We are getting a bathroom redone at home - a complete refit.
I'm wondering how 'designed' your bathroom is going to be. Are you going to be specifying every last detail with a view towards the most enjoyable washing space ever or are you more minded towards solid and functional?
Leaving aside for a moment the lighting, heating, flooring/walls as well as washbasin(s) and taps, I can think of two areas which will benefit from some research in bathroom showrooms.
First is the toilet, or rather the water trap inside the pan. If you pay a visit to any DIY superstore, you'll find few close coupled cistern and WC packages usually for less than £200 if not lower. On closer examination you'll usually spot the water trap is pushed too far forwards for normal anatomy, which to put delicately means you'll spend a lot of time with the loo brush.
More expensive items can share this design 'feature' which is where actually seeing the item, or at a push a set of dimensions is crucial.
Second is the shower enclosure (or shower bath if you have limited space) Another area where a bit of time spent inside enclosures in a showroom is well worth it. In this instance, you can work out your comfortable size. When I was researching bathrooms, I found that the space jump from a 600x600 cubical to 700x700 was huge, 800x800 even better etc. There's nothing like being within a set of enclosures of varying sizes to establish what will suit you best.
In the end for space considerations we went for this shower bath.
https://www.soakology.co.uk/carron-swin ... ite-white/You'll see that the wine ledge means the side of the tub front to back is flat negating the need for a moulded side panel and allowing us to tile the side panel to match the walls. I can highly recommend this bath both as a bath and shower enclosure though do note there are two types of shower screen that marry with this unit.
Two final recommendations and an idea are:
In line extraction - Moving the fan away from the ceiling vent dramatically reduces noise - I don't want to be in a bathroom that sounds like I'm doing the hoovering in there.
A quiet shower pump, assuming you have tanked water storage. I'm pretty sure my Brother in laws shower pump is louder than a rock concert and vibrates the enclosure hard enough to worry about fillings. We used a pump by company Stuart Turner on a recommendation by an excellent local plumbers merchant.
On that note, installers tend to want to install stuff they have put in before or get a decent price on. Builders who fit kitchens often recommend Howdens Joinery. Discussions on the old fool site were positive on Howdens but you're going to be the one who uses the bathroom so why limit yourself to the stuff they want to sell you.
Finally the idea. If you do bathe rather than try to get through the shower in the fastest possible time, a waterproofed bluetooth speaker
in the ceiling will give the opportunity to listen to music or the news while reclining in the tub with a glass of something chilled and bubbly on the ledge.
HTH
B.