Armrock Constructions

Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

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Round Mirrors in Bathroom Design

Round mirrors are a popular bathroom design feature that are included in many of our Gold Coast bathroom renovation projects. If you’re trying to decide whether to include a round mirror in your bathroom design, this page will be a useful resource for you, and features examples from our recent Gold Coast bathroom renovation projects.

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Connecting with Round Mirrors

A major advantage of round mirrors is the way they integrate bathroom elements without dominating the design. Round mirrors may not fill the whole space, but they feel like the do, and this enables them to not only connect bathroom elements, but do so in a lovely way.

In the following image, you can see a colonial-themed bathroom renovation undertaken by our team. Note that the vanity and window are similar in shape (rectangular) and size. We’ve used a double-round mirror here which helps to connect these two elements. Imagine a square, or rectangular mirror in this scenario.. it may overwhelm the room, whereas the round mirrors create a sense of connection and integration.

Double Circular Mirror Integration

Concentrated Design Focus

In the following image, from the same renovation project (it involved a double-bathroom renovation) we’ve used a singular round mirror above the vanity unit. This creates an interesting focus for the bathroom which wouldn’t exist if a larger or more dominant mirror were utilised. Because this colonial bathroom renovation requires the harmonious juxtaposition of multiple irregular objects, the round mirror provides a way to connect, integrate, and relate the room.

Single Circular Mirror Integration

Bathroom Flow & Circular Mirrors

A goal of bathroom design is always to make rooms that make sense. A sense of flow, or movement, through the bathroom elements can help to accomplish this. One of the great attributes of round mirrors is how they enable rooms to flow. Even in rooms with a static feel, a round mirror enlivens and rejuvenates the space, making it feel larger and more dynamic. Interestingly, on the majestic glass.com.au website, they note “if you are planning to redecorate your beloved bathroom, or just want to spice up the design, then the best and easiest thing to do is replacing the current dull mirror with a round one”.

Cultivating Visual Interest

Single Circular Mirror Integration

Round mirrors are a fantastic way to cultivate visual interest. The dynamic nature of the circle ensures the eye will always have somewhere to go. A round mirror activates and cultivates this sense of dynamism, which event by its solitary contribution can help take your bathroom to the next level. This particular bathroom also includes a built-in shower, which is a great option to consider for your renovation as well.

Anchoring the Vanity

Anchoring the Vanity with a Mirror

A bathroom vanity is the cornerstone of any bathroom. Utilising a custom vanity in your bathroom renovation is a great way to express and integrate your bathroom design. A challenge of working with vanity units is the difference of their shape within the bathroom. Low and horizontal, they can contrast poorly with taller elements such as the shower or the bathroom door. Because vanity units are always paired with a mirror, this deficiency is overcome; in the case of round mirrors, vanity units can achieve a vertical presence albeit at a much smaller footprint of bathroom real estate.

This effect is also demonstrated in the following images from a recent Gold Coast bathroom renovation below. Note how the circular mirror helps connect the vanity with the room, and creates a visual bridge between the vanity and the shower. Read about this project here.

By the way, isn’t the tiling in these projects fantastic! Learn more about tiling with our team here.

Anchored Vanity
Bathroom Integrity

Making Important Choices

Anchoring the Vanity with a Mirror

A round mirror isn’t always the best choice, and definitely not the only choice. It’s just a great option to keep in mind instead of defaulting to a rectangular or square mirror. Talk to our team about your Gold Coast bathroom renovation. We look forward to working together with you to create your ideal bathroom design, and then helping you to bring it to reality.

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Colonial Bathroom Renovation

Bathroom renovations are a fabulous opportunity to express your interior design style. Whether you’re looking to do a standard bathroom update or looking for something more expressive like this colonial bathroom renovation, Armrock Constructions can help turn your vision into a reality. Featuring a claw-footed bathtub, ornate tiling, custom vanities & VJ panelling, this double bathroom renovation was designed to be seen and enjoyed!

Clawfoot Bathtub

Clawfoot Bathtub, Ornate Tiles, VJ Panelling

You haven’t lived until you’ve bathed in a clawfoot bathtub, and these lucky folks get to do it all day, every day in this beautiful Gold Coast bathroom renovation. The distinctive look of a clawfoot bathtub brims with visual cues that complement other features, such as the ornate tiles and VJ Panelling, to acknowledge colonial times. You can have a lot of fun bringing this type of effect into your home, creating interest and diversity in your interior style, by mixing old-day design with modern functionality.

Shower Enclosure

Shower Enclosure

This is where this project gets really interesting! With not one but two bathrooms to renovate, a decision needed to be made about the extent to which the colonial style would infuse the second room. As you can see, although the style is referenced (Taps, towel-holders, custom vanities, continuation of wall-tiling), the second bathroom is its own room. This decision increases the individuality and uniqueness of the first bathroom, and prevents the style from becoming overbearing in the home.

