Bathrooms from the future with Bespoke

Smart technology is everywhere now- from wearables like smart watches and rings, to smart TVs for your home, there are so many ways to integrate technology into your daily life. Lots of these gadgets have incredible connectivity features, allowing you to print photos remotely from your phone at work on your printer at home, or set your coffee brewing before you’re even awake in the morning- so how can smart tech improve your bathroom and make even taking a shower a futuristic breeze?

Heating

Probably the most well known bathroom smart tech option is underfloor heating. Giving you a seamless look whilst indulgently heating your tiled floors, underfloor heating is now a cost effective way to keep your bathroom warm and dry on a budget. Newer models have programmable thermostats that can be set with up to 6 instructions each day and include a summer mode to disable your heating automatically when the weather is sunny and warm outside, saving you money on your electricity bill. Our favourite models even have settings that connect to your phone, allowing you to control them remotely-or better still using the GPS on your phone to tell how far away you are, activating your heating based on zones- so it automatically goes off when you’re in holiday mode, enters standby mode when you’re an hour from home, and then turns on full blast when you’re nearly back- so that you’ve got toasty feet for your evening shower! If underfloor heating isn’t your thing, there’s also techy options for your radiator and towel rail!

Lighting

Smart lights are such a fantastic energy saving feature. Powered by efficient LEDs these put out almost no heat and are long lasting, safe, often closed units making them ideal for bathroom applications. Better still, lots of smart lights can have RGB colour controls, meaning your family bathroom can become a serene spa with warming orange glow lights in minutes, or a blue deep sea party for the kids! Control your lights from your phone, meaning you’ll never have to wonder whether or not you accidentally left the light on again, and even programme auto on/off or motion sensor night lights to illuminate midnight bathroom breaks hands free!

Mirror

There are countless light up mirrors available for your bathroom now; in every size, shape and style, and with a range of lighting options from daylight imitating white light to warming gentle gold lights- as well as options which let you cycle through different choices at the tap of a finger. But there’s more to a smart mirror than just lights! You could choose one with a built in de-mister, so you never have to wipe down a foggy mirror to see yourself after your shower again. Better still, opt for a mirror with built in Bluetooth speakers so you can listen to music or a podcast whilst you get ready, or one with a built in toothbrush charger- so there are no more messy cables on show. Or go full luxe- there are options which even include smart panels- you could choose one which just shows the time and/or weather- or one which accesses the full android/apple suite so you can watch your favourite shows whilst brushing your teeth.

Fan

Here at Bespoke we’re a fan of the humble fan- most bathrooms benefit from an extractor to quickly and efficiently reduce humidity after use, and many can even extract nasty smells and cycle in fresh air. Opting for a smart choice means choosing the absolute best in terms of design and efficiency, and even includes the option to use a boost feature from your phone. Our favourites have sensors in them which detect humidity in the air, so you aren’t banking on the lights being on to get things moving.

Basin

Your basin isn’t exempt from the smart treatment. Anti-microbial basins, blue-tooth vanity units with ultraviolet light sanitising drawers for your toothbrush, and digital touch-free taps are all available! Our favourites come with an LED night-light strip under the vanity box- even if the unit you choose doesn’t have this feature, we can retro fit them, and they’re an affordable way to boost a run of the mill cabinet into a multi-functional wonder.

Bath

Whirlpool baths aren’t new. The technology has come a long, long way though! Our favourites are from Carron- who offer a range of systems by C-Lenda which are fully compatible with their Carronite baths, meaning that you can choose exactly which features are important to you, and know you’re getting them in a strong, beautiful bath! Our number one is the system 6, which has 16 jets and chromotherapy lights, so that you get the absolute best out of your hydrotherapy experience.

Shower

As autumn rolls around, we start dreading the idea of rolling out of bed in the morning and heading into a cold bathroom, waiting, shivering, for the shower to heat up before we can step in and clean off. Luckily, Aqualisa have a solution: the S-range. This one isn’t full of body bells (jets) and steam whistles, pardon the pun! It’s a perfectly normal shower- except it can connect to your Alexa or Google Home or be controlled from an app, as well as a normal controller valve so you can start the shower from the comfort of your bed, selecting your ideal temperature without having to get chilly feet in the meantime. It even checks your temperature ten times a second, ensuring there are no cold bursts. Really, though, we love it because it’s a winner for multigenerational living, whether it’s little ones learning to shower on their own, or older relatives who aren’t so confident with managing the controls themselves. It’s also fab for managing your water usage!

WC

Enter the smart toilet. These marvels can do almost anything you can imagine a toilet might do (Except, unfortunately, have your wee for you during the tea-break in Corrie!). Our favourite model, the Aquaclean Tuma Comfort Complete Solution from Geberit has three programmable profiles, five pressure levels, a heated seat, drier, and odour extraction unit, not to mention the descaling function- meaning that you don’t just get to use the bathroom in luxury, you can clean it luxuriously too!

Really, the main thing to keep in mind when you’re choosing your high-tech bathroom upgrades is making sure that they’ll last- they need to be installed by trained fitters, and you need to make sure that the basics- your wall and floor prep and tanking, your electrics, and your plumbing, are equipped to handle them. If in doubt, bob in or give us a bell- we’d love to talk through our favourite futuristic upgrades!