I know some of you will be expecting Rebecca’s home in the usual Wednesday slot, but we’ve given Rebecca the week off and instead we have a home every bit as beautiful. You all swooned over Claire’s kitchen back in the spring so now we’re hanging out in her dreamy bathroom. As the first project Claire undertook in her home renovation we chat about five things to consider when remodelling your bathroom.
Plan The Space Carefully
When we moved in there were two bathroom spaces one next to another. One had a shower and a toilet, the other had a bath and a toilet. I knew straight away that we needed to take out the dividing wall and create one large bathroom space. This meant that we could completely reconfigure the layout. Deciding what your priority is will help decide the best layout, especially with smaller spaces. Do you have children and need space around the bath? Or perhaps a large walk-in shower is your ultimate luxury. Once you have decided your key feature, you can plan the other essentials around it. For me I knew I wanted a free-standing bath under the window so this was the starting point for our new layout.
Think Storage
Storage in a bathroom is the best way to keep the space looking tidy and clean and to maximise the space. I opted for a large wall hung cupboard that I tucked away behind the door. This keeps all the essential bathroom products hidden away as well as towels and cleaning products. You can also get loads of really great sink units with storage underneath them that do the same job. The shower features shower valves by BarterDesign – a company I love the designs of regarding essentially all bathroom renovations. Another element that I really love is to create in a shelf in the shower area to put products on that you use every day. This keeps it keeps them off the shower floor and is far more chic than a metal rack that no doubt will go rusty.
Flooring Is Key
I was determined to have a wooden floor but was duly convinced otherwise by my husband. Instead we went for wood effect tiles which I love. Fast forward a few years and there are so many great options to get the wood effect – you can get very realistic tile planks not to mention Karndean and Amtico which look and feel so realistic. A tip we learned from a friend’s mistake is to keep your grouting dark – they installed beautiful white tiles with white grout but sadly had to re-do the floor within a year as the grout was too difficult to keep clean.
My greatest luxury is having expert glaziers work on my shower and the underfloor heating in the bathroom – there is nothing quite as nice as stepping out of the shower on to a warm floor on a winter’s morning.
Have Fun With Tiles
I love the recent trend of having fun with tiles. The ever popular metro tiles for example can be laid in so many different ways – I love the herringbone layout as well as linear vertical layout. We used two different types of tiles within our bathroom – large tiles in the shower area and small mosaics at the sink which adds interest.
Create Mood Lighting
If you are completely redoing your bathroom consider putting two lighting circuits in to create mood and task lighting. We have a main ceiling light, but also a separate circuit for softer lighting in the form of two wall lights either side of the mirror and a light under the shower recess. The softer lighting is perfect for the times when the bathroom becomes a place to relax.
We’re still in the planning stages of our bathroom renovation so I’ll definitely be paying attention to these tips. How about you? Any things you can recommend when remodelling a bathroom?
What paint colour is on the walls? Looks fabagainst white bath.
Good tips. We’re planning on remodelling our daughters en suite. It’s a big space, almost as big as the double room so the plan is to move the loo and sink and create a walk in wardrobe space by adding in a partition wall (she’s two. I can’t quite believe it).
Does anyone know how hard it is and the costs involved to move bathroom fittings?
Love the floor tiles but too dark for our room. Looking forward to seeing Lauren’s traditional but not chintzy cottage transformation which I can steal.
We had our bathroom remodled a few months ago and got two quotes from our builder, one just for tiling and making minor changes, the other involved moving the toilet, sink and shower. There was about £500 difference between the two quotes so it was cheaper than I expected and we went for the full change. You can see how we moved things on my instagram (izzie.parrack) although you’ll have to scroll through all the baby spam to find it!
I have recently bought a new house and got to pick my tiles plus flooring. I went for a charcoal/slate grey matt big rectangular tile that looks so crisp with white grouting. This is full height round my bath, a splashback around the sink and the windowsill is also tiled which brings it all together. I spent ages working out what would look best on the floor, I wanted something light but not white as you can see every hair on light tiles! I went with white ash Amtico wide planks in the end and I love it. It’s warm underfoot and actually feels like it has a wood grain. I am a massive Amtico fan, it lasts forever and looks fab. I’ve gone for honey oak 4″ planks throughtout the entire downstairs of the house including downstairs loo.
I often see people saying they struggle to keep grout white, but does anyone have any ideas how to clean it other than with the Flash bathroom spray that I do the tiles with? It looks pristine because it’s 2 months old but I want it to last!
Hi Bunny! I have friends who swear by grout cleaner and then using a grout protector, it is a fiddly job (think toothbrush to apply to protector) but works – we’ve bought the stuff but have yet to actually get on our hands and knees and apply, oops! We have very pale grout in the kitchen which gets reasonably grubby, but Dettol spray and a bit of hands and knees scrubbing is surprisingly effective at cleaning them up if time consuming. Also, a steam cleaner nozzle thing to clean the grout is super speedy although I’ve always been a bit wary about how often you can do this without damaging the grout…
Ooh! Also get the Oxo Good Grips Deep Clean set. Marvellous, one of them is like a stiff toothbrush and brilliant on grout with the aforementioned Dettol etc. I’m full of all the cool information today 🙂
Ah thanks Annie. I’m not sure whether I need to do any preventative scrubbing! I had a fab stiff grout brush (like a toothebrush but about 10 times the size), it was brilliant for grout with some Dettol mould spray. Just don’t feel like I need to do that whilst it’s still sparkly!
I’m jealous of your lovely large bathroom! We are just planning a loft conversion and I plan to put the master bathroom up there (the bedroom is actually on the floor below, sounds a bit weird I know but it is the only sensible place to put our bathroom…). I think it will end up about twice the size of our current family bathroom!! I can’t wait. Definitely agree on storage, and planning every inch of space. When we redid the tiny bathroom in our house I literally used Powerpoint and planned it to scale (yeah I’m really cool…!) and it turned out if we moved the bath 90 degrees we got an extra 10cm to play with. Small things and all that, but it is amazing what you can discover.
Good tips. We’re planning on remodelling our en suite. It’s a big space, almost as big as the double room so the plan is to move the loo and sink and create a walk in wardrobe space.love the flooring.Thanks for such informative and inspirational post
Thanks for the useful information!
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