What are some outdated bathroom trends to avoid?

Border strips, corner baths, plastic wall cladding, all-chrome fittings and mosaic tiles on every surface are the trends that date a bathroom fastest. We strip out bathrooms across South East London most weeks, and those five come up again and again, usually in Edwardian semis and 1930s houses last fitted in the 2000s. A narrow band of patterned border tile running round the room at chest height puts a date stamp on the whole space.

Corner baths are the worst offender in small rooms. They eat floor space, hold a huge volume of water your boiler has to heat, and most people shower in them anyway. We usually replace them with a straight 1700mm bath or a walk-in shower. Plastic cladding reads cheap the moment you touch it; tiles on properly tanked backer board cost more but last decades. And glossy chrome on everything, paired with cool blue-white spotlights, gives that dated en-suite look ex-rental flats in Lewisham always seem to have.

The replacements are simple. Large-format tiles in a warm neutral, run floor to ceiling with a matching grout. One metal finish throughout, brushed brass or matt black if you want current, chrome if you prefer it, just keep it consistent. Mosaics kept to a single niche, if used at all. And a wall-hung vanity instead of a pedestal basin, because storage stops the clutter that dates a room faster than any tile.