And the results are not pretty, as the following clip reveals:

If this kind of thing is your cup of tea, you will find all the pictures and clips your heart desires at ICanHasCheezburger.com.

If you fret about exactly what germs might be breeding on a reusable loo brush, this is the idea for you. It’s a 30-minute customisation based on the jars of disinfectant you get in barber’s shops, and you can read all about it on the LifeHacker site here.

The article is based on an instructable from the excellent Make Projects blog – and you can read the whole thing here.

Time to get handy! Happy making…

Fear not, help is at hand! The resident etiquette expert at The Washington Post, the wonderfully-named Miss Manners, has tackled precisely this topic in recent days. Here’s a taste of what she had to say:

Miss Manners: Guidance on bathroom reading

[...]

You are asking Miss Manners to break her habit of refusing to deal with bathroom questions. Her general position is that once you close the bathroom door, she does not care to follow you. What you do in there does not concern her, and this includes reading.

However, this has to do with being on the way to the bathroom and how it affects your colleagues and others, so she supposes she had better tackle it.

To see what she says, you’d better read the full story in the Washington Post here…

But here’s a hint. For the sake of anyone else in the vicinity, brevity is strongly recommended. And, we might add, paying due attention to leaving the room as you would wish to find it.

That’s the view of Chelsea-based interior designer Hugh Leslie, asked to give recommendations for a style piece in the Independent newspaper.

That rather brutal assessment of bathroom space requirements shatters our romantic view of a place where you take long, relaxing soaks and positions it as somewhere relentlessly practical, used for short, invigorating, water-efficient showers. But that could be just what you need…

And we definitely like his idea of using striking colours and finishes rather than resorting to neutrality – an idea taken even further by another contributor, the Nina Campbell, also hailing from London’s fashionable SW3 district.

Here are her tips, which we like a lot:

Soak up the style: How to make the most of your bathroom

[...]

If you’ve got a window or a good extractor, consider using wallpaper, says interior designer Nina Campbell. “But opt for an open design – something that you feel you’re looking through like branches, rather than some little, intense design,” she warns.

Unlike Leslie, Campbell believes baths can work in small bathrooms. “Just don’t box them in. Replacing it with a freestanding one means you suddenly see all the floor and that alone can stop you feeling squashed in.

“The change can be incredible, particularly if you give your tiles a border round the edge.”

Read the full piece here…

• ABC Local: Plumber finds $10K ring flushed down toilet – “Stuck the Shop-Vac down,” said Steve. “It’s about four-feet deep. Sucked it all out. After all the water was drained out, unplugged the Shop-Vac, took off the lid, dumped the water out and there was the ring.”
• Geekologie: Bathroom Reading, or The Entire First Chapter Of Harry Potter Scrawled In A Toilet Stall – Yup. Somebody took the time to write the entire first chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Philospher’s Stone’ on the wall of a bathroom stall.

• Apartment Therapy: Artwork in the bathroom – Scanning recent house tours had these bloggers noticing all kinds of cool art choices in the bathroom.
• Jennifer Rizzo: Bathroom inspiration – Pictures of a vintage bathroom project in progress.
• Yahoo Green: 10 non-toxic DIY bathroom deodorizers – deodorizers can be expensive and contain many chemicals. So, why not make your own with basic household items?
• Shelterpop: Working around ugly tile – Don’t let ugly bathroom tile keep you from a beautiful bathroom. Here’s how to decorate around those less-than-idea tiles to make the whole room shine.
• StarTribune.com: There’s a deer in my closet – Colleen Slattery screamed as the deer crashed through her bedroom window, leapt over her bed and through the walk-in closet into the bathroom. “I was terrified,” she said.

Visit the World Plumbing Day website here >>

The event is organised by the World Plumbing Council, which gave the go-ahead to its first ever day of action during its annual meeting in Centurion, South Africa, last autumn.

Its theme will be plumbing – vital to global health, and plumbing organisations throughout the world will be invited to participate in activities that raise awareness of the industry’s role in promoting clean water and environmental benefits.

A logo for the day, designed by young Indian graphic designer Anuja Khokhani of Ahmedabad, India, incorporates the key elements of water, health, energy and environment.

The organisation says it hopes the logo will be used widely, creating awareness of the the important role plumbing plays in both developed and developing countries.

WPC Chairman, Robert Burgon, due to launch the event in Beijing, China, says: “Our hope is that on World Plumbing Day, the world will come to realise that plumbing is essential in protecting both the health of our people and the health of our planet.

“There are already international days for many important causes but this will be the first time that plumbing has been marked in such a way. As our logo says, we hope that on March 11 there will everywhere be far greater understanding of the role of our industry.”

You can watch a video about the event here:

The programme, which screens on BBC One and is presented by Nick Knowles, aims to transform homes around Britain which are in need of a makeover or in a state of disrepair. Visit its website here.

The programme rounds up a team consisting of DIY experts, friends and family, augmented with a team of local tradesmen. Each week a different distressed property is given the DIY SOS makeover with the materials, fixtures and fittings used to make the transformation donated by local businesses.

Researches for DIY SOS contacted Better Bathrooms during filming of the most recent series to see if the company would be interested in taking part. It responded by providing a selection of bathroom suites and other fixtures for a project in South Wales.

The merchant came up with a full traditional bathroom suite for the main bathroom plus a suite for a downstairs cloakroom – goods with a retail value of more than £1,500.

A Better Bathrooms spokesman said: “We are always looking for opportunities to help out those in need and when we heard about the project the team would be working on, we wanted to be involved immediately.

“We are now looking forward to seeing the show and seeing the reaction of the recipient when their new designer bathroom suites are unveiled.”

The show is due to air later this year.

Since its first shop was opened in Croydon in 1990 it has grown rapidly and now has more than 1000 trained staff, partnerships with designers across Europe and four UK distribution warehouses.

We’re delighted to now be able to feature its products, offers and promotions on our site.

Bathstore currently still has its winter sale running, with offers across 12 different product ranges until January 31st. You can get up to half price off some products – and your VAT paid.

Visit the site here.

You can watch it on YouTube here – and if you feel inspired to fit a towel radiator after watching, check out their selection of products here. Happy viewing!

And if you do decide to go for it, you apparently aren’t alone. Bath Empire says: “Judging from our best sellers list, it appears we’ve had a bit of a frenzy on towel radiators recently. This is no doubt due to our excellent prices and 10 year warranty!”

Here are some of their current best-sellers in bathrooms and kitchens (it’s updated from time to time, so may not reflect the run on radiators when you see it):