Your home should be a sanctuary – and your bedroom and bathroom should be the inner sanctums. There’s a reason so many people call bathrooms “restrooms” – they can be places of respite. You can create a spa-like bathroom in your home – heated floors, double sinks, a jacuzzi tub. You don’t have to go that far, though – even a fresh coat of paint and a new shower can do wonders. 

Before you start remodeling, though, you want to plan out the remodel thoroughly. To help you on this front, here are five things you should check before you start remodeling:

What are your goals?

Your goals will set the tone for the entire remodeling project. This might seem obvious at first, so why mention it?

The fact of the matter is that people who are remodeling their bathrooms in an effort to sell their homes will still focus on their “dream bathroom”, forgetting that prospective buyers may have a very different dream bathroom in mind.

If your goal is to remodel for your own purposes, then you can simply focus on what’s most important to you, and then fit those important elements into your budget. 

If your goal is to sell your home, you should be hyper-focused on ROI. What paint colors sell best? Should you tear out your bathtub and replace it with a shower? Everything should come back to what will help you sell your home for the most money.

Function and form

“Form follows function” is an old architectural design principle: it means that, anytime you’re creating a space, your primary focus should be on functionality. The shape and aesthetics of the space should serve that function.

For your bathroom remodel, that means you should evaluate how the bathroom is used. Are there often two people who want to use the bathroom at once to get ready? Consider getting a double sink. You might also consider partitioning the shower or toilet away from the rest of the bathroom area.

It also means it’s important to consider how plumbing and electrical are set up in your bathroom. While you certainly can move these things around, doing so will be more costly – that’s why most bathrooms have all of their fixtures positioned one one side.

Are you experienced?

Bathroom remodels are not simple DIY projects, especially if you’re knocking down walls, ripping out floors, and installing new fixtures. You absolutely need to know what you’re doing.

Think of the dangers of DIY demolition. Knock down the wrong wall – a pipe bursts, and you’ve got one of a dozen plumbing emergencies on your hands. Throw live wires that you’ve just ripped open into the mix, and you have a serious hazard – both to your home and to your health.

That’s why it’s essential to get experts involved in your bathroom remodeling. You’ll have to do some vetting – it pays to get a number of quotes and to look at a lot of reviews and testimonials. You want to hire the best bathroom remodeling contractor you can find.

What’s your budget?

This is probably the most important part of planning a remodel – how much do you have to spend? 

These calculations get a bit trickier when you’re trying to sell your home because there’s some cost benefit analysis to be done in the short-term. For those of you looking to remodel for your own enjoyment, that’s not as big of an issue.

Start by listing what you want to have remodeled from most to least essential. For most remodels, replacing old fixtures and flooring is the top priority, with structural and aesthetic changes being a lower priority. Make sure to stick within your budget – you’ll be able to work with your contractor to figure out what to prioritize and how much it will cost.

Do you need a full remodel?

At the top, we mentioned that a fresh coat of paint can do wonders – and we meant it. You’d be amazed what an aesthetics-only redesign of your bathroom can do. If all of your fixtures are functional, new shower curtains, new paint, a new bath mat, and some new decor can really spruce up your room. If you’re on a small budget, consider redesigning instead of remodeling.

Whether you’re looking to redesign or remodel, we can help! Get in touch with us. We can remodel your entire bathroom ourselves – we can also paint all of your bathroom walls and cabinets. We’d love to work with you.