Thursday 16 January 2014

Our Bathroom Renovation

I've had an overwhelming response to my first annual reader survey. As well as extremely helpful stats, I've been getting some truly lovely comments from you guys - thank you so much, you don't know how much it means! There's still time to fill in the 10 simple questions if you haven't already. You have until 5pm next Wednesday 22nd, and by taking the survey you go into the draw to win a stunning Kantha quilt.

Many of you have said that you want to see more of my own designs, and my home, so today I'm going to share our recent bathroom reno with you. We have a tiny, almost square bathroom, that we share between the five of us. Eventually Mark & I will build an en-suite for us, but until then we share with our girls.

Our old bathroom was awful, I used to get in and out of there as quickly as possible. There was a lot of peach-coloured moulded plastic, and bad wood cladding. Behind the door a bath took up half the bathroom, and on the other side of the room was a small vanity and large, ugly shower cubicle. It was a fantastic feeling to rip it all out and start again!




The aim was to make the small room feel as spacious as possible while still being completely functional. After much deliberation we made the choice to not put a bath back in. I couldn't have done without a bath when my girls were tiny, but they all prefer to shower now. The bath was just a large space waster that I spent a lot of time cleaning dust out of! We could've put a shower over a bath, but we don't plan, or want to move anytime soon, so we made the decision to build for us, and not for possible future owners.




So where the bath used to be we were to build a walk-in open shower. A large pane of glass would shield the dry side of the room from the wet side. The floor plan above was one we put together before we started, and is pretty much what we finished up with, although the glass is wider than I've drawn it on the plan.




I wanted to have a floating vanity to give the illusion of more space, and we put a beautiful round basin on top with a gooseneck mixer. I love the curves against all those straight lines. The amazing team at Rabbitte Joinery made the vanity for us complete with two soft close draws underneath for storage.




We spent a long (and I mean, a looong) time choosing tiles. We were going to make a feature of the walk-in shower and tile that side in turquoise blue. But the only ones we liked were hand glazed and would've totally blown our budget. There were a lot of choices in between, but in the end we decided to keep a clean, neutral base which I could then add layers to. I would've loved Carrera marble tiles on the floor but Mark is not a marble fan. Instead we chose large grey concrete tiles, which I love, and they're really practical with kids.




Because of the lack of space there was only one place for our heated towel rail, but it's perfect under the window. When you've finished your shower you just reach down, turn off the water and grab your toasty, warm towel. And it's far enough away from the shower head to not get wet.




We didn't want a hand-held shower head with the long hose, we wanted to keep it clean and unfussy. But we did go for the mack-daddy of shower heads, and it was totally worth it! It's like standing under a softly massaging waterfall :)




When the base of the room was all finished, then I started on my top layer. Gorgeous line drawn waves on a wallpaper by Abigail Edwards was put on the wall next to the vanity, which you see when you first enter the room. It also went above the mirror which spans the entire width of one wall - another feature to help make the room look bigger.




The vanity couldn't run the full width of the wall, as you wouldn't be able to open the door. But the space at the end was the perfect size for a Sidekick Low Stool from Paper Plane. It looks amazing on it's own, but it's very handy for throwing your clothes on top of too.





I wanted the basin off-set so that I could have a large available bench space. Eventually the girls will use this for makeup etc, but for now I can pop some flowers and a candle there. I'm always changing the top - the soap's consistent, but otherwise you never quite know what you'll find. You may've seen a few variations if you follow me on Instagram.




We had recessed ceiling lights put in, but one of my favourite things in the bathroom is our wall sconce above the mirror by onefortythree. The touch of wood warms up the blue wallpaper, and the lines echo those found in the waves.





I couldn't resist including my trade mark hot pink somewhere. Towels from Small Acorns and Country Road add more colour and pattern. Heeding Coco Chanel's advice to "look in the mirror and take one thing off"... I got a gorgeous photo framed of 4 yr old Mia in the bath, which was to hang on the wall to the right of the vanity. But because it was reflected in the mirror, there was just too much going on. It now hangs on the wall outside the bathroom.




If you made it all the way to here, well done! That was a small book I just wrote. A quick thanks to all the workers who I haven't already mentioned: Mark and my father 'n law, Pete - the builders apprentices; Brian - the builder; Paul - the plumber and tiler; Davyd - the sparky; Mike - the wallpaperer; amd Metro Glass for the glass pane and huge mirror. We absolutely love our new bathroom. The only thing wrong with it is that I now spend way too much time in there! Feel free to ask me any questions.


31 comments :

  1. gorgeous Vic! so simple (yet layered)! love how you added more things each photo and the bathroom came to life! You have me inspired to finish mine now!

