Do you know what you always get me with? With a well-made catalogue! So completely oldschool, nice and thick and smelling of printing ink. (Ok, ok, I’m special…) I received one a few days ago from the company Geberit and so I got stuck with the bathroom series Geberit ONE, because I had just been annoyed that we had to renew our silicone shower joints because of mold. If anything in our apartment annoys me, it’s this! But let’s start from the beginning:
When we bought our apartment 8 years ago it was clear: The old bathroom has to go! The pink cranes on the tiles should pass into the eternal hunting grounds. Although the bathroom ceramics and the fittings were still reasonably fine, we were immediately sure: This bathroom will become our playground for all our fantasies, which we had in the years in small, unventilated and rugged rental apartment bathrooms. Big! Airy! With walk-in shower and sunken bathtub! Sophisticated light installations and a shower seat!
And then you stand in your newly acquired bathroom and ask yourself what you really want. What is a must-have and what is pure luxury? How functional and stylish do sanitary products in the bathroom have to be? How much storage space do we need? How can bathroom cleaning be made easier? Our great bathroom fantasies
Our fantasy in bathroom planning was to have everything bricked. The vanity, the shower, the tub, the subdivision for the washroom. I really wanted a bidet (something I can only recommend to everyone, as it is not only great for the actual uses, it is also great as a children’s sink, place for hand washing and as a pet bathtub …) and a rain shower, the landlord insisted on a urinal.
We wanted the bathroom design to come from a single source with large, easy-care tiles that you don’t get tired of quickly. And it should not be a bright tile mirror, since the whole family has a lot of hair. Long dark, medium-length red and curly blonde hair, which likes to say goodbye to the head when showering and blow-drying. So large, gray tiles with few joints. They are easier to clean and more hygienic, as every centimetre of joint is a nice breeding ground for dirt, urine splashes and germs.
As you can see: It has become large gray tiles, everyone has had his wish fulfilled and everything is bricked. Actually, we are satisfied. Actually. Because after 7 years of bathroom use, I now know things that I would do completely differently when planning the bathroom. Not only visually, but also because our ideas also brought some problems. Problem zone 1: The shower
You will see at first glance that it is not level with the ground. I would have liked to have had a continuous tile, but then I was persuaded by the craftsmen to install a pedestal. I will not go into detail about the reasons and persuasion of the craftsmen, the fact is: We have the pedestal. And too little gradient. And too much moisture and a drain that is permanently clogged. So there is always a bit of residual water in it. And with this, mold quickly found its way into the joints.
As you have already noticed, our kitchen was renovated at the beginning of the year. And with the completion of the project, of course, there was a lot of space in my head for new ideas. Among other things, of course – to my husband’s delight – I ride around on what I would like to improve in the bathroom. Copyright: Geberit
I am very much in love with the Geberit One wall drain for the shower.By moving the drain into the wall, not only does the uniform tile appearance be preserved – you also don’t step on it anymore and it disappears discreetly. What you don’t see in the pictures: The drain has an integrated hair comb behind the cover, which can be easily removed. Honestly: I think this is a great and sensible invention that I would have installed immediately! Because this would solve our biggest problem: No more drain clogged with hair, thus no water standing in the joints and thus no mold!
And which idea I find particularly charming: With the wall drain from Geberit, you can install underfloor heating that is uninterrupted. Copyright: GeberitProblem zone 2: The shower tray
Since I wanted to have everything bricked, our shower got a heel, quasi a small bench, missed on the side. Actually, it is really practically planned, as it is not only a shelf for our various shampoos and shower gels, but also makes it easy to put down a foot when shaving your legs. I am really Bathroom Renovations convinced of the idea, because it makes showering possible even if you are handicapped.
Unfortunately, not everything went perfectly during the implementation and the water collects on the shelf and remains there. Copyright: Geberit
If I were to plan it again, I would choose the Geberit ONE niche storage box for shower utensils, which can be beautifully integrated into the wall. It is designed in such a way that no water or dirt residues remain (water flows freely from the shelf). They are even available as tilable and mirrored variants to make the shower utensils disappear completely. Copyright: GeberitAnd what else?
What else would I do differently? I would probably save myself the brick vanity. What was originally intended as a cost-saving point almost took our shoes off financially. The bricking itself was not really expensive – the stainless steel profiles around each niche made it financially so juicy. Looking back, I would take a high-quality base cabinet with maximum capacity.
Since we had ridden our way in with the profiles, the sink was not the cheapest option, but still a compromise. Today I would choose a wall faucet that ensures that the entire washbasin remains free. This means fewer dirt edges, which preferably form around the stand-alone fitting. You surely know them as well as I do, the nasty rings of lime and soap on the edge of the faucet?!
And there is now also a super hygienic variant for the washbasin. The washbasin drain is one of the highlights of Geberit ONE: it is placed at the rear edge of the basin and thus not directly exposed to the water jet. This results in significantly less limescale deposits. With a flick of the wrist, the panel of the drain can be removed and the comb insert can be removed and cleaned. And if you like it really clean, you will also be happy about the KeraTect special glaze, which has an almost non-porous and an extremely smooth surface, to which the dirt adheres very difficult. Copyright: Geberit
My conclusion about our bathroom? I really like it – it’s huge and likes to be occupied for a long time. But the various problem areas, which regularly lead to mold formation and limescale deposits, annoy me!
I wish we had known about Geberit ONE’s smart solutions (but I don’t think they existed back then…).
If you still have questions about how we planned our bathroom and what I would improve today, feel free to pepper me with his questions!
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