Best in Class: Time to freshen up

Best in Class 1

Drummonds new Tweed cast iron bath is a compact freestanding roll top, based on the Bateau Bath design of the 18th century, and has been styled accordingly with Japanese Garden, a luxurious wallpaper by de Gournay, that costs from about €1,338, ex delivery, from its London-based showroom. The panel is 91.5cm wide and from 1.52 to 2.13 metres tall. At just 152cm long, the bath is a great fit for smaller spaces and offers all the comforts of a classic double-ended design. The bath has a vitreous enamel interior and a hand-poured cast iron exterior that is available in four exterior options: polished or raw unfinished iron, painted or primed. Choose from any paint colour such as RAL, Farrow & Ball or Little Green with a gloss or matt finish. It costs from about €3,999 from Navan-based Versatile Bathrooms.

Versatile.ie; Drummonds.co.uk

Best in Class 2

Industrial vintage is a new hybrid trend that marries the best of two strong styles, softening the former and contemporarising the latter to give you a space that will very much integrate into the overall design of your home. This Frahm shower screen is custom-designed by Drench for UK-based CP Hart and shows how you can weave the bare brick and Crittal-style screening popular in kitchens into a bathroom setting.The steel frame shower screen is coated in a waterproof powder finish in matt black and features toughened glass. Measuring 80cm by 210cm, it costs about €1,586, ex delivery.

Cphart.co.uk; Drench.co.uk

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Best in Class 3

Wallpaper can be a very affordable way to bring floral pattern into a shower stall setting. Designed to withstand the rigors of bathroom life, Wall & Deco's wet system wallpapers include Demetra, a new print for 2018, that will bring a sense of the great pleasure of showering outdoors into your warm and rain-proof space. It costs €182 per square metre from Italian Tile and Stone where Irish Times readers who present today's column can get 10 per cent off it or any other print in the 2018 collection on orders placed before April 30th.

Tiles.ie; Wallanddeco.com

Best in Class 4

Decorative mirrors in a bathroom help dial down the functionality of the space. Harvey Norman’s new spring collection has several that will help enhance your washroom; choose a trio of gold asymmetrical forms, €100 for the set, which will make you appear to have colour in your face on even the deathliest pale of days, or let the sun shine with a 100cm in diameter sunrays mirror, €240, that looks especially good if you have room to set it atop an Olivia console table, €249.

[ Harveynorman.ie ]

Best in Class 5

The 1980s is back with a vengeance with bathroom trends reimagining coloured sanitryware but instead of a matchy matchy three-piece suite you can opt for a matching toilet and sink, or matching toilet and bidet, for the bidet is making a return to master bathrooms and is proving popular with those looking for a more ecological way to run their homes. Whichever colour you choose don’t pick a bath in the same colour – that is just too retro for 21st life.

Ballymount-based Tilestyle stocks Italian brand Nic Design whose Semplice collection will give your bathroom a touch of the blues. This turquoise toilet costs from €700, matching bidet, from €500 and tap, €190, teamed with a cement-coloured Milk basin, from €500. All prices include VAT.

Tilestyle.com; Nicdesign.it

Best in Class 6

Add zest to a south-facing bathroom with creative use of colour. Classic bathroom squares, not in typical white but in a vibrant pistachio green, from Gemini Tiles, will bring some spring sunshine into the space. Be sure to add warm-coloured lighting and be mindful that this colour will look a little off in a north-facing room. These cost about €34.50 per sq metre from CDT Tiles.

[ Ctdtiles.co.uk ]

Best in Class 7

Heat in a bathroom is essential. A towel rack is a radiator that double jobs to warm towels as well as clothing as you shower. If you really want to put a spring in your step and have the space and the deep pockets to invest in such a thing, this bioethanol-fuelled Perola Branco fire, a design by Glamm Fires, will turn a master bathroom into a space you may want to linger in. It costs from €4,450, ex VAT, from Northern Ireland-based Noble Distribution in Bangor.

[ Nobledi.com ]

Best in Class 8

Fresh flowers in a bathroom can be a very simple but effective way to soften a washroom’s hard lines. It’s a good place to have a little fun with your vase choice too. This Love In Bloom porcelain-made human heart vase by Italian designer Marcantonio for Seletti turns simple ox eye daisies that you can find growing wild on the side of the road into an art installation. The piece, which costs about €75, ex delivery, will be available through online store Made in Design later this month.

[ Madeindesign.co.uk ]