BATHROOM RENOVATION BEFORE AND AFTER

by Hannah Crosskey January 17, 2018

BEFORE

At last, our bathroom is complete! We bought, and moved into our first home in Brighton in August, after a very swift 5 weeks from offer to completion. I know it doesn't usually happen like that so we're very fortunate not to be involved in such a large chain.

Anyway, the first room I knew I had to tackle from the get go was the bathroom. Let me start by saying there was nothing wrong with the bathroom. The room is quiet small, yet for the two of us? Perfect. The configuration was perfect for it's size, so I didn't want to change anything around, it just lacked bit of personality in my eyes. Scroll through the before images below and I'm sure you'll agree.

DURING

Having trapsed through Pinterest long before even finding our dream home I knew I wanted a herringbone bathroom. (Much to our tilers dismay.) As the room is small I knew we needed to keep the space light and airy to avoid feeling closed in, so going for all white was a must! In the end we I decided on the Topps Tiles Artisau Gloss Tile.They're designed to be handmade looking with a slight uneven bumpy finish to them. We chose matching white grout around the shower, bath and sink, leaving the rest of the room to be painted white. I'm really happy with our tile choice and they look even better on the wall. I knew from stepping into the Topps Tiles store that they were the one!

Overall the bathroom took 3 days to tile, and to be honest I'm surprised it didn't take longer. The tiles look incredible! The amount of work and thought that went into placing just the first tile to make sure the rest matches up is crazy. I'm especially pleased with the the job around the window and the shampoo box, where the pattern lines up exactly with the wall.

After spending the majority of my time on Pinterest I knew I had to change the chrome fixings to gold, from the radiator down to the towel hooks-everything was changed to gold. It may just be a trend but I love the gorgeous antique gold finishes. The brand I chose for the fixings was Bristan. I did struggle to find a brand that sold everything we needed for the renovation and of course I had to have everything matching, so Bristan was a winner from the start offering everything from the basin waste plug to the shower diverter.

AFTER

I'm so pleased with the bathroom!

We started by replacing the small round cloakroom with a larger 600mm wall hung basin which fits perfectly in the space beside the window. The original sink was too small for us and I knew I wanted a large mirror above the sink which would'n't look right with the original basin.

Once tiled and grouted the gold shower arm, shower head, and shower diverter fitted and that's when everything started to slot into place! The one thing I struggled to find was fixings for the shower screen as 99% of the screens I looked at came with chrome fittings. So, after a lot of research I picked up a gold metal spray paint and sprayed them myself to math the rest of the suite!

Our last job before decoration was the radiator which had to go. I looked into gold radiators but with most being around £500 I thought it would be best to go with white. (I'd rather spend that money else where!)

The decoration in the bathroom has come over time, picking up small bits and pieces and hoping they'd all go together. Where I've struggled most is storage, as the room is quiet compact I wasn't sure on purchasing a sink unit as I wanted to maximise the space. So for now I've opted for a small laundry basket which houses all of our toiletries, towels etc which is super easy to tidy away.

So, thats it-I am SO pleased with how the bathroom has turned out. It's taken slightly longer than planned, mainly down to my attention being on small projects in other rooms of our house but it was so worth the wait! Of course I've added small touches to make the room look more lived in and less clinical down to the white walls, but I'm besotted and ready to start the next project!

Do let me know what you think.