In early 2014 I moved to Cheltenham with my partner (and now fiancée) Lizzie. We bought this victorian end of terrace in need of some serious TLC. So far I have shared the completed master bedroom and today I can reveal the bathroom which was renovated on a strict budget. Sort of.

I say sort of because having no actual handyman skills to speak of we had to get a professional team in to install the new shower cubicle, bath, sink, towel rail, spot lights and tiles and that sort of work doesn’t come particularly cheaply. We saved money by keeping the existing toilet – it was plain, functional and didn’t need to be moved to accommodate the new layout. It may seem like a really small detail but by making do with what was there we probably saved a few hundred pounds.

Colour & Space

You may have noticed the limited colour palette – it’s very white and this was a deliberate response to the other thing you may have noticed… This is a very small space! A typically small terrace bathroom it measures 2.4m by 2.8m so we decided that painting the wooden floorboards and the wooden window frame white would maximise the diminutive dimensions. The floor has had 4 or 5 coats of Ronseal Diamond Hard floor paint, the walls and ceiling are Crown Clean Extreme in Limewash and the woodwork is all Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell in Strong White After toying with introducing an accent colour for the tiles we dismissed the idea and went with white metro style tiles which you can always find for bargain prices online.

We chose a white gloss sink unit from ikea that incorporated much needed storage, this “floating” style unit helps to maximise the feeling of space in the room by allowing you to see more floor… Its an optical illusion but it works brilliantly. The traditional claw foot bath tub from bathstore.com employs the same tactic – so much more of the floor is visible than if we had opted for a panel bath. I did wonder if placing a free standing traditional bath so close to a wall would look odd or spoil the effect but actually I think it works really well and does a perfect job of maximising this small space. The bathtub currently has £200.00 off the RRP. The floating shelf that runs almost the full length of the wall above the bath is a classic ikea item that needs no introduction. I’m sure we’ve all got something from the Lack range in our homes somewhere! Again, the open storage maximises visual space, this time at eye level where enclosed cabinets could have felt claustrophobic.

With the illusion of space complete we were happy to use some of that precious room to add a substantial shower cubicle. We were determined to add a separate shower cubicle as the bathroom originally only had a hand held shower over the bath and no room to stand up due to the low angled ceiling. We chose a Frameless Shower Doors. We bought it together with the roll top bath in the January sales last year and we saved hundreds and hundreds of pounds off the full retail price.

Finishing Touches

Having been so careful with our quest to make our bathroom feel like a tardis, the last thing we wanted to do was add clutter and undo all of our good work. We found the black and white print circular table in Homesense for under £30.00 along with the soap jar that houses lots things that might otherwise have spoiled the minimalist feel of the room. The three wick Parks Candle smells amazing and looks beautiful too and the candles you see placed in Hendricks bottles are hand painted by Suzy Watson. The Hendricks bottle has become a bit of a hallmark interior design item for me – RMS old timers will remember them making an appearance in my last home which featured on the site back in May 2014, a 1930s duplex apartment in Birmingham.

The towel and bathmat are from Betty Jackson and were shamelessly stolen from Lauren’s downstairs bathroom… The idea was stolen – i didn’t half inch the actual items from Laurens house. Unfortunately they are no longer available to buy but you can get similar from John Lewis here. The framed scrabble was a home warming present from Sarah, a very good friend of ours. The aesthetic fits perfectly with the room and if you look closely you’ll see the words refer to us, the house and our two cats – Kate Moss & Naomi Campbell. The very final touch is the inflatable globe, an essential item for bath time geographers everywhere.