Bathroom Design Ideas for the Future - What Innovations Should We Expect?

Even with the modern innovations in bathroom designs, it can be said that bathroom interiors haven’t changed drastically over the decades. Save for some modern additions like spa baths, custom vanities, body jets built into Jacuzzis, wet rooms, heated towel rails, stylish storage ideas, underfloor heating, and thermostatic shower systems the changes are generally in bathroom styles, interior layouts, and finishes.


With today’s speedy technological advancement, what should we expect from bathroom designers in, say, a couple of decades into the future? How radically different will they be from our own bathroom designs in our homes today?

Just as people never imagined the magnitude of today's technological revolution a hundred years ago, the future of our bathrooms may be equally unimaginable. But we believe there is more to come. The technical revolution we continuously experience is awesome and is a pointer to the fact that future bathroom designs will be equally revolutionized.

Features to Expect in Future Bathroom Designs


The basic elements and common features that make bathrooms designs are shower enclosures, whirlpools, bathtubs, bidets, vanity units, water closets, and accessories like faucets, caddies, bathroom mats, towel rails, storage cabinets, toilet roll holders and soap dispensers.

These common features of this early 21st century will probably remain unchanged, just as they have been for over half a century.

In the future, we can only speculate on the shapes and forms all of them may take, however, what is certain is that future bathroom will evolve into bathing and relaxing rooms with series of built-in hi-tech implements.

If you have watched the movie “Fahrenheit 451”, a sci-fi drama movie based on a dystopian future, it is certain you must remember that bathroom scene where the leading actor, Michael B Jordan was swiping across a mirrored-wall that served as a screen that displayed everything from reading and responding to messages, to speaking and planning with his colleagues at the fire department.

Future bathroom designs may be so advanced that we may find that we spend more time in our bathroom than we do in the kitchen.


Bathroom Innovations to Expect  


These are some thoughts on what to expect in bathroom innovations.

1. Information hub - Receiving information as we take a shower or soak in the bathtub while interacting effortlessly with others.

2. Watch television – You can listen to your favourite news channel or get updates and breaking news.

3. Display screens – Perhaps shower curtains may also serve as display screens where we can catch up with our social media sites like check on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook (or whatever applies in the future) while doing our bath time regimen.

4. High-tech lavatories - Lavatories with display monitors that can measure your blood sugar level, body temperature, and blood pressure. This innovation will be a great way to monitor our health. right there as soon as we sit on the toilet.

5. Remote controlled faucets - Taps that can be controlled remotely, so you can run a soapy bath on your way back from work. Run a bath and add your favourite bath salts or gel as you drive into your street.

6. Movie screens – You won’t require a television or projector screen in a futuristic bathroom because the walls will be a movie screen. Watch a movie while having a long soak in the bathtub.

7. Interactive mirrors - Wall mounted mirrors will also serve as monitors that for instance, offer tips on what to wear, how to dress up for the day, and how to apply your day or evening makeup perfectly.

8. Waterproof speakers - Listen to music or inspirational talks from speakers installed in the shower or bathtub and connected via a multi-room hi-fi system.

9. Self-sanitising toilet seats - This has already been invented and used in some regions in Europe and the United States. It is automatic, self-cleans, disinfects, and dry’s you up after each use. Soon, toilet seats will possess, among other features, heated seats, footrests, lids that automatically open and close, and probably integrated sound systems.

10. Water conservation systems - As water availability reduces, water conservation becomes imperative. This means that flushing systems will be designed to use a quarter of what today’s toilets use.

11. Wall mounted touch pads – Imagine if there are no more handles, knobs, and levers and these features are replaced with touchpads? You will be able to touch-control lights, faucets, devices, screens, etc....

12. Antibacterial electrolyzed water - Sanitizing will become an automatic feature in future bathroom designs. Toilet water will have “ultra-high effect and wide-spectrum disinfectant” that is colourless, odourless, and harmless to humans. Antibacterial water will clean and kill germs found in future toilet bowls.

13. Health check - Employing the latest technology to help evaluate you and your family's health and well-being at the touch of a button.

14. Robots – Imagine having robots to do all your chores including cleaning your bathroom. What if they can hand you a bath towel or robe, give you a body massage, a facial massage, or even a manicure and pedicure?

15. Background music - Pre-programmed music or playlists that understands your mood and will play accordingly so when you feel low it will detect your disposition and play music that will make you feel better. And if you feel good, it'll play music that will make you feel great.

16. Surfaces – Countertops that generate light and adjust lighting levels, depending on the bathroom activity we intend to perform.

17. Voice commands - Use your voice for every command, like lifting up toilet seat covers, commanding faucets to dispense hot, warm, or cold water, or commands to turn on the movie screen. It will be something like the command, "open sesame".