Custom Vanities

Custom Vanity Units

Custom vanity units are an Armrock speciality, that take bathrooms to the next level. Custom vanities enable the spirit of the bathroom to be expressed in this all-important piece. With custom design and manufacture, we can ensure the spirit of the bathroom can be properly expressed in this signature piece.

All White Approach

This bathroom utilises a very low-contrast style, with an all white approach relying on texture and tone to create minimal contrast. You can learn more about using white in your bathroom renovation on this page.

Circular Mirrors

Circular mirrors are a popular Gold Coast bathroom design trend. Circular mirrors soften the angles of the room, and enable features to co-exist together without literal visual linking. In the image below, the circular mirrors link between the vanity unit and the windows, and help to position it beneath the dropped ceiling.

Vanity and Mirror

VJ Panelling

VJ (Vertical Joint) panels are a great way to add character to a room. That’s them on the bottom right of the picture below – they look like hardwood timber panels, are actually made of a versatile manufactured product. Very handy, especially when adding an old-day touch to your bathroom reno.

VJ Panels

Contact Our Team

Armrock Constructions are renovation specialists in the Gold Coast. We’re dedicated to achieving an excellent out come for all of our customers. If you’re interested in a bathroom renovation, contact us – we provide a free measure and quote.

Timber-Look Laminates in Bathroom Renovation

Gold Coast Timber Laminate Benchtop
Gold Coast Timber Laminate Benchtop
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Timber Laminates in Bathroom Renovation

At Armrock Constructions, we specialise in bathroom renovations on the Gold Coast QLD. A feature of many of our renovations is the addition of a beautiful custom-made vanity unit; the centerpiece of any bathroom project. Bespoke vanity style is often achieved nowadays by utilising timber-look laminates for either the vanity benchtop, cabinet, or the entire vanity unit. The results are so effective that we wanted to showcase some of their uses and share information about their applications to demonstrate how they can be used to enhance your bathroom renovation project.

Meanwhile, If you’re looking for assistance with a bathroom renovation on the Gold Coast, please don’t hesitate to contact our team for a free consultation & quote.

Sections in this Article

What are Timber-Look Laminates?
Timber-Look Laminates in Bathroom Renovations
Timber Laminates in Our Projects
The Advantages of Laminates in Bathrooms

Timber Laminates in Vanity Units
Timber-Look Laminates in Bathroom Flooring
Laminate Products We Work With

What are Timber-Look Laminates?

Timber-look laminates are basically materials that are designed to look like natural timber. They’re called laminates because they are created through the process of lamination, which just means that they are constructed with multiple layers that are compressed together. If you’re really interested, you can learn more about the process on Wikipedia. The important thing to know about laminates is that they are hard-wearing, great-looking and perfectly suited to making beautiful bathroom vanities!

Timber-Look Laminates in Bathroom Renovations

In a bathroom renovation, timber-look laminates are most commonly used in the vanity unit. They’re a great asset to bring design concepts into reality. With the wide range of options and styles available, our team can help with the design, construction, and installation of your custom vanity unit. A wide range of effects can be created, producing bathrooms that are variously natural, industrial, juxtaposed, integrated. Following are examples from our recent Gold Coast renovation projects where you can learn more about how we created these effects using timber-look laminates.

Timber Laminates in our Projects

In these Gold Coast Bathroom renovation projects, our team used timber-look laminates for a variety of compelling results. Click through to learn more about the projects, or read on to learn more about timber-look laminates.

White Tile and Timber Style

This Gold Coast bathroom renovation evokes a classic style with all the modern mod-cons. It’s a great example of the work achieved by Armrock Constructions. Our renovations make a difference – if you’re on the Gold Coast, contact our team today for a free measure and quote. Read on to learn more about how we…

Continue Reading White Tile and Timber Style

The Advantages of Laminates in Bathrooms

The advantages of using a laminated product are best understood in comparison to using other materials for the same purpose. Actual timber is expensive and may be limited in the type and options that are available. Timber-look laminates, meanwhile, are available in a wide range of purpose-designed styles. They’re made for bathrooms! Their advantages include:

  1. Hard-wearing
  2. Wide range of styles
  3. Cost-effective
  4. Accessible
  5. Versatile
  6. Corners can be rounded
  7. Textural (some laminates have texture, just like the real thing)
  8. Strong
  9. Water Resistant

Timber laminates can be used to achieve virtually any look you can imagine. No wonder we love working with them so much! In this project illustrated below, you can see how the vanity cabinet and benchtop have been finished with stylish curves, creating continuity with the round mirror and curved bathtub. With a skilful team and a quality product, it’s amazing what can be achieved.

