Small Bathroom Remodel – Before Photos, To Do & Inspiration

 

If you follow me on Instagram (I’m here!), you may remember that we had our small bathroom renovated in March. I shared the daily photos and videos of I shared almost daily photos of the process on Instagram Stories. I’m taking a step back with this post and sharing before photos, the list of what work needed to be done and a bit on our inspiration.

The Old Bathroom

When I say, “small bathroom”, it makes it sound like we have another, bigger, bathroom too. But, this is it, our family bathroom and by family bathroom standards it is SMALL. It measured 2 metres by 1.4 metres. I have friends who have bigger ensuite bathrooms!

Making More Space

Fortunately, we had the opportunity to knock into the joining cupboard adding an additional 80cm x 90cm. It might not seem like a huge additional area but it was worth the hassle and has made a huge difference to the space.

We knew we had to be very clever with the space and the team we chose to do the renovation work were helpful in coming up with ideas and designs too. We knew we would have to forego features such as a separate standalone bath and walk in shower but we wanted the compromise to be something that felt as roomy as possible and luxurious in a sort of boutique hotel way. From a practical perspective we also wanted to move the bathroom door further along to the middle of the room and have in open into the bathroom instead of out into the landing (which I found very annoying!).

The Old Fittings

The existing bathroom tiles, floor and suite had been put in by the previous owners, I guess around 10 years ago and whilst not particularly aesthetically offensive, they were tatty and not our cup of tea. We tried to cheer things up with some bright accessories. Though looking back now, I’d forgotten how sad it looked! The bath was small and whilst quite handy for the kids when they are little, it’s a squish for a grown up and far from the relaxing bath experience I prefer! Ironically, the only time I have had a bath in it was whilst in labour both times, so at my very biggest! It did the job for pain relief though.

The shower was electric and not particularly powerful, we had replaced it with a new one when we moved in. Because of the sloping shape of the bath you had to stand on the slope to be under the shower which wasn’t the most comfortable experience (it’s amazing what you put up with when you get used to these things!). We had also replaced the sink tap too when the old one broke.

The window is proportionally huge for the size of the bathroom which is nice. Though the paint on the windowsill was always getting wet therefore flaking off no matter how well / often it was painted. We actually just lived with a sanded down windowsill for about a year knowing it was going to be got rid of!

The To Do List

1. Rip out existing bathroom – suite, radiator, windowsill, wall and floor tiles and remove fittings from cupboard
2. Knock through the wall between bathroom and cupboard
3. Build a new wall where the cupboard door was
4. Move the bathroom doorway and frame and fix door inwards
5. Move the plumbing around for the new placement of the new bathroom suite and radiator (this is fiddly – and not helped by how bad a condition the floor joists were in – and took a few days)
6. Build up floor again due to joists being in bad condition
7. Electrics – cap off supply to old shower and old cupboard socket. Replace spotlights and add a new spotlight in addition. Move light switch.
8. Plaster top half of walls and prep for tiles on lower half / all around shower
9. Tiling walls, windowsill and floor
10. Fit bath, shower, sink, toilet and radiator
11. Paint ceiling, walls and woodwork
12. Add finishing touches – hooks, mirror, toilet roll holder etc.

How Long Did It Take?

The build work, fitting of the new bathroom, tiling, painting etc took around 2.5 weeks. We were lucky that we had a downstairs shower to use downstairs in the mean time. Though this has now been taken out and our washing machine and tumble drier live there instead. They used to be in that old upstairs cupboard. It took us around another month to get the hooks, mirror etc up.

Small Bathroom Inspiration

Not surprisingly, we used Pinterest to find small bathroom ideas. I soon realised that I favoured a sort of industrial look – metro tiles, natural wood, greys and black, possibly with Moroccan style floor tiles. My favourite photos from Pinterest are here.

Sources, all from Pinterest – clockwise from top left – my-wishfulthinking.blogspot.com.au, littlepieceofme.com, mohawkhomescapes.com, The Debrief UK

Or you can find the full inspiration board here –  uk.pinterest.com/themamastory/dream-bathroom/ 

Andy didn’t share all my design preferences but after a while we came to a compromise that we both love! I’ll share the “reveal” photos next week…