18. Sensors - That will help identify drops in your immune system, moods, cardiac rhythm, etc.…

19. Hands-free flushing system – When you are done with using the toilet, as soon as you get up from the seat, the toilet will flush and deodorize automatically.

20. Built-in bidets – Bidets and bidet systems built into toilets will produce blasts of warm air that serves as drying functions.



New Inventions Will Make Bathrooms Havens of Comfort


Future bathroom designs will incorporate functionality with health and lifestyle facilities which means the room will not only function as a place to bathe and use the toilet, it will also keep a tab on your health, give you lifestyle tips, and inspire you in ways that will make you approach each day with enthusiasm.

The room will automatically recognize household users and know who showers with hot water and who prefers lukewarm water. Modes can be set up for each member of the family for optimal convenience. For the safety of each user, fixtures will mechanically adjust heights and position to suit each family member and provide personal medical information for each person.

Future bathroom designs will not only become havens of comfort and relaxation, they will serve as a user-friendly convenience. A kind of get-away rooms that takes care of our usual bathroom routines.


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Upgrade your Outdoor Room to a Beautiful Patio Garden By DIY

A patio garden is an attractive addition to any home with an outdoor room, front or back porch, or patio. It does not matter if you have a real garden or not. If you wish to complement your home, creating a cozy garden attached to the house has many benefits. It is also a great home enhancement idea that you will never regret making.




Most of us love gardens and the feel of nature around us, but many people do not have much space to create one. And if you live above the ground floor, you cannot have a garden in its real sense. But you can create a beautiful garden within your patio.

Types, sizes, and forms of outdoor rooms vary. Some are open spaces that adjoin the house with one wall, separated by sliding or swing doors that lead directly indoors. Other patios are sited in yards and have nothing more than a top covering (roof) and a paved floor. And yet, there are semi-enclosed patio rooms with two or three walls/dividers. One wall may be made of brick and adjoining the house and the other(s) enclosed with decorative enclosure materials. This may range from canvas to decorative lattice wood partitions.

There are also fully enclosed ones like courtyards and piazzas. They are more secluded and specifically designed to be private. Balcony patios are found from the first floor to the top floor and/or penthouses in high-rise apartments.

Your outdoor room is a part of your landscape. It should be set up in such a way that it serves as a comfortable and relaxing recreational area. A place where you can get away from the indoor chatter, entertain a few friends or have candle-lit dinners.

Creating this kind of area in your residence only requires you to turn your outdoor room into a cosy garden, a part of nature, and an aesthetically pleasing sight. It should set a perfect stage as an outdoor leisure room enhanced with potted foliage, flowers, outdoor furniture and furnishings, and appropriate lighting. And because this space forms a part of your scenery, large or small, it is best designed to complement the entire landscape.


12 Ways to Create a Patio Garden


There are numerous ways you can create a garden out of your patio and make it versatile for any activity you desire. So, depending on the size of its area and its volume, you can use it in many different ways. Listed below, you will find easy-to-create and budget-friendly garden patio design ideas. One or more of them can help you find inspiration or, better still, stir up your creative juices.

