Images: Design Soda
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Bathrooms are one of the lushest things when they are done, nightmares whilst they are happening, and more expensive than I’d ever imagined. That’s how I’d sum up my first experience of putting in a brand new bathroom. I had been hoping to put the bathroom project off until we were further through the house, it was relatively neutral compared to lime green walls or purple psychedelic wallpaper in other rooms and having never done a bathroom from scratch before I’d rather have crossed other things off my list first. However, after a few weeks in the new house and several drain unblockers, living with funny smells and the final straw when black gunk starting spitting out of the whirlpool valves of the Jacuzzi bath at our then 12 month old, it started to rank next to urgent on the list of things that needed doing.
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Image: Design Soda
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Bathrooms at their best can be a really personal space, a retreat from the world, but so often they are uniform or utilitarian. There aren’t that many interesting options on the market if your budget isn’t big. I love the use of great grains and materials in bathrooms but you need to be quite determined and creative if you want to achieve a look that makes your heart sing. We have had this bathroom done for two months now and each time I walk into it I am surprised by how lovely it is, what a contrastingly finished and different space it feels from the rest of the house.
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Image: Design Soda
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For a bathroom, our budget was, I believe, pretty shoe string, I thought it had been average until I read another blogger mention that she had spent £3,000 on just the bathroom suite for two bathrooms and considered herself to have bought very cheap indeed. However, I’m not sure I agree with this. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at high end bathrooms with amazing materials, but I don’t buy the idea that you can’t have a little of that dash without all the cash. We spent about a grand on the suite, fittings, flooring and paint for our bathroom (much more to install) and I think it’s a real wow space, its not high end but it is high class! The only item we really pushed the boat out for was the geometric 3D effect cube design encaustic tiles (see below) from Mosaic Del Sur, we were lucky in this respect to have such a small bathroom & therefore floor space as the tiles came in at just over £300 which is great for such statement flooring. I’ve been asked and emailed a few times about the exact colour options I chose, so if you are interested they are B, BF & N. The other indulgence I may need to count is the bath panel by Roper Rhodes from Victorian Plumbing which at £105 cost almost as much as the bath and still needed painting in Hague Blue to match the walls, but I’m quite sure if we’d gone for something cheap and plastic it would have ruined the whole look of the bathroom, plus the paneling creates a nice symmetry with the paneled wall on the other side of the room.
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Image: Design Soda
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Saving money whilst not looking cheap can be one of the toughest challenges in kitchens and bathrooms. Products need to be made well as they are such high traffic areas and yet, unlike kitchens, unless you have the swishest of budgets there’s not too much style to choose from. There is a real gap in the market for semi-affordable and nice bathroom options. I quite like some of Ikea’s looks but in general it’s hard to find things with much design thought at all in the lower price bracket. One thing I knew I didn’t want was traditional chrome fittings. If you spend time on Pinterest, as I do, you will no doubt be aware of the American trend for brass and copper fittings which is starting to become a trend here. I couldn’t help but feel quite determined that this was integral to the look I wanted to create in my bathroom which was all about luxurious fixtures and materials. But Pinterest can be a vicious chimera, convincing you that because you’ve have seen something countless times here it must be readily available.
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Image: Design Soda
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We debated copper and brass, choosing brass in the end, thank goodness as fitting out a whole bathroom in brass was daunting but copper would have been much trickier. In hindsight, I just can’t imagine trying to find shower rails, taps, shower hoses, sink wastes, bath wastes, shower caddies and toilet roll holders all in a copper finish within budget in the UK. Sourcing brass in the UK can be a bit of a nightmare and I have a separate post all about that coming up in the next few days, so if you are looking for brass and struggling, pop back soon (find article here).
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Image: Design Soda
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It was really important to me that if my bathroom was going to feel like a haven or retreat that it needed to have personal design decisions or it would feel like a hotel. For me this translated as some vintage pieces and some wood with patina and character. The old brass scissor mirror which I eventually found on Ebay compliments the feel of the room perfectly and makes the new John Lewis mirror look like it might have a lot more age. Over everything else, the repurposed vanity unit is something I’m really proud of, it was a total steal for £50 on ebay. It started life as a cupboard to keep records in. We just added some hairpin legs (which made the bathroom feel more spacious showing more floor and making a play of those lovely tiles) and recycled the old bathroom sink to sit on top. I already wanted wall mounted taps so the unit was a good choice for making a bit of a fuss of the whole thing. There are limited options in the UK for teak vanity units made for the purpose and any that I found were over a grand so I feel delighted to have something with a slight patina of age that feels like a timepiece but was a fraction of what else is on the market. Note though its original purpose wasn’t made for water, I know I could varnish it but I’m a little worried that it may change it, so I have become a bit of a stickler mopping up the tiniest dots of water when using the sink. This may not be terribly practical, but it is beautiful.
