There's more to renovating your bathroom than you realise

So you have made the decision to renovate your bathroom...

It's an exciting time with a multitude of possibilities. No doubt you've got at least one Pinterest board dedicated to the cause, plus a stack of magazines and mood boards ready to provide inspiration. But where do you even begin?

When it comes to renovating your bathroom, there are always the obvious requirements. You will need a new toilet, basin and bath. They're pretty much a given, although there is a lot of flexibility in your design choices and how you choose to space them out. You may be able to move everything around to gain more space, or you might want to add or remove an item (for example, a bath or shower) to gain extra room.

These key fixtures and fittings will dictate the overall style of the room; for example, if you choose ornate and elaborate designs, you'll likely be looking for something more vintage and rustic overall. If you pick something very sleek and modern, you'll probably be after a minimalistic, industrial or art deco space. However, while thinking about these aspects of your bathroom is important, they're not the only things you need to consider design-wise.

Bathroom Walls

There are three key decisions to make when it comes to how your walls are going to look. Are you going to opt for panels, tiles or plastered walls? When it comes to bathroom panels, you may find they're referred to by a number of names - these include bathroom wall boards, wall panelling, splash backs and splash panels. Ultimately, they're ideal for any room that is regularly exposed to water and can help protect the walls.

They're quick and easy to install, cost-effective and easy to clean. Panels tend to be made from transparent glass (which allows patterns, texture or colour underneath to show through), frosted glass or coloured acrylic. The latter can help to add a bold feature wall to the room and give a very modern, art deco aesthetic to the space – see our guide to wall panels for more information.

Bathroom tiles have more design possibilities and can help to create a very classic, modern, luxurious and opulent space. They can add texture and colour to a room, for example by combining different shades of natural stone or patterned ceramic together. You can also add mosaics.

For the best of both worlds, you could combine tiles and panelling together - for example, adding the panels in wet areas such as inside the shower or around the bath. This would help with making the space easier to maintain and care for. You could then add the tiles on the remaining areas, or keep them bare with plastered walls plus a quality bathroom paint. Plastering your walls and painting them would be the most cost-effective solution and offers a lot of design flexibility.