  1. Flooring - Your patio garden needs a floor finish. The choice depends on the look you want. Use faux grass to create a green lawn effect. Or pave it with any patio flooring materials like stone, bricks, or oven bamboo wood flooring if your patio has a roof covering. Wood flooring is not ideal for yard patios.
  2. Enclosure - You may want to semi-enclose your outdoor leisure room. To do this, add a patio privacy screen made from natural materials that complement the outdoors. Bamboo, wood lattice, woven mats, wood slats, wrought-iron frame trellis, or an imposing hedge wall are good examples. The hedges can be natural or faux outdoor plants. These will make great backdrops for your garden.
  3. Planters - Create rectangular planting pockets around the patio perimeter to serve as a boundary. You can also have an island planter and plant a tree or flowering plants. Boundary plants can be tall-growing plants, while the island can have low to medium height flowering plants. Plants can be grown on the floor level or elevated using rectangular, square, or circular pots made from wood slats.
  4. Trellis - Create a focal point with a tall wood or iron trellis. Add creeping plants or flowering vines. This can serve as a patio partition. Works well with open backyard patios.
  5. Bench seats - Create dual-purpose bench seating around the perimeter. Can serve for seating and/or multi-size potted plant display. Designing the benches in varying heights adds some drama to the setup.
  6. Plant troughs - Arrange concrete plant troughs of varying heights and sizes (square or round) to create a perimeter. Grow bright and colourful annual plants like roses, violas, petunias, and pansies. If the patio adjoins the building, create this arrangement on two sides of the wall. Leave an opening to serve as the walk-through pathway.
  7. Racks and shelves - Create a vertical herb garden. Grow different herbs in small, attractive pots and display them on racks or shelves. Use terracotta pots or any other types of containers of your choice. Ensure that they add colour to the space. Alternatively, you can plant dwarf cacti, mini plants, and other colourful succulent floras.
  8. Hangers - For small patio floor spaces, create ceiling beams to hang planters of various sizes at varying levels. Keep the lower hanging planters away from the walk path. You want to avoid hitting your head while passing through. Hang the higher ones above headroom height. Suitable for patios from the second floor up.
  9. Water features - Add a floor water feature with built-in lights. Fiberglass models that look like stone and rock fountains fit in well with landscapes and work well on patios. You can use a tabletop version if you so desire. It will still give you that garden with a rushing water feel.
  10. Dug-out planters - For large patios, you can go dramatic. Give it some character with square, triangular, or circular pockets dug out from the paved floor. They can be arranged symmetrically or asymmetrically. Plants like the African iris, Azania’s or snapdragons can be planted in each pocket. They will grow their roots directly into the soil.
  11. Lighting - Light up your patio garden creatively. Choose lights that illuminate the space, especially if you often have outdoor entertaining. Commercial-grade draped string lights are great for the outdoors, just like battery-operated dancing flame torches, pendant lights, wall sconces, and downlights. Add a few mood lights like lanterns and battery-operated candlelights.
  12. Natural shade - Accentuate the patio with a shade-producing tree planted in a large wooden tub or half-barrel. It can also serve as a screen against the wind in winter and excessive sun exposure in the summer and add a lush look to the patio. For any untidy structural elements, dead ends, or drab corners, arrange a cluster of potted plants to conceal them.

Tips

  • Add some lemongrass plants or any other insect-repelling plants to your patio garden. Grow them in a couple of decorative pots to repel mosquitoes in the summer.
  • With outdoor lighting, remember that a little light goes a long way at night. So, complement the landscape rather than detract from it.
  • To conform beautifully to the entire outdoor space, floor the patio with natural stone, pavers, ceramic tiles, red or brown bricks, smooth pebbles, or rock or pea gravel.
  • Natural flooring materials will blend well with the surrounding landscape.


What to Avoid

  • Plants that grow uncontrollably. It is good to be selective about the plants you choose. You do not want a patio that will eventually end up looking wild, untidy, unkempt, and cluttered.
  • Over-planting. You do not want your patio to appear unplanned and end up resembling a forest of plants. If that is the look you like, that's fine, but if you prefer a manicured, well-thought-out garden, you may end up finding over-planting unappealing.
  • Using plant colours and foliage that are not in harmony with each other and the landscape surroundings.
  • Growing plants that are not adaptable to your local climate. They may die off in no time unless you tend them carefully and consistently. Planting local and adaptable foliage will guarantee that your patio looks healthy all year round.


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Downsized Living for Empty Nesters

Why do 'empty nesters’ need smaller house designs? Because as we age, we need less space to live. Now is the time to think about selling the family house and getting something smaller, as there’s no point in having more space than required. Find out how to make a small house a dream home.


Small home plans and house designs are popularly sought after by empty nesters and retirees because they have attained an age where they no longer need to live in a large family house. Children have grown up and moved away to start their own lives. And now, unused rooms in the home have become more of a liability than a necessity.

What is the point of having more space than you need? How do you keep up with the maintenance costs of a big, half-empty house?

There is a large population of baby boomers and sixty-plus citizens who appreciate the value of downsized living. Times are different, and they don’t want to hold on to more than they need. First, it is not cost-effective, and secondly, living in a half-occupied house can bring on a sense of loss and emptiness. So, what better time to build or buy a moderately-sized house than now?

Now is the opportunity to start a new experience. A new chapter. Liberation and a time to explore and rediscover life. It is a time to do the things once desired but never done. A time to resume a long-forgotten hobby, go back to school, learn a craft, travel, write some books, and move into your small dream home. The children’s bedrooms, bathrooms, playroom, and workroom are now redundant. You do not need so much space anymore.

Sell the Big Family House and Buy a Smaller One


Empty nesters can benefit from the investments they made in the course of their lives. The big house can be sold off, most likely with a sizeable profit. With this disposable income, empty nesters can provide for a brighter future with a better lifestyle.

