Being in the home improvement business, I felt odd needing ideas when it came time to upgrade the bathrooms in my own home. Perhaps making a living building the bathroom of everyone elses dreams helped to fog the picture of what I wanted my own to be. Taunton Publishing puts out a trade magazine that I swear by. So when I decided to purchase a book on bathrooms I thought I couldnt go wrong with this one. How wrong I was. This book is little more than a collection of photographs of high end and ultra high end bathrooms. Here in my neck of the woods a complete bath renovation ranges in cost from between ten and fifteen thousand dollars for an average bath. Very few of the rooms displayed in this book would make that budget. Aside from the introduction there is almost no text to assist the "reader" in understanding requirements or even necessaties pryor to planning a bath remodel. Perhaps the fact that I am in this line of work colors my opinion of the book, but if photos qualify as ideas, Id recomend picking up a few magazines on bath remodeling and get a fuller picture. The Bathroom Idea Book (Idea Books)
This book is has a lot of photos of bathrooms. Very many styles and sizes of bathrooms are featured. Many different color/decor schemes are pictured. Many different fixtures, baths, showers, etc. can be seen on these pages. What I found most inspiring were the less traditional bathrooms (even some rather tiny ones) that really showed some creative design aspects.The text is rather average for this sort of book, basically it explains the many options that are available. It's nice to have this info in one place, but there were no radical insights. This book is chiefly a picture/idea book.I was very pleased that Universal Design got more than a nod by the author. Several baths featuring universal design principles were pictured and diagrammed! Being a wheelchair user myself, I wish more people who built homes thought even for a few minutes about incorporating a little universal design into their homes. I wish there were more bathroom plan examples. I wish there were more diagrams indicating possible and practical dimensions for standard bathroom layouts. There is no how-to install or remodel information in the book (but that's OK because it is supposed to be an "idea" book).I'm building a new house and I keep returning to this book to scan the pages for ideas, color schemes, etc. I just wish there was a bit more technical information to make some of the final design decisions easier. I had to consult other books and the internet on a number of issues before I made the final floor-plan layout decisions. So, if you want ideas, this book is a great(!) starting point. If you want more technical details you may need to look elsewhere.
We are building a new house and this is the best book I have found on bathrooms. It is full of great ideas for every one -- master suite, powder room, guest bath. I take it with me as I talk with builders and subs to show them what I want in the finished look. It has been very helpful.
I found this book to be very helpful, as we are currently in the midst of re-doing 3 bathrooms. For our large bathroom, we will incorporate a number of ideas that we hadn't thought of previously. This book is exactly what it claims to be - an "idea" book. There are tons of pictures, all beautifully photographed. I usually get this type of book out of the library, but I'm happy I invested in this one. It's definitely worth the money, and a wonderful reference guide.
An incredible amount of information with beautiful pictures of how to plan a new bath / shower OR how to update / remodel an existing bath....Hundreds of illustrations that can be incorporated into any bath depending on budget and desire...
I enjoyed this book and felt it did provide good information, contrary to other comments and I felt it was well worth the money.
My mother is remodeling her bathroom and it gave us good ideas of what she liked and didn't like. I do agree with another writer that many of the most beautiful bathroom photographs were of "high-end" bathrooms, but I believe most anything can be modified to fit within a budget. The book was useful in providing the bones from which to work. I mean if marble is too expensive or is not your thing, then maybe travertine would be a less expensive option. I thought the book provided good info on things like sink placement, vanity and cabinet styles, flooring and even toilet options and shower head choices.
The only slight negative, is that the book I read was published in 1999 and did include some older style bathrooms, but I would expect that in a book that was six years old, so I didn't count off for that...just because I'm late in reading it. :-)
There were lots of informative sections in the book. On page 80, it talks about some of the differences in fiberglass vs acrylic showers/tubs. On page 95, there is some discussion about low flush toilets.
To me, the book title indicates exactly what this book provides "Bathroom Ideas", and I think the author delivered.
Even though most of the pictures don't have much detail about how to construct a particular type of bathroom or what foundation needs to already be in place, this book is not called Bathroom Construction and Remodeling. I think this book does a great job at explaining what you are looking at and includes corresponding numbering on the text and pictures. I found this book very useful and it provided just what I was looking for....ideas.
The publish date is 2001, but I'd say most of the bathrooms featured were designed in the 80s or early 90s. In fact, about one quarter of them featured are actually worse than the bathroom in my house that I plan to demolish. If, for some reason, your goal is to creat a very high end 80's style bathroom, then this is the book for you. - Interior Design - Skw - Bathroom'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
