Kevin Oakes, sales and marketing director, Jax Bathrooms on the design trends in the modular bathroom furniture market...

The bathroom furniture market has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years. 

It's an exciting market to be involved in right now. Yes, the economic climate isn't making the journey particularly easy, but it's helping to raise the bar. 

Companies are being forced to work even harder to ensure their designs are noticed, desired and most importantly purchased. 

A well-thought-out modular furniture collection will combine practicality, quality and style. Like a jigsaw puzzle, these three key elements hold little value on their own, but when they come together, the results are both seamless and rewarding.

The options are endless, meaning home owners will be pushed to find a range that doesn't take their fancy and suit their daily needs. Most respected manufacturers now offer a variation of shapes and styles, not only to cater for different tastes, but also to ensure each and every bathroom, no matter what its angles and dimensions, can be treated to a makeover.

It's difficult to single out a key trend this season. White remains extremely popular, mainly thanks to its versatile charm. A white furniture set is sure to match almost any colour scheme or decor and it's only right that home owners will choose to play it safe.

A demand for wood still exists, be it walnut for traditional furniture lovers or zebrano for the fashion-conscious. Wood and gloss combinations have also been popular lately and for the more adventurous, ornate, embossed patterns offer the perfect solution.

Trade exhibitions often give a good indication as to what's going to be popular over the next couple of years. It would be foolish to disregard the new-build market and that's exactly why clever manufacturers have incorporated compact, reduced-depth items for smaller bathroom environments and en suites.  

While there is still a market for fitted furniture, modular has taken the UK by storm. Modular collections provide the much-desired versatility that fitted options fail to deliver. Unlike built-in furniture, the units can quite easily be altered if the home owner becomes tired of the arrangement.