Despite everything they’ve been busy with over the last three months, arguably the most important change to Warrior Bathrooms is the arrival of their newest team member: fox red labrador Hamish.

“We did have a gorgeous chocolate labrador when we were first renovating the showroom, but unfortunately we lost him before we opened,” co-owner Sarah recalls. “We tried to see how we’d get on without a dog, but we realised it was really quiet without having one around. That’s when we heard about a little fox red litter and just absolutely fell in love.”

Ironically for a dog that spends so much of his time in a bathroom showroom, Sarah says Hamish isn’t a big fan of posing in the basin or the bath. “We did manage to get a picture of him in a toilet once, but you could tell he wasn’t happy about it,” she adds.

Since we last caught up with Warrior Bathrooms back in March, Sarah says business has been incredibly busy, with partner Craig’s installation diary full to bursting, and lots of footfall still coming in.

“In fact, if we put something like a new basin in, there’s usually a rush of people who want to come by and look at the new pieces because we’re in such a visible location and we’re part of the community now,” she adds. “A lot more people seem to believe things have calmed down now, they know what their budgets are, and they want to start work going.”

Speaking of, after previously planning to swap out two displays, the Warrior Bathrooms duo have managed to fill the vacant space with three new displays instead, incorporating LED mirrors and wall coverings. 

According to Sarah, part of this change came from the fact that one of the displays planned for removal featured a tile that isn’t available any more, but at least in Warrior Bathrooms local area, fewer and fewer clients are requesting tiled projects now anyway.

“Over the next few months we’re going to be to testing the waters to see if anyone’s going to come back to ceramic tiling. But in the meantime, we’re taking the time to make a few new changes to the new bays, so we’ll be trying new colour vanities or things like that, and we’re leaning more towards what people are going to be choosing over the next few months.”

Looking even further ahead, Sarah says she and Craig are also looking to make more changes to the showroom’s existing displays, which will hopefully be based on the trends coming out in the new catalogues in the Autumn.

Simplification

Aside from new displays and the arrival of their new camera-shy four-legged friend, Warrior Bathrooms also has very well-considered plans to create a sort of pocket-guide for clients. The book aims to break down some of the more complicated parts of the bathroom retail process, with a particular focus on simplifying some of the more confusing aspects or explaining some key concepts.

“At the moment, a lot of our queries are coming from people who are trying to manage their own projects, but they’re finding it’s not simple for them to go about understanding what’s needed or what pieces they need for their room,” Sarah explains. “I think a lot of people get a bit confused by the sizes. Everything seems to be in millimetres, for example, and they’re not sure what space they need around their furniture to allow for air circulation.

“It’s all about putting the information into a handy-dandy book, which tells them things like what type of furniture they’re getting, or how much room they’ll need for circulation. It’s all things Craig’s found from his time installing, but also best to-dos for cladding or tiling, or what type of fan’s best to put in what type of property.”

The book will also include a helpful checklist for consumer clients to check they’ve factored in everything they might need. As a handy bonus, Sarah says the checklist can also be used by Warrior Bathrooms’ trade customers as well.

“We’ve got a couple of newer tradespeople who are quite busy, and there are certain times where they’ve forgot to pick something up, they’ve popped in last minute to get something, and it’s our way of saying ‘okay we’ll cast our eyes over your orders and make sure you’ve got everything on there before we place your order for you.’”

Interestingly, aside from just helping the process become a lot more efficient, Sarah recognises that eliminating stress and confusion for clients should actually make the whole process of purchasing a bathroom a lot more fun for them.

“It should be exciting, you should be looking forward to finding the perfect furniture for your bathroom, or hand towels or soap dispensers,” she says, enthusiastically. “But people feel a bit daunted and overwhelmed by it all, and then they could end up thinking ‘I don’t even really want to do it any more’. I’d hate to feel like that!”.

And although the customer guidebook feels like the sort of idea a forward-thinking showroom like Warrior Bathrooms would come up with anyway, it should prove to be a big help in combating customer concerns around the wider market.

“It’s a very different economy at the moment, especially with everything that’s going on overseas. We’re seeing real worry from customers, so we’re having to have slightly different conversations with them, which is a bit difficult. Initially, lots of customers were wondering if they were going to have products on time, so we made the choice to bring products in early to guarantee that. 

“There’s been a lot of price rises as well. I think in one week we had about seven or eight different companies tell us they were either putting prices up or adding a surcharge to their orders. We can’t do much about that, but hopefully some of the wider overseas problems get resolved soon and things will go back to being a bit more stable.”

Ever the optimist, Sarah concludes: “I’d actually say people are finding some stability now that we’ve got the Budget behind us, and of course with the summer coming, people are always a lot happier when the sun comes out!”.