Once the smallest and least interesting room in the house, the bathroom is now becoming a major feature of the home. People are spending more time in their bathrooms and they want them to be bigger and more luxurious. They also want more of them, even if it means a costly build-on job to provide them. Most family homes now on the market have en suite bathrooms as well as a family bathroom, and at the top end of the market, some homes have a bathroom or shower room for every bedroom.
A swish bathroom can be a strong selling point in a house. Estate agents have begun to use photographs of bathrooms in brochures, an unheard of practice until fairly recently, according to Charles Broadhead of Lisney. "Bathrooms are becoming a far more important feature of a home both in quantity and quality," agrees architect Fionnuala Rogerson. "I think it's partly to do with affluence, and partly to do with Irish people travelling abroad and experiencing better designed and more spacious bathrooms. We've always lagged a bit behind Europe in our emphasis on the bathroom, and now we're just catching up.
"The increasing interest in bathrooms is also part of the general trend towards lifetime homes - a family home that can change and adapt through the life cycle of the family," she says. "We're moving towards larger bathrooms which can be more easily used by everyone including older people".
So, we've moved from a time when it was considered that too much bathing weakened you, to today's norm of the daily shower. This crush for cleanliness has led inevitably to morning queues for a sole family bathroom. "Second bathrooms are becoming much more common, and we notice that when people are refurbishing in an older house they are less likely to use a poky little space on the return and more likely to convert one of the larger rooms into a bathroom, and perhaps to keep a period fireplace as a feature," says Fionnuala. Increased shower efficiency has enabled bathrooms to become more stylish and more comfortable. The electric shower provides instant hot water. The power and pump shower have in one fell swoop done away with the grotty plastic shower curtain as the force of the water demands a heavier duty shower cabinet and screen. The en suite bathroom shows what can be achieved in quite a small space. Although it might seem like a small job, building a new bathroom, or adapting requires a great deal of planning.
For the Kenny family, it began with a leaking ceiling in their home overlooking the sea in Greystones, Co Wicklow. Investigations revealed that the whole roof needed replacing - a large and expensive job. So, given that they were going to borrow and have the builders in anyway, the couple began to look at what other changes they needed to make - and didn't have further to look than the overstretched family bathroom. Built in 1860, their home has a generously proportioned hall, landing, reception rooms and bedrooms but had only one lavatory and bathroom on the first floor. "Big problem," says Susie Kenny, "you almost had to book the bathroom in the morning, you can imagine the hassle with everyone trying to get out at the same time." As well as creating a new galley kitchen at the rear of the house, they have added a south-facing extension which enlarges their home by a third. It gives a new conservatory/sittingroom on the ground floor and a dressingroom and not one but two new bathrooms upstairs. The first bathroom is situated off the main bedroom, and a second small shower room is connected to daughter Alex's bedroom. The original bathroom has been modernised for second daughter Charlotte.
On the bathroom front, the piece de resistance is undoubtedly the new en suite bathroom off the main bedroom. A deep marble step leads up to the white Jacuzzi bath - which is placed to offer sea views while lying and soaking. A window with a deep sill is framed by soft white muslin curtains. There is also a shower, wash basin, lavatory and a long, slim, mirrored chrome wall cabinet. Carpeting is pale grey, the colour scheme is white and pale green and the whole effect is both smart and restful.
ALEX'S bathroom is equipped with an electric shower to give hot water whenever she wants it, and is floored in rubber matting. The original bathroom has been converted into one good sized room. The 140-year-old bath has been retained, and works well with new lavatory and new basin with antique brass taps. The walls have been part-wood panelled and painted a mid-blue, and the floor covered is a tile-style lino in white with blue diamond pattern.
The work took much longer than they could have imagined: "We celebrated our first anniversary of having the builders in the first week in February," says Susie, "and things are still not completely finished. I would advise anyone who is thinking of building on a new bathroom to hire an architect. We had a lot of our own ideas, but our architect brought up points we had never even thought of regarding hot water tanks and where things should be placed and so on. There is a scale of fees, so you know what you're getting into.
"We shopped around for bathroom fittings, tiles, flooring, and furnishings. We had an idea about what we wanted and went looking for it. It made for a huge amount of man-hours but in the end was worth it," adds Susie. She puts a price tag on the overall work, which included a new kitchen and sittingroom at something in excess of £85,000. "I have to take a deep breath before I say it because it sounds an awful lot, but we feel it has added immeasurably to the house.
