Six notes on my bathroom renovation

The previous bathroom in our pad was like something from a horror film, poor Raymond (RIP) did NOT know how to decorate. It had weird waterproof wallpaper (yep, that's a thing) and some blue tiles and a blue loo seat (the man did know how to match I will give him that) and just a revolting smell / look / general vibe.

We used the bathroom like this for about 10 months, just so lush. Getting into a dusty bath (I had to clean it before I used it due to all the building dust) at 8 months preggo was not one of the highlights of my life that's for sure. It also had one of those retro energy saving lights that takes about two years to actually get bright enough to see anything. Why do they even make those? But we had to stage the works as a) we had no money and b) we had no money. It was quite sensible of us to do the living areas before the kitchen and the bathroom (EDITORS JOKE - IT WAS NOT SENSIBLE). Anyway i'll break it all down because this was a job on a budget so it might be useful to y'all.

The before shots (so bad I only took two pics and so painful I took none of the reno - soz).

1.

And the basic floor plans to show where we moved the basin / loo.

1. I USED CHEAP WALL TILES....

Generally speaking you will tile more area on the walls than the floor so go for the cheap stuff on the walls. Ain't nothing wrong with a white subway tile. I basically found the cheapest tile I could and used it as the base for the design. These were £16.95 m/ s from Walls & Floors which is pretty good. I chose the matt ones but went with a bevelled edge as I wanted it to look fresh but also not too plain. I stacked them vertically so they looked a bit more contemporary and also the room hasn't got the best ceiling height so it makes the room look higher (or is it taller??) . As it's such a small room I went with light grey grout so that the individual tiles show up but they weren't too in your face. White tile white grout = minimum visual noise and white tiles black grout = maximum visual noise. I wanted to be able to see the patten but not for it to feel overwhelming. We then used these Topps Tiles marble tiles as a top for the window ledge and for the niche that we have on the bath (will photo that some other day).

2. ......AND JAZZY FLOOR TILES

It took me ages to find some floor tiles I liked that were a) within budget - under £50m/s b) not the geometric ones that everyone else has and c) worked with the metro tiles. As a general rule you need to mix the scale OR shape and colour of the floor tiles and wall tiles for the best effect. So I had rectangular wall tiles and then I went for more curvy floor tile in contrasting colours - they are not too dissimilar in size / scale but as they are totally different shapes and colours it works. Obviously I used monochrome because I am phobic of too much colour. I found these at Topps Tiles and They are a cool shape, give a bit of interest to the room and were under £40 s/m so i'm chuffed with them. Apparently they were a bitch to lay - said our tiler. I went for light grey grout here too because I did want the individual tiles to 'pop' here. NB mine are the dark grey.

3. VANITY UNITS ARE SO HARD TO FIND

I wanted two basins basically because a) i'm nearly 30 and I think I deserve them after saving all my money for this house and b) Josh shaves in / around / onto the sink and leaves all the beard crap all over it which stresses me out. Finding nice vanity units in the right size was a total pain in the ass. I looked for weeks and then eventually found these that were the right size, under £300 and inoffensive BUT they were in a GLOSS FINISH *shudder*. Anyway I went for it and actually with the matt tiles and a few overpriced linen towels the gloss isn't as bad as I feared. My photographer did photoshop out the basin wastes though so you can see them and they take up quite a bit of space in the shelf, but you can hide them with towels and fancy cosmetics.

4. BUT BIG MIRRORS CAN SAVE THE DAY

I had this mirror from our old flat that i'd previously found for a styling project and it is a BARGAIN. It's pretty big, I think 80cm across and the finish is a kind of rustic bronze - it's very rustic not perfect so if you hate that look don't buy it. So I hung it over the middle of the basins originally out of necessity but I came round to it and now i'm gonna keep it there. It is kind of random but a good random I think and it also allows me to hang these lights either side eventually. win win.

5. HOOKS ADD A LIL SOMETHIN SOMETHIN

I am obsessed with shaker hooks at the moment. I would genuinely like them in every room. These were from H&M - so sad they don't stock them at the moment as they are cheap. I bet Ikea will do a version V soon though. Trouva have these which are similar

6. AND WE PAINTED THE DOOR GREY TO SPICE TIHNGS UP

We painted all the doors in our house in Mole's Breath by Farrow and Ball and it's one of the results i'm most happy about. IT just makes it all a bit more interesting and I think with the greys / whites in the bathroom it works best in here.