People do not usually regret a bathroom because it was badly built. They regret it because it stopped looking the way it looked in the photo.
We have been supplying and designing bathrooms since 2008, and a fair number of the people who walk into our Harpenden showroom are on their second attempt. They did a bathroom four or five years ago, followed what everyone else was doing at the time, and now they want it gone.
Here are the seven that come up most, and what we tend to suggest instead. None of these are rules. If you love one of them, have it. Just have it knowing what you are signing up for.
1. Matte black taps and brassware
The biggest one, and the one nobody expects, because in a showroom under good lighting matte black looks superb.
The problem in this part of the country is water. Hertfordshire is hard water territory, and limescale dries white. On chrome you barely see it. On matte black it shows as a chalky film across the whole surface, and it needs wiping every single day to look like it did on day one. Cheaper finishes also wear at the touch points, so the spout and the handle go patchy before anything else does.
What we show instead: brushed brass or brushed nickel if you want to move away from chrome. Both hide water marks far better because the finish is not uniform to begin with. If you are set on black, buy quality, and accept the daily wipe.
2. A freestanding bath in a room that is too small for it
A freestanding bath is genuinely lovely in a room that can carry it. It needs air around it, and it needs a floor-standing tap, which is a real cost people forget when they are pricing the bath itself.
Squeeze one into a standard family bathroom and three things happen. You lose the storage the old panel was hiding, you get a strip of floor behind it that is awkward to clean and stays damp, and you end up with a bath you cannot comfortably shower over.
What we show instead: a good quality double-ended bath with a removable panel, or a back-to-wall freestanding shape that keeps the look without the gap behind it.
3. A vessel basin sitting on top of the counter
These photograph beautifully and they are a nuisance to live with.
The tap has to be tall to clear the rim, so the water falls further and splashes more. There is a joint where the bowl meets the counter that collects everything. And the rim sits high, so if you have children in the house they cannot reach it without a step.
What we show instead: a semi-recessed or inset basin in a vanity unit. You keep the countertop, you lose the splashing, and the storage underneath is the thing you will actually be grateful for.
4. Grey everything
Grey walls, grey floor, grey vanity, grey tiles. It was the safe choice for about a decade and it now reads instantly as a bathroom fitted between roughly 2015 and 2021.
The issue is not that grey is bad. It is that when every surface is the same tone, there is nothing for the eye to land on, and the room feels flat under artificial light, which is how most people see their bathroom for half the year.
What we show instead: keep the large surfaces calm and warm – off-white, stone, soft clay – and put the character in the smaller things you can change later. Brassware, mirror, vanity colour, a single feature wall.
5. Bold patterned floor tiles across the whole floor
The Victorian-style encaustic patterns had an enormous run and they are still beautiful in the right room, usually a small cloakroom or a period property where they belong.
Across a full family bathroom floor they become the loudest thing in the room permanently. Every other decision then has to defer to them, and the floor is the single most expensive and disruptive thing to change your mind about.
What we show instead: a quiet floor and a bolder wall. If you want the pattern, use it in the shower recess or as a splashback where it is a feature rather than the whole foundation.
6. Open shelving instead of real storage
Open shelves look calm in a photo because the photo has three rolled towels and a plant on them.
Your actual bathroom contains shampoo bottles, a razor, half a packet of cotton pads and something the children left. Open shelving means all of that is on display, and in a steamy room it also means everything on the shelf gets damp and dusty at the same time.
What we show instead: a vanity with drawers, and a mirrored cabinet with a socket inside it. Closed storage is the single most common thing people say they wish they had more of when they come back to us.
7. A wall-hung suite on a bargain concealed frame
Wall-hung WCs and vanities are worth having. The floor runs underneath them, the room feels bigger, and cleaning is far easier.
The regret comes from what is behind the wall. The frame and the concealed cistern are doing all the work, and the cheap ones use fittings you cannot easily source in five years. When something inside fails, the access panel is small, the parts do not match anything current, and a simple repair becomes a tiling job.
What we show instead: the same wall-hung look on a frame from a manufacturer who will still be supplying parts in a decade. It is a small uplift at the point of purchase and it is the least glamorous money you will ever spend well.
The thread running through all seven
Every one of these is a decision that looked right in a photograph and behaved differently in a real room with real light, real water and real clutter.
That is the honest argument for standing in a showroom before you commit. Not because a showroom is a better shop, but because you can put your hand on the tap, see the finish under normal lighting, open the drawer, and get a feel for whether you will still like it after the novelty wears off.
Come and look properly
Our Harpenden showroom is free to visit and there is no obligation attached to it. You can see full room sets rather than isolated products, handle the brassware, and talk through what will actually work in your space.
If you want it taken further, our design service produces a CAD visual of your own room so you can see the layout before anything is ordered.
FAQ‘s
Are matte black taps a bad idea in a hard water area?
They are not a bad idea, but they need more maintenance. Hard water dries to a white film that shows clearly against a dark matte finish, so they need wiping regularly to look their best. Brushed brass and brushed nickel hide water marks far better.
Do freestanding baths work in a small bathroom?
Usually not well. They need clearance around them, they need a floor-standing tap, and they remove the storage a bath panel would normally hide. A double-ended bath or a back-to-wall freestanding shape is a better fit in a standard family bathroom.
What bathroom choices date the fastest?
Anything applied across every surface at once – a single tone everywhere, or a bold pattern across a whole floor. Keeping the large surfaces calm and putting the personality into brassware, mirrors and vanity colour means you can update the look later without retiling.
