I’ll level with you – I used to think bathroom floors were somewhat pointless. You needed something cheap, water resistant, and with grout you didn’t have to see when it got dirty. Subway tile?
Great. Basic beige ceramic squares? Works for me.
Beyond that… not much to say. Until I renovated bathrooms three times.
Twice in my own homes, and once in my landlord-boyfriend’s house when we first moved in together.
Suddenly there were all these options for flooring that didn’t require spending every penny of your renovation budget or completely renovating the entire space. Who knew? My first flooring revelation came during my second flat’s bathroom renovation.
We were upgrading a gross tiny closet sized room, which consisted of basically a shower, toilet, and tub crammed into what looked like someone’s hall with plumbing added. The landlords had cheaply tiled it with low-grade white ceramic tile that showed water spots from a mile away and always looked dirty no matter how much you cleaned it. Looking at that sad floor every morning got me thinking there had to be a better option.
Enter luxury vinyl. Yeah I know, luxury vinyl has the cachet of airport toilets and Cheap Eddie hotels. But holy crap, the products they’re making now are fantastic.
I went with large wood-look luxury vinyl plank from Karndean (£45 per square metre isn’t cheap until you remember how much decent ceramic plus installation will set you back!) and it seriously changed the game for me. Suddenly my bathroom felt warm underfoot rather than clinical. Literally warm too; the vinyl made it feel warmer.
Spills don’t matter, broken glass bounces instead of cutting your feet and washing it is literally mopping it with whatever cleaner you have handy. No more brush-your-teeth-in-the-shower-if-you’re-done-by-5: 30-am-for-me trying to scrub out the grout lines. Seriously game changer.
That being said, luxury vinyl isn’t without its drawbacks. After two years, you can start to see where foot traffic has worn down the floor in areas (don’t worry it doesn’t look bad, you have to look for it). It’s also so obviously NOT what it tries to pass itself off as that once you know it’s vinyl, you’ll never forget.
Karndean does a really nice job of it though – the plank texture is slightly too perfect to be real wood, but close enough that I’d still choose it for any rental or high-moisture rooms. Speaking of keeping things toasty warm… my second upgrade was heated floors. This happened in my current home.
Our master bathroom is built over an unheated garage, which makes it FREEZING between October and March every year. I spent months obsessing over electric underfloor heating systems, pouring over online reviews and tutorials like I was majoring in electrical engineering all over again. I ended up going with Warmup’s electric underfloor heating mat system (£180 for a 3 square metre bathroom, not including installation) and would 100% recommend it.
The electrician did insist it would never get “sauna-hot” like traditional heating systems, and he was right. But walking onto a not-chilled-to-the-bone floor made my entire shower routine something I enjoyed rather than a numbness-inducing flurry of activity just to get outside again. Heating+coating was messier than expected though.
They had to pull up the existing tile, install the heating mat, then re-tile over it. My bathroom was out of commission for almost a week, which meant I got way too familiar with our gym’s shower situation. Totally worth the wait though.
The electric bill had me nervous initially (£20-£30 extra during peak winter months) but it’s nothing I can’t stomach for the promise of warm toes. Side note: heated floors are much more effective with stone or ceramic tiles that conduct heat better. When we tried it with the luxury vinyl planks in our guest bathroom, it took forever for them to warm up and they stayed chillier than the rest of the room.
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Basically the vinyl is insulating all that beautiful heat for nothing. My latest adventure was patterned cement tile. Obsessed with the bright Moroccan-inspired designs popular on Instagram?
Me too. Did you know you can kinda sorta get that look for a lot cheaper with new-style cement tiles that run around £35 per square metre? Me three weeks ago.
I ordered mine from a UK company called Bert & May (Tiledealer.co.uk is also great) and ended up with this: I went bold and got this hexagonal pattern in blue and white for our powder room. Laying them was like assembling an adult-level jigsaw puzzle where mistakes mean chipping pricey tiles instead of annoying Grandma. Each tile had to line up just right with the one next to it or the whole pattern gets off-sync.
Triple-checked my measurements. Chipped three tiles and started over. Fun times.
But holy crap, it was worth it. It’s like having artwork spanning your entire floor. People always compliment it when they visit, and it photographs insanely well for #livinginspringcontent.
Plus let me tell you there’s something EXTRA satisfying about cleaning your own toilet when the floor looks that nice. But! And this is a BIG but, cement tiles are HIGH maintenance.
They require sealing every year or two, they stain if you let any liquid sit on them too long, and they’ll chip if you drop something heavy on them. Like nail polish remover. Yeah, I’ll never live that down.
Dropped the bottle one day and watched in horror as the acetone soaked through the sealer and into the tile below. There’s now an obnoxious circle on my bathroom floor that will forever mock me by refusing to come clean. It’s gorgeous?
Yes. Practical for a family? Not really.
Here’s the thing.
Once you start thinking outside of basic ceramic box all bathrooms have that charm about them. That plush warmth of luxury vinyl made my tiny bathroom feel less like a hallway and more like an oasis.
Heated floors just add a sense of luxury that kind of dictates how else you decorate. Why stop at chill toes when you can have fluffy towels and cute soap dispensers to match? Those crazy patterned cement tiles turned a closet with a toilet tricked out into a fully intentional bathroom anyone would want to use.
But they also require a level of diligence that’ll drive anyone else in your family crazy. If I had to recommend just one flooring option for tackling your first bathroom reno, I’d probably suggest going with luxury vinyl planks plus underfloor heating. You get the warmth, the comfort and not having to worry about your kids/grandkids destroying it pretty much immediately.
Save your weak-crumbled DIY cement tiles for something where the mess can be contained. Or just skip it and go glamourous with heated stone or ceramic. TL;DR you spend more time on your bathroom floor than any other part of your house.
Make sure you choose something that works with YOUR life, not just tear-your-hair-out Instagram fantasies.