Small house designs large enough for two must be stylish, aesthetically pleasing, efficient, adaptable, and practical. The house plans must come with the following features:
  • Open-plan spaces that flow seamlessly into each other
  • A medium-sized, elegant kitchen area
  • Entertainment areas (indoors and outdoors)
  • Leisure zone
  • Spacious en-suite master bedroom
  • Dressing room
  • Visitor toilet
  • Good storage facilities
  • The work-from-home station, study, or craft room
Other favourites are:
  • Combined living and dining areas with an open kitchen
  • Vaulted ceilings
  • High ceilings
  • Fireplaces
  • Minimal walls
  • Interior ramps instead of short steps
  • Open kitchens
  • Sun porch, patio, or deck
  • Pool garden
Small home designs must be low-maintenance and energy-efficient. Being smaller than what many empty nesters have been used to practising all their lives does not mean giving up on luxury touches. The fact is, now that you are planning to live in a more compact residence, you can afford to splash out on a bit of luxury, more than you could ever have dreamed.

If you plan to build a new house, your architect can design a small house plan to accommodate what you truly desire. The interior layout must incorporate most, if not all the features mentioned in the list above.

While most baby boomers favour the open plan arrangement of contemporary and modern home designs, some prefer to opt for traditional style home designs with their typical closed concept.

Critical Design Challenges


There are critical design challenges that need attention. Because they are middle-aged, empty nesters should consider living in a one-level house rather than a one-storey building. A house with a staircase will require going up and down the stairs several times a day. Something that is not advisable as we grow older.

Living in an apartment or condo is fine. There are elevators to take you to higher flats. However, within the apartment, there must be no stairs. So, for those boomers planning to downsize, it’s best to build (or buy) a bungalow or at most a house with a split-level interior.

If, however, a one-storey building is the preferred choice, it is not a bad idea. The master bedroom and living areas must be on the ground floor, and the second bedroom sited on the upper floor. The room on the upper floor can serve as the guest suite.

It is good to remember that as we age, challenges set in for some. Age-related ailments, physical challenges, and disabilities demand that we keep all our indoor activities on one floor. And for access to the deck, patio, or pool garden, it must flow seamlessly from the inside to the exterior.

At 60+, we love to laze in the sun, do some gardening, or generally potter around outside, so it is best to ensure that the design allows for a wide, clear walkway leading to the outdoors. And with no more than a few steps leading up and down. With physical challenges, it is good to have a ramp incorporated in the house for ease of movement indoors and outdoors.


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Interior Design Task-Specific Books: Workbooks, Planners, Mood Boards, Sketchbooks, and Journals

As interior designers, we understand that even with the best design software programs, drawing with paper, pens, and pencils still reign supreme. As professionals, we just can't do without the good old hand sketch.

Interior design-related task-specific sketchbooks and workbooks are still the best storehouses for some of our interior design concepts. Working with loose sheets of paper clipped on boards or non-descript notebooks will not just cut it for the professional.


The profession involves drawing, sketching, writing, presenting, describing, managing, procuring, planning, measuring, and more. All these need to be methodically inputted, recorded, and documented. From client and project details to the recording of tasks, budgets, client questionnaires, and site measurements, every single detail that pertains to every task requires physical industry-specific books as business tools.

Can you imagine what losing such important stuff means if you have them stored on a device or in the cloud somewhere and wake up one day to lose them through some glitch or error?

Moreover, creative inspiration hits at the oddest of times. And at such times, all you need is to pick up a workbook/sketchbook and do a quick sketch and write-up; much quicker than it takes to log in to a drawing software program.


List of Some Task-Specific Interior Design Books

  • Notebooks
  • Space planners
  • Diaries
  • Workbooks
  • Logbooks
  • Checklists
  • Planners and organizers
  • Mood-board pages
  • Design portfolios
  • Sketch and draw books

And more. They are crafted and created specifically for interior designers by a professional interior designer who knows what is required in the industry.


Designers Are Selective and Detail-Oriented

Interior designers tend to be selective and detail-oriented. Not only must there be a balance between function and style, but also one between planning and organizing.

These organizational business tools are must-haves for storing, recording and documenting. They must be user-friendly, easy to navigate and reference, and methodically laid out with relevant title blocks.

Related articles and books


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Business Tools for Interior Designers and Other Professionals in the Interior Design Industry

Interior designers require some business tools to work effectively and efficiently to achieve successful goals. But while the needs of veterans in the industry differ from what students require, for example, there are still some basic ones that experts, novices, and others in-between need to have, to successfully implement design projects and school assignments.


Interior Design Project Management Logbook

What are Interior Design Business Tools?


Let me first say that the tools mentioned here aren’t things like handsaws, hammers, screwdrivers or pliers. Tools of the interior design trade are mainly software programs, books, including writing, sketching, drawing, and coloring instruments. These must cater for every task a designer takes on, from space planning to drawing interior plans, sketching 3D illustrations, and creating working drawings.

Other books/tools are:

And so much more...

So, if you run an interior design venture, work as a freelancer, or study interior design, equip yourself with must-have interior design-specific tools that will help you from developing your design concept to running your business hassle-free in an organised and professional manner.