Freestanding Baths Add Immediate Bathroom Style7913867
A beautiful addition to your home, a freestanding bath will match in almost anyplace. With conventional and contemporary roll top designs abounding, they're having something of a revival. And they don't have to be confined to the bathroom: you could put your new addition in your bedroom for a touch of boutique hotel chic.
Conventional roll top baths have graced stately homes for centuries. Whilst your own bathroom may be a small more humble than that in a listed manor house, you can choose to have one of these striking features grace your period home - and it needn't cost the earth! Purchasing a second-hand cast iron bath is one way of establishing your green credentials in the bathroom as nicely as saving money you can then clean it up and repaint the outside, or get it professionally re enamelled, to give the old bath a new lease of life. As the centrepiece of a refitted bathroom, this could look simply beautiful.
If your home is more 21st century than Victorian era, though, you will find a wide variety of contemporary freestanding baths available from a variety of manufacturers utilizing modern supplies and design techniques, they are in a position to diverge from the traditional shape and do something a small bit different.
Whether your style is traditional or contemporary, you'll need to know your terminology before you go shopping. Freestanding baths come in two main lengths and a number of basic designs. The classic roll top is a generously sized bath, while the slipper is a small shorter, becoming raised at one end to support your back and neck as you soak. Either of these designs can be either single or double ended: a single ended bath has the taps at one finish, and a double ended bath has the taps in the middle, so that the bath can comfortably accommodate two.
If you are short of space, and a slipper bath is not right for your room, a 'back-to-wall' style provides you the look of a freestanding bath but with a straight edge which fits up against the wall, saving you important inches. Alternatively, a corner style will make still much better use of space by fitting up neatly against two walls.
A range of materials are available too: from traditional cast iron via to modern acrylic or stone resin. Bear in mind, although, that a bath will be extremely heavy once it's filled with water, and the use of heavier supplies will compound this problem: make certain that the joists of your bathroom floor are strong enough to support the type of bath you favour.
