As its name suggests, The Bathroom Idea Book is all about ideas. In fact, anyone who views the book's 400 color photos will have clearer ideas about what they absolutely love, simply appreciate and definitely detest in bathroom design. Andrew Wormer has done an excellent job of covering enough ground to make this book useful for both the do-it-yourselfer and the homeowner who wants to paint a clear picture for an architect or a builder. Just about every bathroom style and option is covered and beautifully photographed, from antique fixtures (pedestal sinks, clawfoot tubs), to modern luxuries (a shower with a bubbling footbath and eight adjustable body and hydromassage jets), to high-tech touches (a cascading waterfall shower digitally controlled by a thermostatic valve and 10 massaging body jets), to the low-frill and durable (installing an acrylic liner over your old, battered tub). The book would be even more useful if Wormer devoted additional space to the costs of the sometimes sensible, sometimes spacious and sometimes glorious bathrooms we see. He does offer a few paragraphs on general price ranges and helps the reader understand what drives up costs (moving fixtures and walls), but this book ultimately is about dreaming, not budgeting. Read it to imagine how your bathroom could look, then worry about the price. This is not to suggest that the book lacks helpful planning tips. Overhead drawings on many pages give you a sense of the rest of the bathroom that can't be captured in a photo. And Wormer offers options for one of the trickier challenges when trying to improve the most frequently remodeled room in the house--finding more space. Among his ideas is annexing space from an adjoining area, such as a closet or hallway. Readers of The Bathroom Idea Book will find that even if their dream bathroom isn't pictured, they will be able to mix-and-match and combine features from various photos to get a good idea of what they can do.
Date Published 2/1/2001
Ratings
Rated By: Rajeev
From: India
Rating:
Comments: really precious
I saw your book on my designer friend. nice.
this is my personal request. I am a experienced carpet/doormat/textile
designer.
In my design work I usually don’t keep a constant style, as my job demands my style changes according to the market trends and customers taste.
Now I am having a job as graphic designer in a small company. The remuneration from this job is not sufficient for my and my family live hood. The opening for the creative designers in our country is sluggish and I am willing to do work as a freelanced artist. I will very much grate full to you if you can introduce me to an agency or individual who can give me an opportunity to work as a freelancer. I very much hope that you can help me in this context, and I am attaching some works, which I had done in Adobe Photoshop (the products in the work is virtual).
regards
rajeevellora@rediffmail.com
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
Rating:
Comments: Great ideas We are building a new house and this is the best book I have found on bathrooms. It is full of great ideas for every one -- master suite, powder room, guest bath. I take it with me as I talk with builders and subs to show them what I want in the finished look. It has been very helpful.
Rated By: David Wihowski
From: Milwaukee, WI USA
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Comments: A good starting place for design This book is has a lot of photos of bathrooms. Very many styles and sizes of bathrooms are featured. Many different color/decor schemes are pictured. Many different fixtures, baths, showers, etc. can be seen on these pages. What I found most inspiring were the less traditional bathrooms (even some rather tiny ones) that really showed some creative design aspects.
The text is rather average for this sort of book, basically it explains the many options that are available. It's nice to have this info in one place, but there were no radical insights. This book is chiefly a picture/idea book.
I was very pleased that Universal Design got more than a nod by the author. Several baths featuring universal design principles were pictured and diagrammed! Being a wheelchair user myself, I wish more people who built homes thought even for a few minutes about incorporating a little universal design into their homes.
I wish there were more bathroom plan examples. I wish there were more diagrams indicating possible and practical dimensions for standard bathroom layouts. There is no how-to install or remodel information in the book (but that's OK because it is supposed to be an "idea" book).
I'm building a new house and I keep returning to this book to scan the pages for ideas, color schemes, etc. I just wish there was a bit more technical information to make some of the final design decisions easier. I had to consult other books and the internet on a number of issues before I made the final floor-plan layout decisions. So, if you want ideas, this book is a great(!) starting point. If you want more technical details you may need to look elsewhere.
Rated By: Karen Dowell
From: Maine, United States
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Comments: Excellent Reference Guide for the Bathroom Renovator Last fall, I purchased a house that had three bathrooms, all in desperate need of serious redecorating. The house had been built in the late 70s and the bathroom decor hadn't aged well. I turned to this book as my guide as I tried to figure out how to update the look while catering to my own tastes--and was immediately inspired by the ideas and examples in Wormer's book. I was particularly impressed by the range of color schemes and interesting use of light and angles in many of the baths he showcased. Although I was drawn to designs I couldn't reproduce in my house due to plumbing and space considerations, I continually referred to this book when discussing cabinetry with designers and selecting materials and fixtures. Six months later, I'm very pleased with the results of my bathroom design project. I've enhanced the value of my house -- and created visually pleasant rooms in which to bath and groom. If I ever build a house from scratch or tackle a renovation project with less plumbing constraints, I know I'll be scouring the pages of this book for ideas again!
