Virtual showrooms make shopping for bathroom renovations easier

(ARA) - Big box store or specialty showroom, the hardware store down the street or the home improvement center four towns over - just where do you go when it's time to shop for your bathroom renovation? If you're looking for the widest range of options in colors, sizes, shapes and brands in hard-to-shop-for items, the answer just might be - "online."

Some bathroom items can be easy to shop for; most home improvement stores carry a respectable selection of flooring or tile, and what you can't find there will likely be available in an easy-to-find specialized store. But some items can be difficult to find if you're looking for something outside of the ordinary.

Shopping online for these items can give you access to a much wider selection, especially if the items are too large (like a bathtub or toilet) or specialized (such as designer medicine cabinets) to fit in a showroom. For example, few showrooms are large enough to put on display every type of toilet available, but an online store will be able to show you images of virtually every option out there, even if they number in the thousands.

These items lend themselves to an online search:

Medicine cabinets

Form and function meet beautifully in medicine cabinets, which, in most bathrooms, often perform double duty as a mirror and storage space for essentials. A medicine cabinet can also be a great way to make a design statement in a bathroom. Yet most home improvement stores carry a somewhat limited selection.

Look online, however, and you'll find numerous options on websites like Faucet.com, where the virtual showroom features hundreds of models grouped into three categories - swing door, tri-view and side wall cabinets. Whether you're looking for a basic swing-door style sauced up with chrome or gold finish edging, or for something exotic like an art-deco looking number with bevels and attached sconces, you can find medicine cabinets online that simply aren't available in most store showrooms.

Toilets

An item that's especially difficult to fit in large numbers in a showroom, toilets come in a dizzying variety of choices. One piece, two piece, low-flush, dual-flush, eco-friendly and Americans with Disabilities Act compliant - toilets present complex design and function choices for renovating homeowners.

While most stores will stock several samples of white toilets, online you'll find a range of colors, from black to green, gray to white or even pink. Tank and bowl shapes and options vary widely, and you can even find one with a triangular-shaped tank perfect for fitting into a corner.

Bathroom accessories

True, you can find bathroom accessories virtually anywhere, from home improvement stores to discount retailers. But if you're searching for a very specific look, color or design statement, you'll find it faster and easier online than by shopping for it in-person at a variety of different stores. Shopping online can also make it easier to pull together a cohesive look among accessories like towel bars and robe hooks, toilet paper holders and toothbrush and tumbler holders.

Plus, shopping for bathroom items online offers all the advantages of online shopping, including avoiding long lines or high-pressure sales pitches, conserving gas, finding a wider selection faster, and shopping at times that are convenient for you.

Courtesy of ARAcontent