Home - Bathroom, before and after

I'm so excited to share this house makeover with you today - my bathroom has to be my favourite room in the house, its simple, clutter free and most importantly completely finished. I can close the door from the chaos on the landing, splash around in the bath, light a candle and all is well. Of course it didn't start off like this, it was a terrifying place full of dark 1970's kitchen cupboards, leaks from the room above dripping through the electrics, a boggy non-ironic avocado toilet and general grimness - until we started to work on the room I refused to go in there alone as I was too scared! Looking past all the dark wood the were a few glimpses of light, south and west facing windows which meant we get the best sunsets and more than enough space for my roll-top bath found on Ebay for £50 (including delivery!)

Lets start with the serious stuff. Due to a magic combination of electrics, gas and water we got our builders to rip out the kitchen and completely strip the room back to the brick wall, this was the only way that we could see the space. Next to the kitchen (as it was then) there was a tiny bathroom and individual toilet room. We decided to go large and knock the toilet wall through to make the bathroom huge and extend the doorway out into the small corridor! We did think about moving everything to a smaller box room but because of the size of the house we could afford to keep the large bathroom and personally, I think it's added way more value - everyone that comes to visit loves the bathroom the most. Sadly we had to lose what was left of the original coving as it had been so damaged and was really dangerous, I hated having to lose original features but with the long list of other things we needed to do we had to go for the most cost efficient option. We then got the room plastered, re-wired and plumbed. I've really simplified the process for this post I think it took about three months to get to this stage and there were dark times when we couldn't find the source of numerous leaks that we could see and hear but couldn't find - it wasn't the best but feels worth it now - ahh hindsight!

Now onto decorating, we decided on everything for this room in about 3 days. The bath I had found on Ebay and the sink the builders gave me for free. For the shower cubical and unit, towel rail and toilet, we used a local company called Helpful Bathrooms. I spent a day running around bathroom shops and this place had everything we needed for just over £800. Like all other rooms our budget was tight and timescale short, this place could deliver everything in a few days which was what we needed at the time. I went for classic pieces as there is some really over designed hideous pieces out there. The wall tiles were one of the best decisions we made - despite being exhausted and grumpy when choosing them I'm so glad we took the plunge. The are from a great company called Walls and Floors which was recommended to us by our tiler, again they could deliver in a few days and are really great value. We ordered all our flooring and kitchen tiles from them too and got some brilliant discounts - just make sure you have someone to help unload them off the van (long story). Dan's friend did the tiling for us and also ended up project managing this stage as he worked with a plumber and builder that we used for fitting the kitchen, bathroom and doing other building work, I don't know what we would have done without him as there were so many little things to think about that he took care of. I spent a large part of my Mondays at the house during this time and the rest we managed at weekends, I won't lie it was hard going and very exhausting.

When we moved in the room still had a few snagging issues, like no skirting boards or a door. I can't remember when we got these completed - I think it was around the end of last summer. I found these niggly bits take the longest to sort out as no-one wants to do them. Anyway, they were done and I spent this April adding the finishing touches. I made sheer muslin curtains for the windows (tutorial coming soon), recycled a cabinet for toiletries, added a shelf with a few bits and pieces (including a rescued part of the original coving) and a sweet botanical print. 

There are a few 'issues' that I feel like I should confess too, our one extravagance, heated flooring is yet to work properly as we had some seriously awful electricians and the turkish towel hangs over the control panel to hide it. For the life of me I don't know why they put it in the middle of the room but I figure if this is my biggest problem then I'm incredibly lucky.   

I really hope you've enjoyed this post, I have another planned to talk about my inspiration as there was quite a lot to cover in one post but if you have any questions then please drop me a note. We were completely clueless when we first started our house and have learnt so much along the way, if I can help then I will. I have put all the details of where I bought everything below, the tiles drive Instagram wild so now know you can get them for yourself!

Bathroom Suite - Helpful Bathrooms

Wall Tiles - Fabric Tiles, Walls and Floors 

Porcelain floor tiles - Picerno, Walls and Floors 

Paint - Silver Mist Kitchen and Bathroom Paint, Homebase

Shelf - Not on the Highstreet 

Hamman Towel - Forget-me-Knot, Leigh-on-Sea

Table - Antique Shop, Yoxford, Suffolk