If you’ve read my hallway renovation post or my hallway mini-makeover post, you’ll know that I’m in the process of refreshing some of the rooms in our house.  We totally renovated the whole house a few years back, so I’m keeping the interior design scheme we already have, just mainly adding some accents and changing a few things around.  The second room I’m going to get my teeth stuck into is the bathroom, so as with the hallway, I thought I’d share with you the initial bathroom renovation before and after, as it is at present. UPDATE – see the finished bathroom refresh.

Bathroom Renovation – Before

Below is the Estate Agent’s photo of the bathroom as it was when we bought the house in 2013.

(Apologies for the poor quality of some of the before and during pics that were taken with an old iPhone. Even the after pics were a challenge as our bathroom is quite a dark room with not much light coming in, so I hope they look ok!)

This was the view from the other side.

Bathroom Renovation – During

Suffice to say the decor wasn’t to our taste and considering it’s a decent sized bathroom, there wasn’t much use made of the space available. We also had to rip all of the floor up anyway, as it was water damaged. And when I say rip up, I mean you could see through to the kitchen below.

I think this picture captures how we literally gutted the house, and it was an actual building site. In case you’re wondering, we weren’t living in the house at this point. We did actually have walls and floors by the time we moved in. No kitchen though!

So once the new floor was fitted, along with the underfloor heating, the bathroom renovation progressed with the essentials first, and by that I mean the toilet and bath. As we were renovating the whole of the house at the same time, things had to take priority and because the tiling was one of the last things we did, we couldn’t fit the shower until this was done. I think we had a bath only for about a YEAR. And I’m not a bath person (yes, you read right, I don’t like baths). I don’t understand how lying on a piece of hard plastic for half an hour is relaxing? And don’t even get me started on washing your hair in the bath, or leaning over it to do so. Anyway, I digress (and I know you disagree with me – along with my husband and daughter).

So finally the prep for the tiling started.

And the tiles were fitted.

Bathroom Renovation – Inspiration

The inspiration for the design of our bathroom came from a trip to Las Vegas and our stay at the fabulous Encore at The Wynn below.

Never miss the opportunity to take inspiration for your home when you’re out and about. I can’t stop myself, and have to tell my brain to switch off sometimes!

I must admit, I wish I’d gone for a freestanding bath and a monochrome scheme instead of taupe (because I hate the word beige). My thoughts at the time were that black and white would be too cold, but I really can’t justify changing such major components at this stage! However, if it weren’t for our trip to Vegas, I’m not sure if we’d have done the whole double sink vanity, which is a game changer and so practical. Nor the TV (yes we have a TV in our bathroom), and I must confess I watch it all the time when getting ready.

Americans seem to design their interiors to suit the way they live which should be obvious, yet we Brits seem to be only just catching on. I know space and money are sometimes constraints but this shouldn’t prevent us from making the most of what we’ve got instead of just designing our rooms the same way we’ve always done.

Still During….

We designed the bespoke units ourselves and had them manufactured by a local company. They were the next thing to be fitted after the tiles.

The renovation in all its messy glory!

Our marble worktop was from Marble and Granite Solutions (UK). We chose the piece of marble from one of their suppliers, GraniteLand, who have a large warehouse with a vast selection. Marble and Granite Solutions then cut, polished and fitted the worktops.

Bathroom Renovation – After

The marble definitely gives the bathroom a luxury feel and this splurge item was well worth paying extra for and looks beautiful. If you’re on a budget, try to buy at least one high-end item for a room and this will take it up a level.

The tap, shower and bath fittings we chose were all chrome (wish I’d gone for brass or black) in a square style, as were the handles on the units which were a bit plain so I glitzed up the centres with some glitter and PVA glue.

The main rainfall shower head is fitted flush into the ceiling.

I incorporated storage for my hairdryer, straighteners and other hair products in the design of the drawers in the fitted units.

We chose a black zebra frontage for the fitted units which I still really love to this day. The paint colour is Muddy Puddle by Dulux, a mushroom hue with a hint of pink, almost giving the look of bare plaster.

And as you can see, we had a marble worktop fitted in this area too from the same slab as the main one.

We incorporated a shelving unit to store our towels.

The floor and wall tiles are a marble look with a contrast of black accent mosaic tiles.

We ordered the mirror cut to size from a local glass company and framed it with the mosaic tiles that we also used around the bath and in the shower area. We also added lights either side of the vanity for when I’m doing my hair and make-up. These and the spotlights are dimmable to give us flexibility with the lighting.

I’ve since made a start on the refresh with my upcycled sheepskin stool as I wasn’t happy with the one in the pic below.

We wanted to create a hotel/spa luxury feel to our bathroom and I think we’ve achieved that. It also works perfectly from a practical point of view too. I know I’ve mentioned a few things that I wish I’d done differently but I do love our bathroom and know that I’m lucky to have it!

Thanks for reading my bathroom renovation before and after, I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to sharing the mini-makeover and refresh with you soon (UPDATE see the bathroom refresh here). Subscribe to my blog to get all of my new posts straight to your inbox.

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