Curved Laminated Edges
Curved Laminated Edges

Timber-Look Laminates in Vanity Units

Timber-look laminates are commonly used in our projects to enhance custom vanity units. They can be used for the benchtop, cabinet, or both. The approach depends on the goal of the vanity unit and its intention in the bathroom. The presence of timber elevates the bathroom and helps to connect it with the outside world. Tonally, lighter or darker shades of timber can be used to create contrast in the bathroom, or with the vanity unit itself. Between our carpenters and the design goals, you can capitalise on possibilities such as rounded corners to give your vanity a winning and individual look. In the following image, you can see how the rich, warm timber-tones anchor and connect the greater bathroom elements for a juxtaposed, modern style.

Marble Tile Timber Laminate Vanity
Marble Tile Timber Laminate Vanity

The best thing about laminates is the way they have evolved. Laminates have been around for a long time, and they have come a long way. Whether you’re doing a budget renovation or a high-end renovation, laminates are an option to consider. The wide range of styles and excellent engineering available, in conjunction with their competitive price-point, make laminates an essential consideration in any bathroom renovation.

Timber-Look Laminate in Bathroom Flooring

Timber-look laminates are also often used as a solution for bathroom flooring. The attributes that make them a winning solution for vanities also apply to flooring. Due to their larger visual footprint in this role, they have the ability to have a truly transformational outcome on the bathroom design.

Laminate Products We Work With

We have been achieving great results with Nikpol’s EGGER range on our recent bathroom renovation projects. [Learn more about these options on their website] For timber laminates, this range even includes timber grain textures, making for a complete timber experience and creating a natural, calming aesthetic for your bathroom renovation.

In our Gold Coast renovations, we discuss options with our clients to communicate how your design objectives can be best met. Utilising the timber approach is a fantastic way to create affordable control, flexibly suiting the installation of the new vanity into an existing space.

Successful Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

Bathroom renovations can be complex – numerous careful decisions and actions are required, in the right order, to build a bridge between your vision, your structure, your budget and your new bathroom. We’re here to help you make it a success. Get your bathroom renovation started today with the team from Armrock Constructions and make yours a success too.

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The Design Advantage of a Built-In Shower

One of the design challenges in a bathroom renovation situation is tackling the design challenge of making elements of different shapes and sizes (shower, toilet, vanity, etc) look like they are a family. Accomplished well, a bathroom achieves an integrated look and feel – the ultimate goal of a bathroom renovator! Of all the elements, showers can be one of the more challenging to make ‘at home’ in a bathroom because of the oppositional nature of their tall, vertical structure to other low-set elements in the room.

One sure-fire way our team achieves a connection between showers and bathrooms, that have used with success on a number of our Gold Coast renovations, is to build the shower into the room.

Managing Your Bathroom Renovation Budget

Any bathroom renovation is a careful balance between style and budget. Finding the right balance is the key to a successful renovation. Accordingly, a built-in shower may not be for everyone – it’s going to cost more than a prefabricated shower. But it will solve the design challenge of integrating your shower into your bathroom design, along with a number of other advantages explained below.

Types of Built-In Showers

Building a shower into the bathroom can be done to different degrees and effects.

A shower might be completely screenless (a ‘wet’ shower) in a bathroom designed to accommodate it. Alternatively, it may be built into a partial or complete recess, in the shape and size you need to achieve your ideal bathroom.

From these distinctions follow a wide range of possibilities in style and function, since all aspects of built-in showers can be fully customised to suit the needs of your bathroom.

From the design point of view, the advantage of a built-in approach is that the shower is integrated into the room, rather than added in as a separate element and made to fit as best as possible.

Alternatives to Built-In Showers

The alternative option to a built-in shower is a prefabricated shower. They are purchased as a ready-to-go unit from a plumbing provider and installed by our team. We can help guide you to the right type of choice to suit your project, and then install them in our project. You can achieve a great result with a prefabricated shower. However, a built-in shower has the capability to take your bathroom to the next level.

Built-In Advantages

The principal advantage of a built-in shower is integration. Because the shower is being built as part of the room, choices about the shower can reflect and inform choices in the rest of the room, and vice-versa.

For example:

  • The tiling in your built-in shower can create a relationship with the rest of the room.
  • A built-in shower can also include a tiled niche for storage of items such as shampoo and soap.
  • Built-in showers can use shapes to compliment the flow of the room. They don’t have to be square (a common prefabricated shower shape).

Built-In Showers with Armrock Constructions

In addition to helping your shower to integrate with your bathroom, there are other advantages to having a built-in shower. It can be designed for an optimal fit in dimension, functionality, shape and style. A quality built-in shower will enhance the resale value of your home and enjoyment of the bathroom for many years to come.

