You bring the room, we bring the design, the products and the follow-through until it's finished. Your own fitter can build it, or we'll introduce a name from our Approved Fitter Network. West Mersea bathrooms run through our Braintree showroom, and there's no pressure to visit before you're ready.
Jonathon Barclay founded Bowman Bathrooms, an independently-owned bathroom design and supply company, in 2022. We design and supply complete bathrooms, from cloakrooms to full spa-style ensuites, for homes across West Mersea and the wider CO5 postcode. Our nearest showroom is at Units 26-27 Block B, Braintree Enterprise Centre, 46-48 Springwood Dr, Braintree CM7 2YN, around 40 minutes from central West Mersea. We are rated 4.8/5 from 88 Google reviews. Recent rooms include a spa-style master ensuite built into a new island extension and a family bathroom converted from a home office, both shown further down this page.
There's no Bowmans showroom out on the island itself. Everything for a West Mersea bathroom — design and product both — comes out of Braintree, and the door's open whenever you fancy the drive over.
At a glance
A note from the studio · 31 August 2026
West Mersea sits out on Mersea Island, in CO5, and the light off the water changes how a bathroom should be designed as much as the house itself does. Nearer the front you find older coastal cottages and chalet-style bungalows, low-ceilinged and built for salt air rather than square corners. Further back, and along the roads toward the mainland, the plots get bigger: 1960s and '70s houses with room to extend, and newer infill homes built to modern regulations. Two very different starting points, and we have designed for both.
Salt air is the one thing every West Mersea bathroom has to answer for, whatever the house. Brassware, extraction and sealants all work harder here than they would twenty miles inland, so we specify accordingly rather than treating a coastal room as a standard one with a sea view.
A lot of West Mersea's bathrooms arrive as part of something bigger: an extension going up, or a spare room finding a new purpose. One recent client built a new extension onto their island home purely to house a spa-style ensuite. Another turned a disused home office into a family bathroom, keeping the original window and reworking everything else around it.
East Mersea and the quieter lanes further round the island bring the same coastal considerations, usually with more space to work with and fewer neighbours to plan access around.
There's no showroom to visit on the island, so a phone call or a short email usually gets things moving first. Describe the room to us in a few sentences, then either send your measurements over and let the design begin, or plan a trip to Braintree to see the materials properly.
— Jonathon Barclay, Founder
“An island bathroom has to earn its place against the salt air. We design for that from the first sketch, not as an afterthought.”
Our Showroom
Braintree is about 40 minutes off the island, and it earns the trip: whole rooms set up rather than lonely display basins, showers you can actually switch on, and a designer with proper time to sit and talk your room through.
West Mersea itself doesn't have one. If you're weighing us up against showrooms nearer Colchester, judge us on what's actually in the building: full room sets, not single fixtures on a wall, and someone from the design team free to answer questions as they come up — book a visit and we'll put the kettle on.
Location
Address
Units 26-27 Block B
Braintree Enterprise Centre, 46-48 Springwood Dr
Braintree, CM7 2YN
Opening Hours
Facilities
Meet Your Design Team
Jonathon Barclay
Founder
Jamie Matthams
Project Manager
Based at Braintree. Every West Mersea room on this page was designed and supplied from there.
Investment
£6,000–£15,000+ for a full bathroom · products only
Products for a typical West Mersea bathroom run £6,000 to £15,000, and the figure moves with the room and what goes into it. The island's biggest job on this page — a new-build ensuite with dual showers and a heated pebble bench — reached £25,000–£30,000 in products alone. Sanitaryware, brassware, tiling, lighting, heating, furniture: that's what those numbers buy.
The design work doesn't add to your bill.
Whoever fits the room, your own person or someone from our Approved Fitter Network, prices that part separately, since it comes down to access and what's already behind the walls. We'll talk you through a realistic figure as the design comes together.
Want a number against your own room? Try the Price Guide, or book a showroom visit and we'll work it out properly.
Every project starts the same way: you tell us about the room. Do that at Braintree, around 40 minutes off the island, or over the phone if the drive doesn't suit you yet. From there we need real measurements, taken with our step-by-step guide, because nothing gets drawn without them. What comes back is a full 3D design with one fixed price attached to the whole specification, the design itself free, and we place no order until you've said yes to it. Once you have, every product gets bought and timed to arrive together. Your fitter, whether that's someone you already use or a name from our Approved Fitter Network, is handed installation drawings, clearances and full product data before they start. A designer is on hand for any product question, and once the room is finished, we handle the warranty registration.
