Our apartment is perfect for my partner and I as we love monochrome, soft colours and grey! The owners before us loved the red and black combo so added a HUGE red glass panel stuck onto the black caesarstone splashback as a feature. They did something similar in the bathroom over marble (gasp!) and in the study they replaced the inbuilt black wooden desk with red wood laminate. As it is super expensive to replace marble and caeserstone it is something we can't do right now and have to live with it. I tend to block it out of my mind... It's horrid.

we've had several swim spas and the best location was undercover and within easy connection to a shower as it's easier to keep the spa clean when users shower first! swim spas are quite noisy so a space where the noise effect can be minimised on your other activities and the neighbours' is also important...dug into the ground could help reduce the noise but set higher users would have to climb in not jump..they're not as forgiving as a swimming pool and can be easily damaged by more than gentle activity! perhaps set on the ground with a deck built around them with a proper pool fence for safety, an outdoor shower, in full view from the house and screened from the neighbours..enjoy

This is just scary, that picture could be our ensuite expect for nib wall. Interestingly we are people who would use it at least twice a month for last 24yrs but we have beautiful country view thru pine forest and vineyard which is very private. So having cuppa an soaking is great for tired old muscles. Having said that in new house we are building its gone. Why is re-sale and maintaining them is a pain if your not using, not to mention water & electricity cost. The simplicity of a free standing is current trend but also think about cleaning around it, as its not as easy as you may think.

Hi kristymacd, after changing my mind many times we went for a built in 1700 bath! Mostly as builder and tiler thought it would be easier to slope the floor properly and I liked the idea of the slightly larger built in compared to the 1590 back to wall. I’m sure a back to wall would’ve been possible and been fine, it all just got a bit hard and I knew both would look good. And I don’t think a back to wall would be any harder to clean than a built in - with a built in you have the hob and tiled face of the bath and back to wall there is the floor either side of the bath - same same! Here’s a pic of ours, not totally finished yet but really happy with it.