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Image: Design Soda
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I must mention again how tiny our bathroom is, in most of the articles I read about small bathrooms I discovered that ours is even smaller than what most people consider a small bathroom, at least in the design world, and none of the storage solutions worked for us as they would have overwhelmed the space. I would also like to mention how hard this made photographing the bathroom for this post on my i-phone, the toilet kept dominating (and no-one wants to see that!) I had to pull some interesting angles to shoot it at all. Despite its lack of space, there was also a fair bit of dead space in the old bathroom design, the toilet had been housed in a built in vanity unit which meant that it had plenty of dead space behind the cistern and in fact because the cupboard was narrow it had hardly any storage. One of the big space stealers was the door which opened into the bathroom when there was ample room for it to open in the other direction. By re-hanging the door and buying a vanity unit separate to the toilet we gained some valuable inches and the feel of the space is now so, so different, it’s impact goes far beyond the limited space we’ve gained. It always amazes me how much of an impact small tweaks within limited spaces can have.
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Image: Design Soda
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Half way through the project, when we had a the old shower rigged up to the wall outside the bath and showering was becoming annoying I came across an Apartment Therapy article on trend forecasting in bathrooms and our new design seemed to have swallowed most of them up, I hoped it wasn’t going to look a cliché. Metro tiles – tick. Black grout – tick. Brass hardware – tick. Black, white and brass – tick. Teak vanity – tick! I have a slightly unnatural obsession with trying to make sure my home doesn’t look like tear sheet design (particularly as I pore over so many glossy interiors mags). But I guess this is doubly important with a bathroom as I’m unlikely to change it again on a whim any time soon and I don’t want it to look dated in a years time. I am now so in love with the finished result that I’m not really sure if I can tell how it would be objectively judged. It feels quite New York apartment to me (this might be compounded by its size) its definitely got a bit of a hip vibe but I hope not in any amplified sense, I’m hoping it’s a style statement but not with pretension.
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Much like any other space, textiles and textures make such a big difference in a finished space. Happily with it dark walls (Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue) and encaustic tiles our bathroom lent itself quite easily to the Moroccan-style bathroom textiles awash on the market at the moment. I have kept to some very cheap options from Sainsburys and H&M home for now but hoping to expand this with some luxury towels soon to complete the room as a space of retreat and relaxation. The towel hanger is an old coat rack I bought at Liberty a few years back which I think adds a bit of character to the room.
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Image: Design Soda
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That’s it, my bathroom makeover. One final shot, the before picture, which despite the Estate Agent photographers gloss I think perfectly illustrates how badly the door direction and furniture impacted upon an already small space.
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Shop the Look:
Farrow & Ball Hague Blue Estate Emulsion & Eggshell | Brooklyn Brass Pendant | Antique Brass Shower Fitting | Geometric 3-D Cube design encaustic floor tiles | Bronze mirror on leather strap | Scandinavian Wooden body brush
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Hi I love your bathroom! It’s similar to something i am trying to do…It’s hard work! I was wondering how you found the brass shower in terms of quality. Been looking at the same ones online. Is there a thermostatic control? What is the finish like? Thank you! Lx
Hi Lu
Thanks for dropping by my blog and your kind words. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the quality for the price, I like the finish and it doesn’t look half as watermarked as chrome ones, there is indeed a thermostatic control, the tap controls where the water comes out and the lever controls temperature and pressure, just one note of caution, the pressure is definitely less than our last shower, it’s not abysmal by any means but we were slightly disappointed in that one respect. Good luck with your makeover ?
Hi! Another user hunting for brass/copper style bar/mixer showers (with a tap). I can only find them on China, shipping from China. May I ask where you got yours from please? I couldn’t see a mention of that in the article. Thanks 🙂
Hi Robin
Thanks for dropping by, I did indeed buy via China on eBay, I covered all my brass purchases in a seperate article as i’d bought so much brass hardware for the house outside bathrooms and also to shorten the post length. Find all details of my shower fitting here: http://designsoda.co.uk/brass-hardware-love-letter/#more-7542
Thanks again and good luck ?
