Bathroom MakeoverOur Bathroom Renovation

I think I have died and gone to bathroom heaven. After eleven months of dust, tools, and disarrangement, we finally made it to our destination. Our bathroom has been completely renovated. I am so thrilled with the results that I am contemplating moving into this room during the winter 😊.

It’s funny when you finish a massive project, how one quickly forgets what a long and arduous journey it was. I’m sure as a reader this must have felt like an eternity waiting for our bathroom reveal? Just in case, you have forgotten where we started from, let me take you back to May 2018. You might need to put on your comfy shoes for this one….

Our starting point included grimey lino, one scary fish mirror and 1960’s dated, decor. This room was beyond tired. In my opinion, it was dead and needed to be buried.

We started with this room in the house because we knew it would be the hardest, financially and emotionally. In my business studies, I was taught to eat the fat frog first. “This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first”. Well, I don’t know about eating the frog, but I was definitely ready to kiss this ugly bathroom goodbye!

As you can probably sense from the dialogue above, demolition day cannot arrive soon enough for me. .

The walls come down, the grubby lino and the mirror hit the skip bin hard. The porcelain bathtub ended being sold for a buck. Everyone is on a high.

Then the lows hit home. I am sure Paul is never going to forget the look of horror on my face when the chimney was ripped out between the lounge and the bathroom. There was a gaping hole in the bathroom floor. From the toilet, you could look down and see the car in the garage. It’s a good thing we didn’t own pets because I think we could have lost an animal or two down that hole.

The other low came soon after…. The shower and portaloo were moved to the lounge. During my wash time, it was a case of praying that the neighbours hadn’t spontaneously dropped in for coffee on the couch.

Our goal was to turn this room into Hampton/Farmhouse bathroom with touches of seaside (without being too cliche with it). As I learned from watching too many renovation programmes, it’s not the style you should be aiming for, it’s the feelings you want to generate in this room. When we broke it down together, Paul & I wanted to feel a sense of cosy, coastal charm.

Slowly but surely, we could see the transformation take place…Once the mellow yellow, water membrane went down, it felt like we had turned a massive corner.

When our beautiful white marble Carrara tiles and subway tiles were laid to rest, we knew we were on the homestretch.

The walls were painted in Benjamin Moore, Stonington Grey at 50% strength. The ceiling and trim were painted in Resene, Alabaster.

People keep asking me if you knew what you knew then, would you have bought the house. I think life and questions are all about the timing. If someone had asked me that question last winter when I was running near-naked from the lounge shower (I always forget my towel), I think that would have been a possible maybe???

However, now I have a beautifully tiled and spacious shower, you just can’t get me out of there! Paul has actually threatened he will install a shower timer. You know, like the ones they have at campsites, which after a couple of minutes automatically turn off the water. But for now, he is going to put aside the stopwatch and let me soak in all her glorious beauty.