This post about a Grayslake, IL client of ours, and the before and after photo shared again below, was clearly one of our most read and shared blog posts for 2018.  We sincerely hope that everyone thinking about bathroom remodeling or even renovations in the new year will spend just a few minutes considering these cost-effective facility improvements that can increase functionality for so many.