Ooops, clearly I meant on *Ebay* from China! Thanks for the quick reply and the link. I suspect the shower heads haven’t been designed with low(er) pressures in mind so that’s something I’ll have to mull over. It would be a shame to lose that, but ahhh, the aesthetics…!
Hi Robin
Yes I think you’re right with brass it’s still a bit of choice between style and practicality unless you have a ridiculous budget which most of us mortals don’t… Good luck with decision making!
I absolutely love your bathroom and the dark walls are something I’m looking at for my next project. I was wondering how you got on with painting your towel rail – ours is chrome also and I hate it!
Hi Katie
Thanks for dropping by and your lovely comment. I hated our chrome rail too, I just used an undercoat suitable for metal and then used an eggshell in the same shade as the wall, it was removed from the wall first otherwise painting the bits you can see from the back would have been a nightmare. It dried perfectly but one word of caution, if you’re not going to hang towels on it (we haven’t because I wanted them on the wall hooks and our bathroom is too small for distractions on that wall) the dust really shows up against a dark colour (same for skirting boards) I had imagined it would show less than in traditional white bathrooms but I feel I am always cleaning them!) good luck with your project ?
Hi! I love how rich your bathroom looks and feels! The FB Hague Blue is So pretty. Do you mind me asking what finish you used??
Hi Fran
Thanks for stopping by ? I used estate emulsion, I’ve used modern in the past in kitchen and bathroom and wasn’t too pleased with the finish so I thought I’d rather use estate and repaint later if it didn’t last too long, still looks great 6 months on with no streaks or marks…
Hello! Beautiful bathroom. Would you mind telling me where you got the mirror from? Thanks in advance.
Hi Erin
Thanks, that’s very sweet of you to say. The mirror was from this range at John Lewis: https://m.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-round-hanging-mirror-ranges/p/89010284
I believe we bought the 50cms in Brass if memory serves me right, it’s a lovely mirror ♥️
Amazing bathroom. This literally made my heart beat faster. I’m about to start remodeling my bathroom which at 1.5 x 1.8 mtrs is microscopic. I’ve been toying with the idea of using dark paint on some of the walls and that Hague blue is perfect. I was wondering how big your bathroom is and if u would recommend dark paint in such a small room. Thanks and once again …amazing job!
Hi Karen
Thanks for dropping by and for your lovely words. Yes! I say go for it, I’ve never had a big bathroom, last one was painted black, in both this and the last bathroom it increased space perception because the colour feels infinite on the eyes. My bathroom is also teensy, a smidge bigger than yours but not by much, it’s such a lovely colour, I would highly recommend. Good luck, let me know how you get on x
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Hello! I am in love with your bathroom and trying to recreate a similar look for mine. I have been using the same website for tiles but just wondered which colours you used for yours? Is it black with prussian/ midnight blue? Or just different blues? I can’t decide what to go for!
Thanks
Thank you so much! I really recommend the tiles. Do you mean the wall colour? It’s all painted in the same shade (including wood and radiator) which is Hague Blue by Farrow and Ball. It’s a really lovely shade as it changes with the light, pulling out different tones in different lighting…
Ah yes I saw the wall colour thank you! But I was wondering if you had to choose specific tile colours for your floor tiles or did you just choose a set colour that was already an option? I can’t see the same as yours on the website so was going to make up the colour using the colour options.
Thanks for getting back to me!
Ah! Of course, I’m so sorry, I read tiles to mean wall and then thought wall colour! Yes I went for tiles that were already available at that time. I ordered in December under the name Ruth Matthews, my transaction number was: 151215142310. I’m sure if you get in touch with them they’d be able to look up my order so that they can tell you the specifics on colour. Good luck x
Your bathroom is beautiful. I love the colour, it works perfectly. I was just wondering where you got your small shelf from by your sink. WE are currently remodelling our bathroom and I’m really struggling to find a sink shelf that i like!
Thankyou :)x
Hi Jes
Thanks for dropping by and the lovely compliments. The Fura brass oval shelf was from Rowen & Wren for £52, you can see it here: https://www.rowenandwren.co.uk/fura-oval-shelf.html
I’ve also just noticed that they have seconds for sale of it half price…
Good luck with your bathroom makeover x
Perfect thankyou very much! Just what we wanted x
Hi – your bathroom is amazing!
