Washroom Design - The Finishing Touches

We aren’t talking thick carpet, gold toilet roll holders and flat-screen TVs, but in the commercial environment, you can still strike a balance between easy-clean durability and a little comfort.

Executive washrooms

The high-class executive washroom is an easy place to start. Durability is much less of a priority here – we’re talking small office spaces, law firms, hedge funds and businesses where clients are likely to use the facilities. In this environment, we can afford to go down a route that looks a little more domestic, but naturally with a high end often corporate finish. Perhaps some wood paneling, ornate pictures hung on the walls and high-quality single-use hand towels. Moisture and humidity are present in every washroom, so you’ll need to ensure panels and pictures have a certain level of resistance to moisture. Lobby washrooms in luxury hotels also fall into this category. One thing you’ll find they all have in common is a generous amount of space - no cramming of extra toilet stalls here. Lay on basins are popular in this type of setting and deliver a spa-like feel to the room. These large basins rising up and away from the counter give the user a feeling of accentuated personal space and privacy.

Swanky soap

It goes without saying that in high-end washrooms, you’ll do well to offer top quality hand soaps. Hand soaps like those from Neals Yard and Aesop leave users with a lasting fresh scent, a reminder of how good your new washroom is. Recognisable brands also play into the level of luxury you want to offer and can say a lot about you as a company. Often, the establishments that have swanky soaps on the counter also go for fresh hand towels, of high-quality disposable ones with a neat basket to throw used ones into – it’s a bin, we all know it’s a bin, but it looks a little nicer.

Obviously, not every washroom is being geared up for luxury. Those with higher footfall and of a public nature need to cut their cloth to suit. Perhaps the most important issue for people in a washroom is how clean it is. Users don’t want to feel dirty whilst visiting your facilities and automatic dispensers play into this in two key ways. Firstly, they deliver hand soap directly into user's hands, meaning they never actually have to touch anything. Followed up with automatic sensor taps and hand dryers, the user leaves clean, with no concern over spreading bacteria. Secondly, with automatic dispensing of soap, water, and warm air, you never have to worry about grubby hand marks over dispensers and hand dryers. So your washroom stays looking slick, smart and clean for longer.

Pictures, plants, and furniture

Plants are an easy way to leave a customized mark on your washroom. Choose plants that need little watering and thrive in humid environments. Alternatively, for ease of maintenance you could buy artificial plants, there are some really great options available nowadays.

Pictures, whether prints or photographs, have long been a great way to customise dreary washrooms, but it’s important to maintain a theme and keep things simple and uncluttered. Even in high traffic environments like motorway service stations, pictures can be fastened more securely and safety glass or Perspex can be fitted in the frame.

Lastly, we come to the furniture. For a long time, many female washrooms have had seating available, the more upmarket ones offering sofas. When space allows, this is a really strong mark of luxury, a place for friends to sit while others freshen up – this is most common in high-end restaurants and hotels. However, spare a thought for sideboards and console tables too, perhaps with a small lamp on top. This is a simple way of bringing that homely, welcoming feel to the washroom without compromising too much on space.

Be bold with colour

Of course, you don’t have to get all fancy to bring your washroom into line with the rest of your business. Today, there are a multitude of options available to you. Wall panels, cubicles and vanity units come in a huge range of colours and finishes and can be made to custom dimensions. Colour is a powerful medium and can really transform the feel of your wash space, perhaps tying in to your companies corporate colours. With custom sizes available, it means you can make cubicles wider or narrower to suit your building’s dimensions. It’s also becoming increasingly popular for toilet cubicles to be made full height, meaning no gap above or below the door. This drastically smartens up washrooms and sections off the toilets rather than highlighting a bank of cubicles.

Go bespoke

Bespoke items almost always go down well. Back when we designed and refurbished some washrooms for the National Trust, we commissioned custom light fittings made from materials complementary to the original building. Sometimes things like mirrors can benefit from custom framework  and little touches like shelving and even door handles can be made a feature of with just a little thought. Momofuku, a famous New York restaurant even has shelves filled with cookbooks on the washroom, which not only plays into the theme of the business, but also adds a uniquely personal touch.

So if you have the opportunity, if your business allows, then don’t just leave your washroom bare and smelling of bleach. There are many things you can do to add life and colour to the space, all of which significantly improve the usability of your washroom and productivity of your workforce.