Wet room bathrooms are becoming more and more popular among home-owners around Australia. Functional, stylish and versatile in design, turning your bathroom into a wet area is a practical way to make the most of one of the most frequented rooms of the house.
To help you settle on a wet room bathroom design, we’ve put together the best styles and ideas in one handy article. But before we dive in, let’s answer the basic question: What is a wet room?
What are Wet Room Bathrooms?
The term wet room is used to refer to any space in the house that is completely waterproofed. In the context of a bathroom, this means that not only is the shower itself fitted with a drain and water-sealed tiling, but the rest of the room is as well.
Wet area bathrooms allow for huge design potential and creativity as you are not required to limit or contain what can or can’t get wet.
Open layouts are extremely popular in living areas of the house, including the kitchen, and with a functional wet room bathroom design, you can enjoy the same spaciousness there as well.
Fortunately, despite the luxurious and spa-like nature of wet room bathrooms, they can be incorporated in all kinds of houses and installed with all sized budgets.
1. Use a Tanking System
In addition to ensuring the tiling–from walls to floor–of your bathroom are fully waterproofed, incorporating a robust tanking system is really a must. By adding this important extra layer between the tiles and your floor or wall, you can ensure that your wet room will remain durable and functional even after frequent and long term exposure to water. Tanking systems help ensure that the water drains properly using hidden tray systems that fit under the floor tiles. It is certainly the most important and practical design feature of a wet room to ensure maximum performance and longevity in durability.
2. Use watertight materials
Part of the appeal of a wet room is to rid your bathroom of screens, glass enclosures or other sections that will compromise the openness of the space. To that end, using the right waterproof and watertight materials is an absolute necessity.
Ceramic tiles are a popular option that can be mounted to a wet wall or used along the floor as its watertight membrane ensures any water flows across without permeating the surface itself. Additionally, porcelain is quite commonly used for a similar reason. While plastic and metal can both be practical (which is why they’re incorporated in kitchens), they are less popular in bathrooms for obvious reasons.
Natural stone is widely used for bathroom vanities and basins due to their non-porous nature and durability. Not to mention their spectacular visual aesthetics. For this reason, stone is an excellent wet room bathroom option as it offers both beautiful design value and functional utility.
3. Minimalist design
Now let’s move on to the design aspects of your wet bathroom. The openness and spaciousness is one of the main selling points of a wet room, so we recommend keeping your design minimalist to capitalise on that. Think smaller-than-average toilets, bathtubs and vanities to help keep the space clean and clear. (Obviously not too small! And the right size will depend on your bathroom size.) Floating or wall-hung vanities are very popular for the same reason, as are recessed shelves, mirrors and lighting.
4. Incorporate feature walls
If you’re worried about the minimalist approach to a wet room design, a feature wall can be the perfect solution! Simply using a composite of different tiles or panels across a particular wall can help to elevate the aesthetics of the entire room. You can opt for an entirely different material, such as natural stone feature walls against a ceramic bathroom, or just a different colour wall. Feature walls offer a huge opportunity to flex your creative muscles without losing out on the benefits of the wet room.
5. Pattern your shower
If you’re wanting to take the appeal of a feature wall but contain it somewhat, a patterned shower is a great addition to a wet area bathroom. An eye-catching tile pattern or design can help the shower area itself stand out without affecting the spacious feel of the rest of the room. Throwing a bit of colour into your shower is also a great way to liven up the bathroom without having to commit to changing up an entire wall.
6. Built-in shower seat
While we are on the topic of showers, a built-in shower seat not only completes the fantastic look of a wet room bathroom but is also very functional as well. Keeping your bathroom minimalist in design might remove some level of practicality, but you can gain it all back with a shower seat. Combined with a rainfall showerhead and non-slip surfaces, a built-in shower seat will not only help to break up the visuals of your bathroom by adding a bit of depth, it will also turn every shower into a luxury experience.
7. Highlight natural lighting
If it isn’t obvious already, one of the main attractions of a wet room is the spaciousness it offers. So, make the most of it by highlighting and incorporating natural lighting. From large windows to skylights, there’s a lot of potential! The exact solution will need to be discussed with your designer and architect, but the incorporation of natural lighting will help the entire bathroom feel more enticing, alive and beautiful.
8. Opt for underfloor heating
Thanks to advances in modern day technology and construction techniques, just because you’re incorporating a wet room into your bathroom doesn’t mean you have to forgo a luxury like underfloor heating. An all-tiled wet room can feel a bit cold to the touch during the colder months of the year. Keeping the floor nice and heated will top off your wet area bathroom as one of your favourite places to be in the house.
Thinking of a stone flooring for your wet room? Think Euro Marble!
It might come as no surprise that our preference for bathrooms, wet or otherwise, is always stone! Natural stone is beautiful, varied, and highly practical which is why it’s long been and continues to be very popular. If you’d like to find out more about using stone flooring in your wet room bathroom, give the Euro Marble team a call on (02) 8585 2999.
We’ll leave no stone unturned in finding the perfect design to suit you and your family!
