Renovating Our Bathroom

My wife and I moved home about eighteen months ago. It was a very big moment in our lives for the simple reason that for most of the twenty years we had been together we had always rented properties, and yes, it was our home but it never felt completely like our home. This was mainly because it was ultimately not our home as we didn’t own it. In addition, with all rented properties there is a limit as to what you can do in regard to decorating. By this I mean that you can’t quite put your own stamp on the property and making it your home.

This all changed eighteen months ago when we bought our very first home. Finally we would be able to do exactly what we wanted and decorate so it suited our style. We could also add our own personality and character making it totally our very own home.

The property we bought was in a pretty poor state and was going to have to be completely renovated before we moved in. I had about a month to sort most of it out which included fitting a new kitchen, re-wiring the whole property and of course decorating every room.

We decided that the bathroom could wait until we had moved in as it was ok to use and it was functional. We put the bathroom on hold for eighteen months so we could save enough money to have exactly the bathroom we dreamed of.

Our bathroom is not the biggest bathroom so it was very important that we utilised the area so we could fit everything we wanted and of course it looked perfect.

Our current bathroom has a very large shower cubicle. In fact, it is about two thirds the length of the bathroom and just totally dominates the whole bathroom area. The first thing to decide upon is what type of shower cubicle do we want. We have decided upon a corner, circular shower cubicle. To achieve this we will have to make some structural changes to the wall where the window is. We’ll be reducing the size of the window and creating a false wall so that we can have the shower cubicle down that end of the bathroom.

The next step is to decide where the toilet is going to go. After careful consideration we decided to leave the toilet where it was which is alongside the shower and underneath the window. By doing this it meant we didn’t have alter the waste pipe. The type of toilet we’re going to have is a close coupled toilet with a cabinet behind to cover the cistern.

The design of our bathroom was now beginning to take shape and the next decision was to decide on the sink and all the bathroom furniture. While looking online for inspiration for the type of sink and bathroom furniture, I came across the The Builders Depot who had an extensive range of vanity units and mirrored cabinets. Looking at their range definitely gave us food for thought.

We have decided on a sink that is in-built into a unit and have a cupboards off either side of the sink so that the bathroom furniture is all perfectly matched. Above the sink we decided that a mirrored light cabinet to match all the other bathroom would be a perfect finish.

Next up would be to decide on what to do with the ceiling, walls and floor.

The ceiling was previously wallpapered with lining paper and painted. When I removed this I found quite a few cracks in the ceiling so I have decided to get in a plasterer to skim the ceiling and then paint it in brilliant white washable emulsion paint.

We have decided to tile the walls floor to ceiling in a combination of grey coloured large tiles which will give a feeling of space and also create a reveal in the shower cubicle for soap and shampoo to be kept.

Finally we are installing oak laminate flooring that is waterproof and suitable for a bathroom and of course non-slip for safety. The colour of the flooring will be a light grey so it’s in keeping with the tiles and the bathroom furniture.

So those are our plans for our bathroom to be completely renovated. We hope the complete renovation will take about two weeks.

Have you renovated your bathroom? I would love to hear what you did in the comments below.