This article started life as a 2024 trends round-up. We've rewritten it for today, because the useful question isn't what's fashionable this year — it's what will still look good and work well in ten winters' time. Here's what we'd recommend for Glasgow homes, and a few things to think twice about.
Walk-in showers instead of the bath
The biggest change we see is people swapping a rarely-used bath for a generous walk-in shower. A low-profile tray or a fully tiled floor, a single fixed glass panel and a big overhead rain head make even a small tenement bathroom feel bigger and far easier to clean.
One caution: if you only have one bathroom and might sell to a family, keep a bath somewhere. And if you're going for a level-access floor, it needs proper tanking and falls to a drain — a wet room is a job to get right first time.
Large-format tiles and fewer grout lines
Big porcelain tiles on walls and floor mean less grout to clean and a calmer look. They suit small rooms surprisingly well. The trade-off is that walls must be flat — in older sandstone properties we often need to board or skim walls first, which is worth budgeting for.
Colour and pattern are back
After years of grey, people are choosing warmer colours again: terracotta, sage, deep blue and soft pink, often on one feature wall or the floor. Patterned floor tiles and small handmade-look wall tiles work beautifully in Victorian and Edwardian homes in Pollokshields and Shawlands. Keep the expensive, hard-to-change things (bath, toilet, basin) white and put the personality into tiles and paint.
Wall-hung toilets and vanities
Wall-hung units show more floor, which makes a room look bigger and makes cleaning easier. The cistern is hidden in a boxed-in frame, and that boxing gives you a handy shelf. It needs planning, though — the frame must be fixed to something solid and the waste route must work, which isn't always simple in a tenement with a shared soil stack.
Warm metals and matt finishes
Brushed brass, brushed nickel and matt black are all popular. Buy good-quality finishes — cheap plated taps and showers can mark quickly. Glasgow's soft water is kind to metal finishes compared with hard-water areas, but you'll still want to wipe them down.
Built-in storage
Recessed niches in the shower for bottles, mirrored cabinets with lights, and drawers instead of cupboard doors under the basin. Niches look best when they line up with the tiles, so decide on them at planning stage, not on the day.
Underfloor heating and heated towel rails
Electric underfloor heating under tiles turns a cold bathroom floor into the warmest spot in the house, and it's easy to add during a full renovation. A heated towel rail can replace the old radiator. Both are options in our bathroom planner.
Better lighting and ventilation
Layered lighting — a bright ceiling light for cleaning, an LED mirror for shaving and make-up, a low glow for night — makes a huge difference. And a proper extractor fan is essential in any bathroom to keep condensation and mould away, especially in older flats with small windows.
What we'd skip
Very dark grout on light tiles (it fades unevenly), frameless glass with no seal on a non-level floor (it leaks), and freestanding baths in a room that's barely big enough (you need space to clean behind them).
Not sure what suits your room? Start with our bathroom planner. Tell us the job, the size and the finish you're after, and Adam will call you back to talk it through and arrange a free home survey.