Loos
Toilet, loo, lavatory, dunny, ladies' room, bog, WC, or whatever you call it, in a family house, a ground-floor loo is essential. Yet it is often a dark, damp, depressing little space - the room that time forgot. I think downstairs loos need jollying up. Have a bit of a laugh with it. If you've got some outrageous wallpaper or a wild paint colour mulling around your head, try it out. As ever, make it luxurious by getting the pipework out of sight, then think about creating a welcoming space that makes people smile inside.
The Best Loos
The Victorians built many of our sewage systems; they really embraced the loo and had fabulous ones, with big, luxuriously comfy wooden seats that aren't cold to the touch. If you've got a small room, there are great space-saving loos which slot into corners, and many manufacturers have cloakroom ranges with sized-down hand basins and taps to match.
Wall-hung pans look neat and discreet, and self-closing seats are a good idea. The high-tech Japanese even have a bidet-cum-loo which squirts water ‘where you need it' and then blow-dries you too - although this may be a little scary for most Brits.
