Kitchen & Bathroom Design Blog

Are you thinking about remodeling your bathroom? One of the most important components of your bath design is storage. If it’s not functional and does not serve your needs, then the aesthetic of the bathroom suffers, and your design ends up cluttered. A current trend in kitchen and bath design is open storage. It contributes to an open, airy feeling in a room but can also be high maintenance. Do you have all the facts to make an informed decision about this storage style? Here is our handy list of the pros and cons of open bath storage.

PROS:

1. Fill that Gap

Open shelving is great for small or awkward spaces in your bath design. Closed cabinetry could look too heavy or provide less storage space if you’re slotting it into a narrow or sloped area. Open shelving looks airy and takes anything from books to towels to candles in a color and style to suit you. Why not paper, tile, or paint the wall behind it to make your little shelving unit into a feature? 

2. Niche Opportunity

Niche shelving maximizes storage potential in your bath remodel. Work with any recesses in your walls by filling them in with these clever, built-in shelves. At the design stage, plan where you’d like your niches to be. Incorporating them around your shower or tub stores all your bathing essentials neatly in your walls. The niche storage in this Wycombe bathroom remodel uses stone for texture, bringing a spa feeling to the bath design.

3. Lighten your Load

Glass shelving is ideal for bringing more light into a bath design. Its reflective quality bounces light around the room. The fact that it’s colorless means it works with any style and it won’t dominate your walls. If you don’t want to invest in glass shelving, then try glass storage containers to lighten up any dark corners.

4. Keep it Simple

Spa style bath designs are still a huge trend. Wall-hung basins and vanities are part of this look, bringing a minimalist feel to any remodel. Natural wood floating shelves also evoke a spa feel like the open shelving in this Newtown, PA bathroom design.

5. Try to Contain It

Some smaller items need to be kept in containers in your open storage. Choose a vessel to go with the style of your bath design. Try bottles, jars, baskets and boxes in everything from porcelain to tin.  If you have a monotone color scheme, then create texture with different materials in the same color.

6. Think Outside the Box

Furniture can also be used as open storage. Ladders, cocktail tables, chairs, cake stands, carts or bookcases are among the items you could bring into your bath design as eclectic or elegant storage solutions. One or two freestanding pieces bring plenty of character without overwhelming your design.

CONS

1. Dampening Your Enthusiasm

Open storage leaves its contents vulnerable to the heat and humidity of a bathroom. Cabinet doors can provide a barrier against such damage but including proper ventilation in your bathroom design is the best answer.

2. Electrical Storm

It’s handy to have a charging drawer for electronics with built in outlets for electronic devices. Beauty tools like hair dryers can also be stored in drawers with customized storage and power sockets. This neat storage for electronics, cables, and plugs is not possible in open storage.

3. Under Cover

Even with pretty containers, there’s only so much that open storage can hold, plus there are always items you will want to keep behind closed doors in your bathroom. A combination of open and closed storage is the ideal way to get the best of both worlds.

4. Wipeout

There is more cleaning and tidying involved with open storage as its contents must be kept organized and dusted. The shelves themselves must be regularly wiped down, especially if they’re glass. Smears, smudges and water marks need to be cleaned off, so you get the full impact.  Glass fronted cabinets are a compromise between open and closed shelving, but there’s still maintenance involved with the glass and displayed contents.

There are advantages and disadvantages to open shelving. However, once you’re aware of them, and willing to take on the maintenance involved, the result will be an asset to your bath design. Why not talk to our design experts today about where you can include the latest open shelving in your bath remodel?