Rated By: Ellen b
From: Long Island United States
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Comments: Everyone will pick up at least a few ideas from this book I found this book to be very helpful, as we are currently in the midst of re-doing 3 bathrooms. For our large bathroom, we will incorporate a number of ideas that we hadn't thought of previously. This book is exactly what it claims to be - an "idea" book. There are tons of pictures, all beautifully photographed. I usually get this type of book out of the library, but I'm happy I invested in this one. It's definitely worth the money, and a wonderful reference guide.
Rated By: JAYBIRD
From: Pelham, NY USA
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Comments: NO IDEAS Being in the home improvement business, I felt odd needing ideas when it came time to upgrade the bathrooms in my own home. Perhaps making a living building the bathroom of everyone elses dreams helped to fog the picture of what I wanted my own to be. Taunton Publishing puts out a trade magazine that I swear by. So when I decided to purchase a book on bathrooms I thought I couldnt go wrong with this one. How wrong I was. This book is little more than a collection of photographs of high end and ultra high end bathrooms. Here in my neck of the woods a complete bath renovation ranges in cost from between ten and fifteen thousand dollars for an average bath. Very few of the rooms displayed in this book would make that budget. Aside from the introduction there is almost no text to assist the "reader" in understanding requirements or even necessaties pryor to planning a bath remodel. Perhaps the fact that I am in this line of work colors my opinion of the book, but if photos qualify as ideas, Id recomend picking up a few magazines on bath remodeling and get a fuller picture.
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
Rating:
Comments: I gave it a star for every idea it gave me That's why there are only two stars!
First idea, the shape of a single cupboard. The second idea, a way to add counter space over a toilet. That's it. I guess I could have gotten both from any other magazine on the shelf for a lot less than I paid for this silly picture book filled with pictures of _pieces_ of bathrooms. A more appropriate title would have been:
Bathroom Parts Picture Book A guide to bathrooms for those who can't read.
The most I'll get from this book is the enjoyment my children will receive from cutting out the pictures for their paper dolls
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
Rating:
Comments: great for the professional as well as the novice This text has many wonderful photos to inspire the professional. It is also full of basic info homeowners can use. It is not too technical, but covers most of the features needed in a bathroom.
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
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Comments: A Must See & Read for New Bathrooms or Bath Renovations!!! An incredible amount of information with beautiful pictures of how to plan a new bath / shower OR how to update / remodel an existing bath....Hundreds of illustrations that can be incorporated into any bath depending on budget and desire...
Rated By: Sonya
From: Dallas, TX
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Comments: Not Just a Picture Book I enjoyed this book and felt it did provide good information, contrary to other comments and I felt it was well worth the money.
My mother is remodeling her bathroom and it gave us good ideas of what she liked and didn't like. I do agree with another writer that many of the most beautiful bathroom photographs were of "high-end" bathrooms, but I believe most anything can be modified to fit within a budget. The book was useful in providing the bones from which to work. I mean if marble is too expensive or is not your thing, then maybe travertine would be a less expensive option. I thought the book provided good info on things like sink placement, vanity and cabinet styles, flooring and even toilet options and shower head choices.
The only slight negative, is that the book I read was published in 1999 and did include some older style bathrooms, but I would expect that in a book that was six years old, so I didn't count off for that...just because I'm late in reading it. :-)
There were lots of informative sections in the book. On page 80, it talks about some of the differences in fiberglass vs acrylic showers/tubs. On page 95, there is some discussion about low flush toilets.
To me, the book title indicates exactly what this book provides "Bathroom Ideas", and I think the author delivered.
Even though most of the pictures don't have much detail about how to construct a particular type of bathroom or what foundation needs to already be in place, this book is not called Bathroom Construction and Remodeling. I think this book does a great job at explaining what you are looking at and includes corresponding numbering on the text and pictures. I found this book very useful and it provided just what I was looking for....ideas.
As its name suggests, The Bathroom Idea Book is all about ideas. In fact, anyone who views the book's 400 color photos will have clearer ideas about what they absolutely love, simply appreciate and definitely detest in bathroom design. Andrew Wormer has done an excellent job of covering enough ground to make this book useful for both the do-it-yourselfer and the homeowner who wants to 
