One of the most difficult rooms to design in your home is the bathroom. Many homes in the United States might even have more than one bathroom. Some homes have a master bathroom that is adjacent to the master bedroom and other bathrooms in other parts of the house that are smaller. Furthermore, depending on the decor of the house, your bathroom should also fit that decor. Many things need to be taken into account when designing your bathroom.
Tile is something that should be in every bathroom. One of the reasons why you should choose tile is that in a bathroom you have moisture. You have water in the toilet bole, in the sink, and also when you take a bath or a shower, your bathroom will steam up. There are many bathrooms in America where tile is not used, but simple sheetrock and carpeted floors. Before laying tile, however, there is some prep work that you have to do. These things and the items you need to buy are listed below.
1. Mason board or Durrock should definitely be laid down on the floor and walls before doing any kind of tile work. Mason board is different from sheet rock or drywall because mason board is actually a board that is made from special cement that is strengthened by a fiberglass mesh. You have special mason board for the floors and for the walls. Tile work is a form of masonry and the glue for tiles is actually a special mortar that has polymers mixed with it that makes it waterproof. A newer house should already have mason board in the bathrooms because code requires it in many municipalities. If you live in an older house, however, your home is more than likely not equipped with mason board and you will have to remove the old drywall and floor boards and install the mason board. Furthermore, if you are remodeling an older house, chances are that you might have to replace the floor boards and drywall because the floor boards might be rotting and the drywall might have mildew due to the moisture that is constantly in the bathroom.
2. Special trowels are needed to lay tile. The trowel that is primarily used to lay the tile is a flat rectangular triangle that has a corrugated edge on two of its sides. This trowel is used to spread the tile cement. You use the corrugated edges of the trowel to make ridges in the cement that allows for the tile to bond better.
3. Tile cement is usually sold in a bag as a powder like most of your mortars and cement mixes. Most tile cement is already premixed and the polymers are added together with the sand and cement. To prepare the tile cement, you need to pour some of the mix into a larger bucket and then add water. You should have a powerful drill handy with a mixing paddle that is made to mix mortars.
4. Tile comes in all different shapes, sizes, colors and styles. The type of tile you choose should be according to your taste. You need to remember that along with the tile that you buy, you need to find a grout that matches the color of your tile.
5. Grout should be a dark color. White and lighter colored grouts are no good because they will become discolored due to dirt and mildew which are prevalent in bathrooms because of the moisture.
Dressing
Once you have the tile work done and you have everything in the color that you want, you need to think about dressing your bathroom. You should think about using towels that compliment the color of your tile. For example, you chose some tera cotta tile for your bathroom floor and for the walls you have a mixture of blue and orange tile, think about using blue or orange towels and washcloths to go with the color that is most present. For example, if your walls are blue with small orange accent tiles, use orange towels and washcloths that can be hung on the towel racks. For the floor, you probably want to put a bath mat on the floor. Well, if you have tera cotta floor tile in your bathroom, get a blue bath mat. You should also have the toilet and the other bathroom fixtures match the color scheme of your bathroom. So with a tera cotta floor and large blue tiles with diamond shape accent tiles, you should have your toilet, sink and bath tub or shower stall the same color as the walls.
Designing your bathroom can take some work. Sometimes it can be difficult. If you do not feel comfortable about laying tile or changing the floor boards, hire a professional contractor to do that for you.
Hand Shower Head
