My Bathroom revamp

You can’t failed to have noticed that we’ve recently had a new bathroom fitted. As is the same as when every new room is finished it’s my favourite room ever and I love it. Whenever I post any bathroom pictures I get asked lots of questions so I thought I’d write a little blog about it, and give myself the chance to take even more pictures.

Our old Edwardian house still had the original bath and radiator when we first moved in eighteen years ago, but blimey it was grim. Having been a student house I couldn’t help but think of all the bottoms which had sat there before me! But we had a new baby to deal with and the bathroom was quite a way down our list. All it had for the first five years was a lick of bright yellow paint.

When five years later we could eventually afford a new bathroom we decided to replace the loo and sink but have the cast iron roll top bath re-enamelled. This never really worked and it soon chipped, helped along by inquisitive little fingers, and it soon looked tatty so it’s not something I’d really recommend or do again.

Alas, this bathroom was to last another thirteen years until, after a few false starts where the money we’d saved had to be diverted onto more urgent jobs, we were ready to start again.

Oh how I’d planned for this moment. I’d spent at least two years scouring Pinterest and Instagram and knew exactly what I wanted. We found a really good plumber, who kind of understood but rolled his eyes and huffed a lot but I’m used to that with work men as I have very specific ideas, which are sometimes a little out of the ordinary. He called me quirky a lot and questioned all of my choices adamant it would never work but I stood my ground.

They spent a day ripping out the old bathroom, sadly the original bath had to go ( I’d wanted to plant it up in our back garden but Mr H wasn’t keen and we sold it on gumtree…to somebody who went and planted it up for their garden Grrrrr!) The house was covered in a layer of dust, but at least toilet was still plumbed in when they left that first night.

The next day was the turn of the misogynistic, racist tiler who spent the majority of his time talking and drinking tea. He tried to talk me out of having black grout on a number of occasions, as it turns out this was because it took him a whole day to wipe it down when he’d finished. This made him quite sweaty and sweary, but we’ll gloss over that. It took the whole week for him to fully tile the entire room and apart from him breaking the last tile, (costing us £50 for a new box) he did a really good job. The tiles came from Walls and Floors, I’d first spotted the Scintilla Tiles in The Frugality’s bedroom and knew they’d were just what I wanted. We used classic Metro Tiles on the walls.

The new bath had been ordered to arrive midweek and proudly stood blocking the hallway over the following weekend. It was a Falmouth bath from The Cast Iron Bath company and we had it painted in Farrow and Ball Downpipe. It was far bigger than our old bath and we were glad we’d paid extra for Curbside delivery as, lovely as they were, our plumber and tiler would not have managed to shoehorn that beast up the stairs. We replaced the old shower which had been leaking through the kitchen ceiling for a while with a beauty of a bargain from Victorian Plumbing UK.

There was nothing wrong with the old loo and sink so we’re merely replaced the chrome piping , fittings and seat on the loo. It took nine days in all for the plumber and tiler to completely finish. Most of that time we didn’t have a plumbed in toilet (we managed by popping into Tesco’s, the neighbours and I have to admit to a few wees in a bucket in the cellar too).  On top of this we had to take the rabble to my brothers each night to shower them. It was stressful and messy but I only cried once.

The bathroom was looking really bright by now with the white walls so we decided to paint the wood work and ceiling in Farrow and Ball Downpipe to match the bath.

That’s all the boring bits over with now we’ll get on with the extras!

The colour scheme was a bold monochrome and I wanted to soften this, inspired by the new H&M shower curtain I’d found ( I’m still deciding how to style the curtain but I’m quite liking it just artistically flung over the curtain rail) I decided to add lots of detail and interest in green, concentrating on plants.I collected lots of interesting plants from Ikea, Leeds market and a great little independent shop in Leeds called Shortpress, that’s where the fab macrame hanger is from too. Not having room for the shutters I’d originally planned I’ve sort of obscured the window with hanging plants, although I’m sure on dark winter nights it still looks a little like tales of the unexpected from the neighbours viewpoint! The cute face candle sticks were from a shop in Hebden Bridge, although I have found some similar ones online.

The old Ikea cupboard is now on its fourth reincarnation as I’ve never found a bathroom cupboard I like more. Again, it’s painted in FB Downpipe with a swish new knob from anthropologie. The face plant pots on top of it are also from there. I found the little cat door hooks in the sale there, down from £18.00 each to £1.75!The green towels were from John Lewis and all the other towels and bath mats were from Matalan. The black and green ones create a huge amount of fluff, even through they’ve been washed a fair few times.

I didn’t want lots of toiletries on display so managed to pare down the things on show (not an easy job in a house of four girls) and these are now neatly stored in this wire floor stand which I eventually persuaded my plumber to hang on the wall. There’s a little matching basket used to store spare loo rolls. Over the bath is a fab bath-board which holds my gin and candles for that rare occasion I get to relax in there.

These swanky clip frames were from Matalan and I simply cut a few pretty leaves from the garden and pressed them in there. Of course Homesense proved invaluable for quirky plant pots and delicious smelling candles.These swanky clip frames were from Matalan and I simply cut a few pretty leaves from the garden and pressed them in there. Of course Homesense proved invaluable for quirky plant pots and delicious smelling candles.

Now my favourite treat is a daytime bath, in an empty house, my second favourite treat is a candle lit bath, with a glass of gin sitting on the bathboard with the door firmly locked!