Bathroom Renovation becomes Bedroom Upgrade

current bathroom; I love the velux!

What do all good houses need? Plenty of LSD.
According to Chris from Skins, anyway.

What they ACTUALLY need is storage, and I haven't got much of that. I suppose that's the down side to buying an adorable Victorian terrace which has been chopped and changed to add plumbing and an attic room.

Current floorplan.

As you may or may not know, we're planning to knock our super-weird twin toilets (see picture, right) into one SUPER bathroom. When I say super bathroom, it is of course quite a normal-sized bathroom to most normal-sized people. In this house, however, it's going to feel gargantum.

We spent a long time discussing what we could do with 3.1 x 1.9m of space. We toyed with an amazing walk-in shower. We toyed with turning the bath into a bath-shower combo and installing storage where the bath is. Then, a friend came around.
She took one look and went, 'well, why don't you have a built-in wardrobe?'

Makes perfect sense.

Here's what I hope it will look like:

CAD from here

 We'll build a small closet into some of the space where the shower is currently, just deep enough for a hanger, and as wide as the current wall. However, this is a supporting wall and therefore we'll require a lintel and potentially planning permission to knock it through. It's going to be expensive.

If it goes ahead, however, our master bedroom will have a compact yet functional built in wardrobe. The floor of the extension is also 30cm lower than the landing and bedroom so we will have space for a rail of clothes, plus a 'trap door' like compartment for shoes. It'll be tucked away behind the bedroom door.

This is a huge job and rather daunting, but I hope it'll pay off...!

Sarah

The Yup Blog

Bathroom Renovation: Tile Crush

I'm still lacking in inspiration for most of the aesthetics for our home. Although I know the kind of 'ethos' and 'personality' I'd like our home to have, I'm drawing a blank when it comes to exact aspects.
I decided to pin down how I'd like the bathroom - which is the first room I want to change, based on 'need' rather than 'want' - to look (seriously, it's gross)


Pinterest Inspiration

source here

source here

source here

source here

 
  Floor Tiles
As our house is Victorian, I'd love to nod - in a subtle way - at the house's heritage. The house predates indoor plumbing (for the average Joe - Queen Vic had an indoor shower in the 1890s!) so the bathroom and kitchen are situated in a new extension, so I'm not worried about staying too canon.

Available here

These are the Camden Blue Floral Lys from Topps Tiles and I love 'em for their bright, crisp colours. They're £46.12 m²

available here

Best Tile do a great tile for £48 per square metre, and the company sends out free samples... grand! I feel like this design is a bit busier than I'd ideally like but I really like the pattern.

available here

Another great option is this Hammersmith Feature Tile from the Bath Store. The great thing about this tile is that the neutral palette would allow me to rock a dark grout, which would save me cleaning.... and I hate cleaning. Just ask my mother.
 

These are £39.02 per m2.

available here

There's also these absolute beauties from Fired Earth but, for £224.70 per m2, I would actually have to win the lottery. Tiling the floor would take up half my budget. Alas, a girl can dream. 





Wall Tiles 

White Subway tiles. That's what I'm thinking. It's rather boring but they should hopefully make the room look large, and reflect light from the velux window. I think we all know what they look like* so I shan't bother with pictures. 

I think I see a clear winner in the Bath Store, which surprised me. I did visit the Bath Store in Reading and found the staff incredibly helpful and they were very happy to throw together a CAD of the bathroom for me. I'd recommend a visit.

Is there anywhere important I'm missing? Please do leave a comment.
I did try Victoria Plumb and Homebase but there was too much beige for my liking. Beige is the colour of student houses and the diet of 14-year old boys. Yick**. 

Thanks for reading,

Sarah x
The YUP Blog


*clue: a subway. However, I have only ridden a 'subway' a few times in my life, and because I was 17 and in New York for the first time without my parents, I was not particularly interested in the walls. Too busy being indignant about the drinking age

*sorry if you like beige.
 

Bathroom Renovation: the next big job!

We were very lucky with our house. No garish wallpaper, no dado rails, no terrible 60s kitchen. It has been a rental property for seven years so it was magnolia, beige and relatively inoffensive throughout. There is, however, one totally awful room. Or should I say two rooms?

In order to maximise its rental revenue, the bathroom was split in two. I've yet to discover how or when, but there is a shower room and a bath room next to each other, separated by mouldy partition walls and two awkward, back-to-back doors.

This means we are left with two rooms that are crampt (although still light and pleasant) and a huge amount of dead space, making the long L-shape corridor feel even more protracted.

Please ignore the rolled up carpet - but notice the two mismatched doors that open on top of each other! weird...

Not for much longer...
We're going to knock it through!

If only I knew the first thing about bathrooms... I don't know where to start!

Yours,

Sarah Jess

The Yup Blog