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Reconfiguring Your Bathroom

Undertaking a bathroom renovation, you have the ability to completely reimagine how things are going to work. As a starting point, most people evaluate the potential of their new bathroom based on the previous bathroom configuration. While it may be more economical to retain the previous bathroom arrangement, relocating them can open up a range of new possibilities which will create a more ideal room. On this page, we look at some of the important considerations behind reconfiguring your bathroom in a renovation.

The Cost of Reconfiguration

A sensible bathroom renovation is always grounded in a budget, and it should be pointed out early in the piece that moving items such as showers, baths and vanities to different locations in your bathroom will most likely increase the cost of your renovation. This is mainly due to the fact that plumbing and electricity may need to be changed to accommodate the new arrangement. The extent of any reconfiguration will depend on both the extent of your existing infrastructure and the ambition of your upgrade. Just ask our team – we’re here to help and can answer any questions you may have on this topic.

Reinventing the Wheel: Avoid

In older homes, it can be astonishing to see some of the decisions made around critical rooms such as bathrooms and kitchens. Choices and combinations may seem nonsensical when viewed through a modern lens.

On other occasions, and with additional analysis, you may note that your designing predecessors have deftly resolved a multitude of challenges with a solution that won’t be beaten no matter how hard you try. If someone has put the energy into solving the layout once, it’s worthwhile to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their solution before you completely ditch it. It could be the case that a subtle shift is all that you need to turn the old layout into the perfect layout – or perhaps the layout is already as good as it gets. Don’t reinvent the wheel when you’re renovating your bathroom!

Prioritisation

In the quest for the perfect bathroom layout, it is useful to consider the priorities that really matter in any bathroom. In other words, before you decide to move the shower, make sure you can open the shower door in the new location.

Before you start shifting things around, think about:

Privacy

It’s your bathroom and privacy is always the highest priority. Ensuring you can comfortably use your shower and toilet without your neighbours accidentally ‘catching a glimpse’ should always be pretty high on your list of decisions.

Access

Make sure you can access everything in your dream bathroom layout. Opening drawers, opening the shower door, opening and closing the main door.. all of these are imperative in a good design, and all of them need some consideration. Anything that moves – make sure you will be able to operate it easily and without creating a cramped situation.

Logical Placement

Putting everything where it looks great may not make for an optimal configuration. What would you prefer, a great-looking bathroom that is less easy to use, or an easy to use bathroom that looks great? Anyway, give some thought to the practical usage of the room, and especially how it will work if your partner or child decides that they simply have to brush their teeth or shave at the same time as when you’re using the bathroom. Make sure everything is placed to logically accommodate these common scenarios!

Gold Coast Bathroom Design

If you’d really like to know how to make the most of your bathroom on your budget, please contact our team for a free measure and quote. We would be glad to share our years of experience and capability of our integrated bathroom renovation team with you to make your old bathroom into a fantastic new space.

Shower Heads

A shower is an inclusion in practically every bathroom renovation, and the choice of shower head is a great opportunity to not only make your new bathroom look great, but also be practically useful for the way you and your family use the shower. On this page, we look at important considerations and choices to make regarding your shower head in a bathroom renovation situation.

Water Usage

Embarking on a bathroom reno, it’s a great idea to familiarise yourself with the WELS system and water-saving in your product choices. You can read more about this system here. Making water-saving choices in the acquisition of your bathroom fixtures and fittings is a great way to design a bathroom you can feel great about. If you’re in any doubt as to how to proceed, just talk to our friendly team – we’re here to help.

A Confident Stylistic Approach

Savvy bathroom renovators will have done their research and have a clear design objective in mind for their new bathroom. Bathrooms are not ‘one-size fits all’. Their appeal is very subjective, and if you’re going to the trouble to renovate your bathroom, a priority should always be your own personal satisfaction with the end result!

One great way to achieve a harmonious style in your bathroom is to synchronise the style of your highlight accessories. Shower heads are a great example. Being an irregular shape, they tend to stand out – but by extending their style to door-handles, tapware, mirror trims, towel-rails and other bathroom features, you can create a united approach. This allows you to approach your stylistic choices confidently by asking the question, “What colour are my trims?” and allowing your shower head to fall into that basket with the rest of them.

Finding Your Shower Head

The only downfall of designing your dream bathroom from browsing the internet is the possible difficulty of locating fixtures and fittings in the precise style you’re looking for. In this regard, it can be helpful to have a little bit of flexibility in exactly what you’re going for, as local choices may not perfectly align with the Swiss Retro look you saw on Pinterest. When it comes time to shop for your fixtures and fittings, talk to our team. We can help you connect with local suppliers and fulfil your requirements to achieve your dream bathroom.

Successful Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

Bathroom renovations can be complex – numerous careful decisions and actions are required, in the right order, to build a bridge between your vision, your structure, your budget and your new bathroom. We’re here to help you make it a success. Get your bathroom renovation started today with the team from Armrock Constructions and make yours a success too.