I just wondered if you treated the wooden cabinet with anything? Thanks
Hi Anne
Thank you so much! No I haven’t, I bought some Yacht varnish on recommendation from the builder but I was a bit worried it would ruin the look on the veneer, so instead I make sure it’s always wiped down after use and polish regularly (this may be a little crazy of me!) but no watermarks or discolouration so far…
Hi there!
Absolutely love your bathroom, you have done a great job, it looks fabulous!
Please could I just ask about painting the bath panel? Which finish did you buy it in order to do this? It comes already painted which I know can be tricky to paint onto.
Thanks so much!
Lisa
Hi Lisa
Thanks for dropping by and your lovely words. I bought estate eggshell from Farrow & Ball in the same colour as the walls, but I also applied one of those general purpose primers underneath, the ones that say they will adhere to anything including melamine stocked in all d.i.y stores. Hope that helps 🙂
Thanks so much, you’re a star! Keep doing what you’re doing, you have a talent for it!
Aww, thank you ?
Aww, thank you ☺️
Hi Ruth, I love your bathroom so much and we are currently getting our bathroom done in a similar style! Thank you for the inspiration. Just wondering though – where did you get your bath waste from ? I am having trouble finding one in antique brass!
Thanks very much
Claire
Hi Claire
Thanks so much for your lovely comment, I got the waste on eBay, I put my bathroom sources on another post (http://designsoda.co.uk/brass-hardware-love-letter/) it’s the same company I bought the shower from in that piece. Good luck with the refurb x
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Such a nice space! Love the floor tiles. I’m about to paint our bottom kitchen cabinets Hague Blue and am so excited to do so now i’ve seen how nice the colour looks in your bathroom.
Thank you lovely, can’t wait to see how it looks in your kitchen, it’s on my list of colours alongside Downpipe and Studio Green when we finally get around to ours and I’ve been toying with painting the inside of one of our cabinets in the mean time. It’s sure to look lovely in your beautiful home xxx
Wow!! It looks great! I have a bathroom very similar in size and also the window is inside the bath area. Do you have problems with the window wood/paint rotting? If not how do you keep it looking fresh? I repainted mine a couple of years ago and it already looks bad with all the soap residue and water accumulating… thanks!
Hi Maria
Thanks so much! Good question, we only moved in a year ago and the frame was pretty horrible, I sanded back and used wood filler before painting, if I’m totally honest it doesn’t look it’s best a year in so I think that might be an unavoidable pitfall of small bathrooms with that positioning…
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Hi Ruthie
I just found your blog while looking for antique brass taps. Your bathroom makeover looks fantastic and also includes encaustic tiles which we are really keen to use in our loft conversion ensuite when it’s completed. Do you know if the mosaic del sur tiles are suitable for a wet room/shower room? We are keen to use these on the floor and into the shower itself but I can’t see from the website whether they can be used for this purpose or not.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
Hi Dominique
Thank you so much. Hmm, that’s an interesting question! I’m not sure, you are advised to only clean them with Murphys soap which I’ve stuck to so I would think that probably rules out daily toiletries on them but I could be wrong, it may be that you would need more sealant. I think it best to email them, they’re very helpful and are sure to be able to advise…
Ruthie,
I love everything about your bathroom, I especially love your bath towels!! Would you mind sharing where you bought them?
Thanks,
Shilo
Hi Shilo
Thanks for dropping by and you’re lovely comment. The towels are (from left to right) H&M, H&M & Sainsburys, I’m not sure if any are still available as they were bought quite a while ago now. I really rate both H&M & Saibsburys for bathroom textiles… Hope you find something you like ?
Hello
Sorry if you’ve already covered this but I was wondering where you got your metro tiles from? I like the fact that they appear matt and don’t have the bevelled edge.
Thank you
Hi Natalie,
Thank you, yes they are matt and without a beveled edge, sorry I haven’t put link in this article yet (but will do soon) you will find a link in my downstairs loo makeover post, but the link is: https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/metro-smooth-200×100-tiles-chalk-farm-smooth-matt-200×100-white-tiles
Hello
Live all the other comments, I LOVE this; so different to the sterile bathrooms we see everywhere. One question please; if you’ve covered this sorry, but …. what colour grouting have you used on the metro tiles? Thank you.
Hi Gill,
Thanks so much for dropping by the blog and your lovely comments. The grout is by Superflex and the colour I bought was Charcoal. This is the link for where I bought it: https://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/bal-wall-tile-grout-superflex-wide-joint-grout-charcoal-9274 good luck with your bathroom xx
Hi Ruthie,
Please can you tell me what the white edging is that you used around the bath? It looks like much more practical than grout and a lot prettier too!
