For many people the image of freestanding baths is forever entwined with an old fashioned enamelled bath on feet on a wooden floor in a room full of old fashioned furnishings and decoration. Although a great many freestanding baths are traditionally designed, and beautiful with it, it is also possible to find much more modern designs that wouldn’t look out of place in a minimalist or post-modern home.

Traditional freestanding baths incorporate feet to raise the bottom of the bath from the floor and, when choosing one, pick feet that tie to the other fittings in the room. Typically this may include things like towel rails, toilet flushes and door handles. The baths themselves may be of a double ended, roll top or slipper design and you should pick one with lines and curves that marry to the rest of the fittings in the bathroom. Bear in mind that a lot of traditional basins and toilets tend to be more ornate than their modern equivalents, but a bath with that level of ornate detailing will look odd and overly fussy. Usually all taps and wastes are external fittings so the bath will have pipes running alongside it which will impact on where you can place it and the layout of the room overall.

Modern freestanding baths tend not to incorporate feet or are on feet that are more plainly designed. They may sit on the floor directly and will not always have an exposed bottom. They usually have sleeker lines and a more minimalist line. They are available in angular designs or more curvilinear shapes, depending on whether you want to evoke a bubble or block in your overall design. They can have internal wastes and taps so there is nothing to detract from the line of the bath and to simplify plumbing.

When placing freestanding baths please be aware that they usually need space around them, both for things like plumbing and access and generally to make sure that they don’t look odd within the room. For this reason they tend to be used in larger rooms, although there are now some innovative designs that are smaller and clever decoration will enable you to put them in a more confined space.

Freestanding baths have benefited from the advances in technology in manufacturing, whatever their design. Many are now made from an innovative dual layer process whereby two layer of thick acrylic make the internal and external sides of the bath, with an insulation layer between them. The acrylic is further reinforced with fibreglass and the bottom contains a bonded resin encapsulated base that is both very strong and thermally excellent. Typically these baths remain warm to the touch and retain their heat incredibly well.

Whatever design you choose, you can be sure that you will benefit from the latest designs, incredible quality and great prices.