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Chic bathrooms help you relax
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Bathroom fittings come these days with a wide range of features from the ordinary to the luxurious — it is all a question of choice.
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Left to your fancy: A dazzling array of bathroom fittings are available now - at a showroom in Kochi
How much time do you spend in a bathroom? Maybe, not much on a working day. But on the weekends, you look forward to a nice relaxed bath. Modern bathroom fittings and gadgets give all that you need to relax.Whirlpools, spray jets, steam generators, foot massagers and, if you are the kind who listen to the radio, then, FM radio sets are among the facilities and luxuries that you can have in your bathroom. All these inside a bath cubicle with a bathtub. Yo
u can spend at least two hours there. Do not bother to get up from the tub, even to answer a phone call. A hands-free telephone receiver is at the ready.
A multifunctional computer panel helps to set the cubicle lighting. All these come at a price of Rs. 3 lakh, perhaps.
A bath cubicle come in various combinations. It can start with just a tray covered by shower curtains. If curtains do not help to keep the bath dry, perhaps, you can go in for a simple cubicle.
The cost of a cubicle depends on the kind of shower panel you choose. There are shower panels providing options for rain and hand shower, the number of spray jets and other features. As the number of features increase, so does the cost.
People generally pick and choose the options, says a representative of Cera Sanitary-ware Ltd. It should be a combination most suited to your needs. If it is the imported variety, then, of course, you have to pay more.
Earlier, having a bathtub was an indication of luxury. Now it is the combination of bathtub, cubicle and sauna that makes up a luxury bathroom. A cubicle with a sauna attached again costs around Rs. 2 lakh. While the domestic sanitary-ware products provide the latest designs and features, the demand for imported stuff continues. Many companies try to enter the highly competitive field here. The domestic manufacturers, in tie-ups with foreign sanitary-ware makers, make available some of the products — Italian, for instance, some of which have a designer label too. Some of the top American and other European manufacturers have a few of their production houses in China, which produces some of the most popular pieces in bathroom ware. Water closets have undergone a lot of changes over the years — the most important being the hygienic water outlet. All the modern gadgets are designed for hygienic use. It leaves you happy with not much of a bother of cleaning up the mess with water splashed on the walls and so on. An important item that needs mention here is a pressure pump that helps to provide water through spray jets at the required pressure. In a high-rise building, such a pump will not be needed for the lower floors as the gravitational force would provide enough pressure. However, apartments high up will need pressure pumps if spray jets need to work.
In some of the premium flats in Kochi, builders are providing common pressure pumps for a few floors on the top, says the Cera representative.
Changing designs
Washbasin designs have gone a change over several times and the companies are making products to suit almost every room. There are large, grand washbasin tops, smaller and sleeker ones and those with shelves and without shelves. Of course, the shape of the basin is constantly changing to suit different styles. The experiment goes on in having shapes such as round, square, boat-like and salad-bowl-type. There are tabletop basins or the ones fixed to walls or with steel stands that provide a towel bar or one on a tripod stand.
Glass bowl washbasins are the most in demand. So much so that people have to wait for the dealer to procure and deliver them. While some prefer the plain glass type, there are other colourful varieties.
One can fix it as a decorative piece of bowl in the dining room as well.
Among one of the options for a urinal, there is one with a sensor that gives a second’s flush just as you stand in front of it and flushes again when you move away from it. Public places such as airports in foreign countries make use of such urinals.
The user does not have to touch any knob to flush.
Among the water closets, there are those built in one piece — both the seat and the water tank fitted with twin flush option. It also has a completely concealed s-trap (waste pipe). Among some of the imported varieties, there are the soft closing seat covers too. Sanitary-ware manufacturers have come out with some designer bathroom accessories.
There are options to pick four to six pieces such as soap/lotion dispenser, soap dish, toothbrush holder, tumbler, toilet brush holder and a tray.
SHYAMA RAJAGOPAL
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