Also, did you go for bigger gaps in between your tiles than standard?
Many thanks!
Lisa x
Hi Lisa
I’m afraid I don’t have any exact details, it was picked up by the plumber at a local merchants and fixed on with bathroom mastik. The tiles are standard 0.5 apart but possibly look bigger due to the dark colour of the grout! Hope that helps x
Hi there your bathroom looks lovely and all the links you have posted have been very helpful. I see you have a shower curtain was this because you couldn’t find a brass coloured glass shower screen ?
Thanks a lot
Hi Sam, thanks for dropping by and your lovely comment. I’m not in fact massively keen on shower screens and I already had this design from our previous bathroom so it just made sense to use that but yes I think it would have been hard to source within budget.
Hi
Great Bathroom!
I’ve noticed the spout on your bath tap is quite short. Please could you let me know where you bought your bath, and if you considered the length of the tap end of your bath with the shorter spout? We are currently trying to create a similar look but struggling to get anyone that can let us know whether the taps we have chosen and bath are compatible!
Thank you,
Ali
Hiya
Thank you! Yes it is quite short but in honesty I had never thought about it! The water comes out at an angle which projects into the bath instead of straight down so it may be worth checking that with the actual tap over the bath, ours is just a standard bath from Victoria Plum xxx
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Hi, I’m just getting quotes for my new bathroom and really struggling with which bath to go with. Our bathroom is very small and I’m going for the traditional style. Please could u tell me the brand your bath is? Thank u xx
Hi Louise, thanks so much for dropping by, my bath was very cheap around £100 and whilst it does the job I think in hindsight I’d recommend going for something a little more expensive. This was the cheapest Victoria Plumb sell but they do a wide range of other pricier baths too xx
Hi Ruth, I’m obsessed with your bathroom! It’s beautiful! I was wondering what colour grout you used for the floor tiles? White or perhaps light grey?
Thanks
X
Hi Kira
Thank you so much ? I actually went with standard white grout for the floor as I was worried about colour transferring onto the tiles (which are laid before they’re sealed) however the grout is pretty ‘grey’ now ? xxx
Hi Ruth,
Your bathroom is gorgeous and we’re copying lots of elements!
We’ve bought a white bath panel pack very similar to yours on Victoria Plum, it has a white satin finish. We were just wondering what you did to prep the wood on the panel before painting? Did you sand? Did you deal with something after painting?
Thanks so much. Anna x
Hi Anna
Thank you so much ? my bathpanel was by Roper Rhodes bought through Victorian Plumbing so I cant guarantee it’s the same finish but with mine I didn’t do any sanding, just painted with undercoat and Eggshell both from Farrow & Ball. Good luck x
Hi have just come across your blog and OD’ing on your posts. Love what you’ve done in your home. We are renovating our new house and I’ve been toying with idea of going with antique brass in one bathroom and the oil bronze in another. I’m willing to buy from China but wondered if you could share how the shower and tapsetc from there have held up after use? Is shower thermostatic? The ads I’ve seen don’t seem to say & don’t really like idea of having water go super cold or hot if someone else is using it elsewhere. Also what do you use to clean them – anything special or will any bathroom cleaner do? Oh and noticed yours has a bath filler incorporated – do you find it ok filling tub with it?
Thanks x
Hi Hannah
Thanks so much for your lovely comment and apologise for the delay in my reply. I am pleased with the shower, although it isn’t thermostatic so the water is prioritised at the kitchen sink so may not be the best option for you. The tap is incorporated and I find it does well at filling the bath quickly. I don’t use any specialist cleaning products, though it is a little tarnished so perhaps I should. Thanks so much for dropping by xx
I absolutely love those floor tiles! Where did you buy them and please tell me they still sell those beauties?
Thank you so much, I bought them from Mosaic Del Sur, and I’m pretty positive they do still make them, I saw them in the showroom about 6 months ago xx
Hi there
I’ve just ordered some of those gorgeous floor tiles. Quick question: do we need to buy all those other products they sell to protect/clean/buff etc. There are so many of them! What did you buy, if any and do they need any special maintenance?
Thanks!
Simone
Hiya, they are lovely tiles aren’t they. I bought the sealant and the cleaning fluid that’s made of wood sap, it lasts forever! Xx
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