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  2. Love the renovation! You have just helped me make a very hard decision. We are in the same situation with a small bathroom. I have been deliberating over it for a long time whether to have a bath. You have helped me make my decision, NO BATH for us!! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Brilliant, glad I could help. good luck with your reno. x

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  3. Your bathroom looks amazing! What an awesome job! Loving the own home post! :)

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    1. Thanks Jo. Hope to bring more home posts to you this year x

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  4. Viv thanks for sharing, this is the type of thing I am interested in seeing! Keep up the great work and enjoy you bathroom.

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  5. I love how you've been able to show you can achieve beauty even through a small space!

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    1. Thanks Desiree. Yes, the size was a challenge, but I'm really happy with the space. x

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  6. Lovely and bright and the use of space is fantastic!! Cheers, Vanessa

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  7. Love it! and great to see how you can make a relatively neutral space 'yours' with some awesome accessories and small touches like the lights. thanks!

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    1. Thanks Lauren. The small touches are my forte - love the details x

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  8. Beautiful! Can I ask the source for the floor tile?

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    1. Hi Mel, we got them from The Tile Depot. They're 60cm square, and I just looked at the box, it has Marco Polo on the side - hope that helps x

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  9. Gorgeous, Do you mind sharing the size of your vanity, am just tossing up something very similar but umming about having two drawers or four, maybe two deep ones with an internal drawer in the second, or two normal size and a big basket of rolled towels.... decisions.... Thanks

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    1. The dimensions are as I have them in the plan above - 139cm wide x 50cm deep. A normal vanity depth is 45cm (I believe), but we went slightly deeper. The width was dictated by the space available to us. We went as long as poss while still being able to open the door - kinda important :) A basket is something I've thought about to. We could slide one underneath the vanity - I'll probably do this when I find the right basket. Good luck with yours, and I can't recommend Rabitte Joinery enough - based in Hawke's Bay, but they can deliver further afield. x

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  10. Wow what a beautiful, simple and light-filled bathroom, absolutely gorgeous.We got rid of our bath and have never regretted it, and with 3 (much older now!) daughters I can tell you you will always need that bench space!

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    1. Thanks for your kind words Rose. And yes, I know the large bench was a good choice :) x

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  11. I really enjoyed this post Vic, thanks for sharing it. I have a bathroom about the same size and want to redo it this year but am frustrated with the small space I have to work within so it was great to see you produce that gorgeous bathroom in the space you had. Also to read the tips on making it look bigger.

    I have been watching The Block as they were doing their bathrooms this week, all gorgeous but also all very large bathrooms.

    I noticed you haven't put a bath in - I am torn on this one. If we ditched the bath we would have more space to work with but for resale eventually will that put people off?? Would love to hear your thoughts on why you decided not to put the bath back in. Will you have a bath anywhere else in the house?

    Thanks
    Suzanne

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    1. We spent a long time deliberating over whether to keep a bath. Our bath hadn't been used in some time - we all prefer to shower. If we had the space we would've definitely included one, but when space was so tight, we decided to build OUR perfect bathroom, not for possible future tenants. We're not planning on moving anytime soon, obviously if this was a more temporary home we would've considered what would sell the house. I know a bath is important when you have small children. If we ever did sell and the new owner wanted to add a bath, it wouldn't be difficult. It could be added where the walk-in shower is now, with a shower over it. All the plumbing would remain the same, so not a major re-design. I hope that helps your decision Suzanne :) x

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    2. Yes it does, thanks Vic.

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  12. Those floor tiles look familiar! I'm sure they're the same as ours :) Looking fabulous Vic, love the round offset basin and good call on the bath. So many people are hung up on 'resale' rather than what is right for them x

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    1. Thanks Michelle. I've just had a quick look back at your bathroom post, and the tiles do look similar - great minds, huh! :) x

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  13. Hi, so lovely. You've used wallpaper in the bathroom - is it waterproof? How will it deal with splash-back, steam, condensation etc? Thanks!

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    1. Thanks Kate. We put a super-duper fan and heater in there, so the room stays ventilated and dry as poss. We were thinking of putting a clear sealer coat over the wallpaper, but haven't done that yet, and not sure if we'll need to. Our wallpaperer has wallpaper in his bathroom too and he said his has never lifted. I have ordered a row of hand painted tiles which I'm going to run along the edge of the vanity where the wallpaper meets. Because the tap is to the side of basin, splashes of water et on the bottom of paper from wet hands turning tap off. The tiles will be the splash-back - will post about that when they arrive. x

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  14. Hi what a lovely bathroom you have!can i ask how much you had spent on the whole reno? We are wanting to do ours as well but we have a small budget.Any help would be awesome.tnx

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. Drop me an email at vic@bibbyandbrady.co.nz and I'll talk to you about our budget etc. My hubby (the bank manager) doesn't like me talking about our money so publicly ;) x

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  15. Vic what a gorgeous job you did! I know how difficult it is to design within the constraints of limited space and you excelled. Super elegant. Mel x

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    1. Thanks so much Mel, that's lovely of you to say :) x

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It's lovely to hear from you. Thanks for your comment. Best wishes, Vic xxx

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