What we design: master ensuite, family bathroom, wetroom, shower room, guest ensuite and cloakroom.
Render vs. Reality
Either you already know who's fitting the room, or you'd like us to sort it — both are straightforward, and the design pack doesn't change either way.
Your Own Tradesperson
Good — that's one less thing to arrange. We deal with them directly: full drawings, clearances and product data before they lift a tool, and a designer they can ring mid-job if the room throws up a surprise.
Our Approved Fitter Network
We'll introduce you to someone from our Approved Fitter Network — insured, vetted, and used to building from our designs. Either way, the person who designed your room is still the one you call.
Read how the Approved Fitter Network works, including the 2-year installation guarantee.
West Mersea, CO5 · Master ensuite · New extension · 2025
Lydia and Harry built a new extension onto their West Mersea home purely to house this ensuite, and asked for something that felt like a spa rather than a bathroom. We cut a skylight into the new roofline, so daylight drops straight down into the wetroom over a Porcelanosa Boulder Black pebble bench with Warmup underfloor heating built into the seat — a warm place to sit between the two Crosswater-glazed ceiling rain showers either side of it. Bookmatched Ca' Pietra Magnifique Nero porcelain runs floor to ceiling, and a BC Designs Crea freestanding bath sits at one end with JTP Evo brushed bronze brassware.
£25,000–£30,000 in products alone, well past what most full bathrooms cost, with five weeks on site once building work got under way.
Lydia and Harry had designs drawn up by four other companies first. What settled it for them, they told us afterwards, was the bath and how the lighting had been worked in around the mirror above it.
Read the full West Mersea master ensuite project, with the clients' own words
A selection of completed bathroom design projects across Mersea Island and North Essex.
West Mersea CO5 · Family Bathroom Office-to-bathroom conversion with Fibo panels, JTP brassware and a Carron bath.
Colchester CO1 · Family Bathroom Freestanding bath, walk-in shower and brass fittings, a short drive from the island.
Tiptree CO5 · Luxury Master Ensuite Roper Rhodes furniture, Crosswater brassware and Ca' Pietra tiles, elsewhere in CO5.
The whole of CO5, from our Braintree showroom, around 40 minutes away. The process doesn't change from one part of the island to the next, but the houses do.
Coastal cottages and chalet-style bungalows, low-ceilinged and built for salt air. Extraction and brassware need to work harder here than they would inland.
Bigger plots with room to extend. One recent project converted a disused home office into this family bathroom, keeping the original window.
Newer builds designed for a bathroom from the outset, giving us a blank canvas rather than a wall to work around.
The same coastal considerations, usually with more space to work with and fewer neighbours to plan access around.
Beyond the island, we also design regularly for Tiptree and the wider CO5 area.
We also serve
“We’re very pleased with our new bathroom and would thank Bowmans for their help (and patience!) through the design process. The finished product is very much in keeping with our house and our own aspirations for the room. The installation team were excellent, taking real care to give us the quality of product which we wanted and were open to helpful discussions throughout as issues were encountered and resolved.”
Philip Wakeling — Maldon, CM9
“Wow this company are absolutely amazing and I can’t recommend them highly enough. They are the most efficient company I have ever had the pleasure to deal with. They were efficient hardworking and everything ran on exactly the time frame given from delivery to completing the job. Jonny the designer was incredibly patient as I changed my mind regularly but he was lovely and kept going until I was 100% happy.”
Carolyn — West Mersea, Trustpilot
“Overall, it’s the best piece of work we’ve ever had done in the house and couldn’t recommend Bowman’s highly enough.”
Maria Brame — Brentwood, CM13
Common questions from homeowners in West Mersea and the wider CO5 area.
Something we haven't covered? Our full FAQs page answers more on design fees, timescales and installation.
“He also made sure everything was perfect and wouldn’t leave until we were completely satisfied. Best money I’ve ever spent and I couldn’t be happier.”
Carolyn, West Mersea CO5
Brands We Design With
Ten years is roughly how long we expect a brand to still be worth having, so that's the test everything has to pass before it goes in a spec — brassware especially, given what salt air does to a poor finish. Come to Braintree and put your hands on it before you decide.
Next Step
Whether you'd rather see the showroom first or just email your room's measurements over, we're happy to start wherever suits you. Ring 01376 617001 and one of the design team will pick up.
Brochure
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