Want to know what colour is popular for vanity units right now? Keen to specify a loo that your clients will love? We answer these questions and more with a deep dive into our Houzz UK Bathroom Trends Study*. Read on to find out what’s trending among homeowners when it comes to designing a bathroom.
What kind of baths are homeowners choosing?
A question many people ask is whether baths are still important to homeowners. And indeed, from the survey, we can see that while most of the respondents were just replacing their baths (44%), 23% were removing theirs altogether, and a whopping 92% were extending their shower at the expense of a bath.
Does this mean it’s over for baths? Not quite, and in fact, for those who are keeping theirs, soaking in the tub seems to be an important indulgence.
While the most popular choice of bath is a standard tub (58%), a soaking bath is the choice of 29% of participants. This is a tub with steeper sides that allow the bather to be fully submerged in the water. So it seems that clients really want to enjoy their bath-times – especially as 36% of participants opted for a design that has room for two.
An alcove bath, bordered by three walls, was popular with 40% of respondents, while 30% went for a flat-bottomed freestanding tub. Freestanding claw-foot baths weren’t quite as popular, however, with just 10% going for one of these.
Practicalities are also important for homeowners, as around a third of those we surveyed included grab bars in their baths and another third went for a non-slip base.
What’s trending in showers?
Keeping in mind that previously mentioned figure of 92% of people extending their shower at the expense of a bath, it seems that generous showers are popular with clients.
The most likely place to position a standalone shower, according to our survey, is in the corner of the bathroom (32%) or in an alcove surrounded by three walls (23%). A shower over the bath is still a space-saving option and 26% went for this location.
While a level access shower tray does indeed look sleek, only 12% went for a design like this, as opposed to 28% who opted for a low-kerb shower.
The most common features to have in a shower were rainfall and handheld showerheads (80% and 77%, respectively), as well as thermostatic mixers (58%). However, there are a few extras that are finding their way into clients’ showers, such as mood lighting (14%), a seat (12%) and grab bars (12%).
How about the shower surfaces? Well, most people are going for tiles on their shower floors (30%) or an acrylic surface (22%), while on the walls, 77% of participants chose tiles. Around a quarter went for either a brick bond, horizontally stacked or vertically stacked tile pattern.
What type of vanity units are clients opting for?
As contemporary and modern bathrooms are the current trend with homeowners (36% and 31%, respectively), it’s no surprise that most of our survey participants chose flat panel doors for their vanity units (50%). Over half want a wall-mounted design and soft-close doors or drawers, and a third were looking for a unit with a built-in organiser.
The most common colour choice for the vanity unit and the worktop was white (43% and 56%, respectively), with grey in second place for the cabinet shade (14%). If they did go for colour, blue and green were the most likely options among our respondents, with 8% choosing the former and 6% opting for the latter.
Which basin designs are most popular?
The most popular choices were drop in or inset basins (25%), wall-mounted (22%) and consoles (18%), and the majority of people included just one basin in their bathroom (89%).
For those who needed to replace taps, the basin was where they were doing this, with 98% saying they’d installed new basin taps versus 43% in the bath and 27% in the shower.
How are clients covering their walls and floors?
Practical tiles are the top choice for bathroom surfaces, with 44% opting for tiles on their floor and 66% choosing them for their walls. Many homeowners are choosing the same tile patterns that are popular in the shower, including brick bond and vertically and horizontally stacked.
Another popular choice for bathroom flooring is resilient vinyl, with 24% of survey respondents opting for that surface. Half of participants wanted their flooring to be non-slip and another half were keen for it to have waterproof attributes, while around 40% added heating underneath their floor.
Another common choice for walls was paint, as around 40% of respondents opted for painted walls in their bathrooms.
What’s important when choosing a toilet?
Practicality is important when it comes to choosing a loo, with many clients opting for designs with some key features. More than half of those we surveyed opted for a water-saving double flush toilet, while nearly 30% wanted a motion-activated cover and seat, as well as some self-cleaning features.
For a country where a bidet hasn’t traditionally been common in the bathroom, it’s perhaps surprising that around 20% of UK participants went for a toilet with an integrated bidet function.
*The 2024 UK Houzz Bathroom Trends Study is a report of homeowners who are in the midst of, are planning or have recently completed a bathroom renovation. The online survey was fielded to UK Houzz users from November to December 2023. n=228.
