Bathtubs get the boot as bathrooms get brighter

Planning to remodel a bathroom this year?

Think shower, not tub. And bring in the light lots of it.

Those are two of the trends that turned up in a recent survey on bathroom remodeling projects by Houzz (www.houzz.com), the home design and remodeling website and phone app. Houzz invited its newsletter readers to share their remodeling plans, and 7,645 responded, said Liza Hausman, the companys vice president of community and marketing.

This was Houzzs first bathroom trends survey, so its impossible to use the findings to make specific comparisons to the past. But the study does show whats hot right now in bathroom design.

One of those trends is what Hausman called the amazing shower.

Showers are getting bigger and more elaborate, she said. More homeowners are installing two-person showers with multiple sprays, sometimes outfitted with accessories such as seats or shower heads that simulate rain.

Apparently some homeowners are making room for a bigger shower by eliminating a tub, which Hausman found surprising. Forty-three percent of respondents said theyre choosing to forgo a bathtub, even in the master bathroom.

The older the homeowners, the less likely they are to want a tub, although Hausman isnt sure why. Maybe theyve been around long enough to know how infrequently garden tubs and jetted bathtubs get used. Or maybe theyre opting for accessible showers that require more space, she speculated.

Those showers are almost always enclosed in all glass, especially in the master bathroom. Frameless glass is popular, with 54 percent of homeowners choosing it for the master bathroom and 37 percent for other full baths in the house. Glass block is out, Hausman said, but shower curtains are still showing up in 10 percent of master baths and 33 percent of other full baths.

The preference for glass enclosures is probably related to the popularity of light in bathroom remodeling projects. People are bringing in light in abundance through windows, skylights and even shower heads with LED lights that seem to change the color of the water, she said, and clear glass enclosures let that light shine through. Hausman said maintenance wasnt raised as an issue by survey participants, so apparently people are willing to squeegee their shower enclosures religiously or else, she said with a laugh, theyre willing to live with the water spots.

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Bathtubs get the boot as bathrooms get brighter