DESIGNER RADIATOR

Designer radiators that enhance your living environment

Stylish designer radiators have long been a popular accessory in the bathroom, however their range of styles and attractive designs are making them an equally desirable feature in reception rooms, halls, bedrooms and business premises. When you add these features to their ever increasing affordability and efficiency, there is no reason why anyone should have to accpet ugly or unsightly radiators in any room of the home or office.

A simple designer radiator can take the form of a heated towel rail where its functionality combines with a stylish tubular appearance, or it can be shaped, contoured and coloured to create a design feature that will fit into a living space or an office.

Today very few people would consider buying a standard white convector radiator for a bathroom when there are so many different heated towel rails and tower radiators to choose from, many having a chrome or stainless steel finish.

Design and style in the living room

In 2011 stylish radiators are no longer the sole property of the bathroom. In fact the majority of radiator manufacturers now produce a designer radiator range that is suited to reception rooms, bedrooms, halls and offices.

These radiators combine style, a range of mat (matte) and gloss finishes, along with different colours and shapes, plus clever ergonomics to make them stylized but functional works of art. These modern stylish radiators can transform the boring and often ugly radiator from something to hide into something to display. They enable a radiator to add to, rather than to detract from, the decor of a room. These radiators can be curved, tubular, flat panel, or encompass a mirror or illuminated section. Furthermore, there are radiator designs that look nothing like heating units and that have a closer resemblance to a piece of art or a modernist sculpture.

You can use the menu to the left (i.e. the underlined orange text) to find out about specific styles of designer radiators and their different applications.

The origin of designer radiators

Both oil filled and water circulating centrally heated radiators have been with us for a long time, but until the last couple of decades they have been seen as nothing more than a heating appliance. In fact their ugly design has been viewed as a necessity of function that must be tolerated or ignored. Indeed, their unsightly appearance had been largely accepted by interior designers who have sought to conceal or disguise their appearance with radiators covers.

In the 1960's, the 1970's and most of the 1980's the designer radiator did not really exist and the few that did were prohibitively expensive. However, with the increase in home owner awareness of house decor and interior design, much of it prompted by home styling TV shows, things have changed.

The first big change in the radiator's design evolution saw a massive increase in the popularity of tubular chrome bathroom radiators that mixed function and design to produce stylish heated towel rails. Equally, and at the same time, the ugliness of most reception room radiators saw the use of radiators covers to disguise or hide them. Radiators were now on peoples visual radars and they needed to look good or be covered up.

The next development was the flat panel radiator with its unobtrusive minimalist design. Models of this sort looked equally in place in an office or in a home and their neutral but clean look made them a radiator for all environments. Since then much more intricate, complex and artistic radiator designs have become available and now there seems to be no limit on what is aesthetically possible.

Even so, with all of the modern and futurist radiator designs around, there is still a strong retro movement for the traditional and period style Victorian radiator which is now as popular as ever.

The future of stylish radiator designs

The second decade of the third millennium is now seeing even more of the designer radiator and this includes applications, styles and purpose designed radiators targeting the main living areas of a house.

Many of these ultra modern radiators are making radiator covers redundant and turning the designer radiator into a "style icon" that adds elegance, panache and good taste to a living room, bedroom or business conference room.

The days when the radiator was nothing more than a functional component of a heating system have long since gone. Modern radiators can add style and flair to any room and their positioning can be determined by the designer radiator's cosmetic appearance every bit as much by as by its functionality.

If you want to be at the cutting edge of radiator style in the home, then use designer radiators in your living spaces and not just in your bathrooms and utility room.

What is available in radiator design and what are the costs?

You can use the rest of this website to explore the different kinds of designer radiator styles available, e.g. tower, modern, traditional, wave radiators etc. You will see photos and find information about every variation and fashion of designer radiator including some that you will not even recognise as radiators.

The types and styles of designer radiator available today are almost limitless and many are priced very competitively. The relationship between popularity and price is a strong one and, as designer radiators have increased in sales, so their prices have dropped.That said, if you really want something that is both cutting edge and stylish, then expect to pay a premium for the exclusivity and iconic status of your radiator product.

When it comes to the bathroom, you can select from an extensive range of towel rails and radiators in chromes, brushed metal finishes and different colours. These designs include those that are modern (and ultra modern), or based around more traditional or retro styles.

Away from the bathroom, designer radiators for reception rooms and other living spaces have seen the biggest increase in available products over the last five to ten years. These stylish radiators are not limited by the extra functionality of having to dry or warm towels (like bathroom radiators) and they do not have to fit onto walls or hide behind covers. Consequently these radiators become a reflection of art and style and their function as heating units is replaced by the features of their form and aesthetics.

Do designer radiators really work?

An important but often neglected feature of stylish radiators is their efficiency as heating units. These unusual radiators may look good, but the question remains, do they actually do the job when it comes to emitting heat and warming a room.

The good news is that designer radiators tend to be very efficient heaters. In fact, because they are designed and manufactured using the latest technologies, materials and construction techniques, their performance can often surpass a conventional radiator in both heat output and energy efficiency. Most designer radiators use the same fittings as standard radiators and work from the same boiler-driven power source. This means that they are flexible and easily integrated into an existing heating system.

More information

We have tried to make DesignerRadiator.net as informative and factual as possible, so please take a look around and use the main index (to the left) to navigate around the site. This site is continually updated with new information about radiators and heating systems. (Last updated 25 February 2011.)