First of all, i had to start with “state of the bathroom when i First bought my flat” essay, so bear with me here.. Okay, so i have to describe the bathroom that i bought my flat with. When i First saw this room, knew it needed renovation, but didn’ realise just how bad it was.
This bathroom was …ahem..a bathroom. It wasn’t a good bathroom. It wasn’t love at first sight.
It wasn’t sparkly. It was a cupboard with some plumbing thrown in by someone who clearly hated mankind.
Five foot by seven foot of nothing but pain.
Complete with an avocado green bathroom suite that had been rescued from a 1970’s hospital ward. When i really analysed it.. Lie looked at it.
Actually sat down and scrutinised everything rather than just flashing through the rooms like ”yeah this flat is perfectly fine mate it’ not ruddy tiny” at viewing. I stood in that door and looked at myself in the mirror thinking “oh god what have i done?” OUT LOUD. To myself.
Which should have been clue number one that i wasn’t 100% notCloud how i felt about things.. The towel rack was hanging off the wall by a single screw. Shower curtain was some dreadful hideous pattern that had definitely been living there since the landlord moved in 20 years previously.
And then there was the lighting. god lighting. That horrid fluorescent tube makes everyone look like something the cat coughed up. Saw myself under that monstrosity and knew why vampires refuse to cheque their appearances.
But before i get into the renovation proper, i will say this about renovating small bathrooms: If you get it right, small bathrooms can be actually really great. The tricky part is knowing what “right” looks like if you haven’ renovated your own bathroom before and all you’ve got to go on is whatever your parents had when you were a kid growing up. That’ why i needed some data!
DUMB HOUSEPAUSE DOESN’T INTERNET. As a software engineer, we document EVERYTHING. Clearly, I needed spreadsheets.
Photos, measurements, Quotes, costs, time estimates. Friend Dev thought i had finally cracked when he saw my fully nerd-out bathroom renovation plan complete with Gantt chart.. honestly probably saved me thousands by helping me avoid rookie mistakes.. Budget was £2,800 overall..
Thought this would be quite a lot of money but totally reasonable when planning bathroom renovation. Truth is, had no idea how much bathrooms cost until after i decided £2,800 would probably cover everything – made an educated guess in my head and hoped for the best. Fun fact.
Tile baths, toilets, sinks and all things plumbing take longer than you expect them to.. Spent so much time trying to decide if i should move the pipes around. Toilet was off-centre; sink was small; thought there had to be a way to optimise the space Usage better.
Weeks of sketching floorplans; taking measurements; looked at quotes for moving stuff. Then got prices back for moving plumbing and almost cried. £1,200 to move the toilet 18 inches to left would have been HALF my budget gone right there.. Kept original layout then.
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Which honestly worked out okay! Moral of the story is sometimes its better to just leave things well enough alone, as da exciting / unexpected choice isn’ always better.. Deciding on paint colour took me about a month.
Honestly.not.kiddingPaint samples were stuck on every wall multiple times over because i could never decide! Still probably think downstairs neighbour thinks i’ve taken leaves finally… Paint colour ended up being pale blue-grey colour called borrowed light from farrowball. £89 for 2 tubs was obscene for paint but..Once i put the First coat on, could tell it was money well spent. Suddenly it felt twice as big; ten times more relaxing and when mum came over said “oh, that looks nice.
That actually looks like a bathroom now.” Which let’s be real is the highest compliment she can give something.. Pickings my lighting scheme was Next item on my very particular list, and probably where i saw the most “ohhhh i should have done that” moments when it came to making the most of a small bathroom. Had to get rid of that fluorescent tube – couldn’t wake up and look like death prematurely another day..
Went with three new lights instead – pendant light over “sink area” duo of ceiling mounted led spots; and back lit mirror which ended up costing way more than i planned but WOW did it change the room. Mirror was £320 ( felt ridiculous) but when you wake up at 6am feeling and look like death warmed up, it puts out this zen kinda glow that makes you feel (and look) slightly better. Also don’ give you those horrible shadows normal bathroom lighting casts..
Floor tiles sucked as well. Needed to visit every tile shop within a 10 mile radius of me and bring home a tile sample from each (Dev is convinced i lost my damn mind now whenever he sees those..) Ended up getting these super large grey floor tiles – they’re actually 60cm squares which sounds Mental for such a small bathroom but it works. Having less grout lines means less busier feeling floor, which also tricks your eye into thinking it’s larger too Picked a grey with white grout aswell to keep it feeling as light as possible.
Paid £180 for tiles + £300 for them to be professionally fitted.. Definitely wasn’ attempting that myself.. For walls, did half tiles / half paint.
Metro tiles on lower portion of walls (about shoulder height); continued with pale blue-grey paint for the rest. Metro tiles were half price (£2.50/sq metre instead of £8 because the colours being phased out) because i couldn’ decided what colour to get. Turns out being indecisive has its perks – if i purchased them when i First saw them would have been triple the price!.
Took forever to find vanity i liked.. Everything was either too big and would clash with pipework; too small to be of any use; or looked like it belonged in an airport waiting lounge. Came across this wall hung vanity that”s only 400mm deep but gives you storage too! £280 and totally worth every penny – allows you to utilise all the floor space you have so feels much less cluttered..
Of course, i also made plenty of mistakes along the way. Bought a curved shower curtain rail in hopes it would open up the bathroom more. In theory, yes it did open up bathroom more.
But protruded so far out that i hit myself in the forehead every time i went to use the sink.
Tried living with it, thinking i’d get used to it after three weeks. Replaced it with a standard rail after trying to slap myself together; sometimes stupid Is stupid for a reason.
Got so OCD over where to place toilet roll holder.. Decided to Place it where it looked best aesthetically rather than functionally. Obviously failed miserably at this.
Ended up moving it twice. Now have three holes in walls that need filling & repainting.. Turns out my attention to detail doesn’ stretch to manual work/household jobs..
Obsessed over storage – drilled floating shelves above toilet; corner shelf unit in shower; and bins of hooks everywhere. once you’;ve got limited space, every little helps. Got slightly carried away..girlfriend accused me of bulding towards siège when she saw how many hooks there was. she wasn’ far from wrong. Door mounted heated towel rails were added at the last minute but absolutely love them.
No space for radiator; mounted these bad boys behind door out the way.£85 each but difference on chilly morning is SO worth it; they also don’t take up any precious floor space win-win!.
