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Out of sight...

Unsightly clutter will ruin the impact of a well-thought- out bathroom scheme, so don’t miss our pick of the best storage solutions on the market.

Article by: Fae Gilfillan
Publish date: 10th March 2010

Lotions, potions, tonics and discarded towels and clothing, our poor, beleaguered bathrooms put up with a lot. And if you’ve gone to the effort of installing a beautiful bathroom, carefully picking out the tiles and decorating with the utmost attention to detail, nothing will detract from the overall impact of your decor like clutter chaos. So here we’ve compiled the ultimate storage compendium to highlight that most useful of bathroom features.

To display or not to display
Towels look great on display if you invest in colour-coordinated ones and fold them like hotels do. Simply fold into thirds lengthways and then either repeat width-way or roll them up. If however, your towels are something you’d prefer to keep out of sight, a towel cupboard will not only hide them away but will provide a surface upon which you could group a few well-chosen beautiful objects. Simple, white, wooden pieces are a key look for bathrooms this year, alluding to a shaker style but with stronger geometric lines.

Basin basics
You can always opt for the ultra practical built-in bathroom furniture or even just a basin console. The amount of storage they provide in return for the amount of space they take up is fabulous and many make good use of the space around the waste pipe. As Ross Skinner, Design Director of Smallbone of Devizes, says, “It is important to carefully work around the plumbing to transform what is usually wasted space into useful storage. For example, wastepipes can take up a lot of room but we carefully build the drawers of our vanity cupboards around the pipes.”

A space to get ready
Cosmetics can quickly clutter surfaces so it’s  decision time. Will you keep them in the bedroom or the bathroom? Designer Nina Campbell, likes to use her bathroom as a her dressing room, meaning she can add feminine charm to the room by installing a decorative dressing table and stool. “One of the most important details in bathroom design is having space to put things. I like to keep my dressing table in my bathroom as I like to do my makeup there, so I have to have plenty of storage to keep it all organised. It’s essential to have a basin set into a cabinet with plenty of drawers to avoid cluttering up the surfaces of your bathroom and to maintain the feeling of luxury, calm and relaxation. Why not have an existing dressing table specially adapted to house your basin to save floor space.”

Play it safe
If there are children in your home and if you keep your medicines in the bathroom, a lockable bathroom cabinet is a must, but style doesn’t have to be compromised by function. There are a wealth of cabinets on the market featuring locks and child-safety measures. If you don’t have to consider small, prying hands, there are some fabulous medicine tins available from many high street stores.

Everything in its place
There are plenty of towel hoops, hooks, and shower storage devices on the market now that feature twist-and-lock suction cups strong enough to take a lot of weight. These are a good idea for tiled areas as, after all, drilling through tiles might be something you regret later.
A recent innovation in the world of bathrooms are glass cabinets fitted inside the shower cubicle. They’re as tall as the shower cubicle itself and you’ll need a fairly large shower to house them. They look absolutely fabulous but as they’re entirely glass, they are quite hard to keep looking good.
Think practically when looking at these jaw-dropping installations.

Clever thinking
Cleaning products are one of the bathroom’s necessities. Storing them in the kitchen or utility room makes cleaning the bathroom even more of a chore, but in the bathroom they can look unsightly. You can now buy mirrors that swivel to reveal hidden storage as well as in-wall cabinets that will up your available storage space. As Sam Ball of Utopia Bathrooms says, “Fitted furniture is the perfect choice if your room is awkwardly shaped or you have unsightly pipes and other tricky structural features to disguise.” A great choice if you have products you’d rather keep out of sight.

A means to an end
A lot of fun can be had with both stunningly eye-catching or cleverly hidden storage, so take your time to shop around before you buy. The overall hotel-effect you’re able to create with a clutter free bathroom accentuating clean lines, along with having a nice, orderly bathroom, will be well worth it!