Making crucial decisions about your bathroom renovation is never easy, especially when it seems like there’s a new product coming to market every week. From baths to sinks via towels and tiles, there are a myriad of decisions to be made about your new bathroom, but one of the most crucial is often the most overlooked – towel rails.
Towel rails began to rise in popularity around the 1980s, when the ugly radiators of the 1940s onwards were beginning to be ripped out in favour of more modern designs. Around that time, designers were beginning to see that radiators were closer suited to heating rooms rather than warming towels through. In this new design push, we saw the rise of the heated towel rail, a dedicated design which has been featured in bathrooms across the planet ever since.
The only problem for homeowners is how to choose the right towel rail for your bathroom?
Electric or Traditional ?
Firstly, towel rails for bathrooms come in two forms, electric or connected to your central heating. Depending on how old your bathroom is, you might already have a radiator in there that you’re looking to replace with a heated towel rail. If that is the case, you’ll want to make sure that whatever towel rail you’re looking at has the same width fitting as the radiator you’re replacing, otherwise you’ll be left with unsightly pipes running across your walls. The other way to deal with this is to go with a new electric towel rail, which have more than a few benefits when compared to traditional towel rails.
Electric or Gas ?
With the dramatic increases in gas pricing, we’re all looking to use less of it when heating our homes. In a room where you don’t need constant high air temperature like your bathroom, electric towel rails are a fantastic idea. Unlike clunky old gas towel rails, electric rails can come with built in timers, so you can have your towels warm for that morning shower or in time for that evening bath without having to worry about wasting energy. To that end, electric towel rails come in a range of wattages, which is a boon for those just looking to heat their towels rather than the entire room.
What Style of Towel Rail ?
As for styles, towel rails come in a very wide range, some utilitarian and others spectacular. For small bathrooms, compact vertical towel rails will take a couple of fluffy towels and keep them warm, whilst a whole world of large, high end towel rails exist for those with larger bathrooms and bigger design ambitions. A stark towel rail can really set off a room, especially in bathrooms with otherwise traditional features, proving a fantastic counterpoint. Another top tip to remember is that white towel rails actually radiate slightly more heat than chrome ones, thanks to the reflective properties of chrome. Ultimately though, it’s likely that your colour choice will be influenced by your décor rather than anything else. As a rule though, try to avoid putting dark towel rails in small rooms, it creates a cluttered environment and can really take away from the otherwise beauty of the room.