How to make a bathroom look expensive on a budget?

Put your money in the few places it shows: brassware, one classic tile laid properly, the mirror, and the finishing. Everything else can be mid-range and nobody will ever know. This is how we keep bathroom refreshes affordable; ours start from £4,500, with a survey first and a fixed written quote, and the price we quote is the price you pay.

Brassware is the jewellery of the room. One cohesive finish, brushed brass or matt black or plain chrome, across the taps, shower, towel rail and flush plate. A matched mid-range set beats one expensive tap surrounded by odds and ends. For tiles, choose one classic and run it well: white metro or a large-format warm neutral, floor to ceiling on the shower wall, with grout in a matching colour rather than bright white that will discolour. Restraint reads as expensive. Mixing three tile styles reads as budget.

The mirror and the finishing carry the rest. A framed or backlit mirror over the basin changes the whole wall for modest money, where a bare glued pane does the opposite. Crisp silicone lines, level tiles and boxed-in pipes are what your eye actually registers as quality. And hide the clutter: a wall-hung vanity and a mirrored cabinet cost little compared with what they do for the room. What makes a bathroom look tacky is its own question, but the short answer is the reverse of everything above.