So you are ready to make an investment into a high end custom barthroom and want to save 50-70 percent of the costs that you would pay to a high end designer?  Conventional thinking would have you believe that the best way is to look up the high end designers, get some quotes and get the work scheduled.  Alternatively you could hit the town and find a custom bathroom shop, get an estimate and get the work done.  As the final option you could do a few online queries and identify top bathroom design / producers.

Both ways could be full of surprises and surely expensive way to get a high end custom bathroom.  The best choice is most likely to go with established high end designers (a list of high end designers can be found in special editions of any of the established publications such as Architectural Digest).  Such designers would surely deliver a high end product, custom fitted to your space.  This however is the most expensive route.

Hitting the town for a custom bathroom manufacture does not guarantee the best quality, high end bathroom.  Even though a lot of custom shops have nice sales and pretty presentation, very few can deliver a truly high end.   If you try to find a high end shop by yourself, you will have to go through tens of failed attempts before you find the right one, and even in that case, how can you tell up front?

Going with a high-end pro custom bathroom shop has its advantages and it may not be as expensive as going with a high end designer, however pro shops typically have lines that you get to choose from and they do not deliver a truly custom product.  The materials finish and hardware is typically not truly high end either.

So what is one to do?  The question boils down to this: Where do high end (REALLY HIGH END) designers get their work done?  Most of them use a combination of high end local shops and some limited off-shore outsourced work.  They spend many years finding and refining their list of custom shops.  If you could only reach out to the designers and ask them who they use?  Well unfortunately no designer will give you this information.   Also, most shops are forbidden by contract to advertise their designer relationships.  Here is where we can call the internet to help.. By doing searches such as: "Custom High End bathrooms", one should identify a number of shops and give them a call.  Ask up front to speak with an owner or manager and ask up front which designers the shop has experience working with.

Most shops are willing to disclose this information over the phone, but cannot advertise is.    If the shop can quickly provide you with a list of designers and provide images of work done, they are most likely legitimate.  Non-pro shops most often struggle with this type of question.  Once you narrowed down your search, visit the shop to verify that everything is done on site and not ordered from overseas where quality is FAR inferior.

In the end, what can you save once you find the high end shops that designers use?  Typically you can save anywhere from 50-70% of what you would pay a high end designer.

A few high end shops are:

• http://www.proj-ex.com/ (Quebec)
• Roman Szot (romanszot.com)
• Hemel Group (Garrett Hardy) – not totally high end, but works with high end designers