I’ve been promising the reveal of our en suite bathroom renovation for a pretty long time now (sorry! I seem to be doing this a lot lately!). Check out the “Before post” here, but I’ll do a quick run down of what it was all about and why we decided to redo our bathroom.
Our bedroom and en suite are in the attic, which means that they have sloping eaves – this presents quite a problem for bathrooms! I remember visiting Ben in his student flat where their bathroom was in the attic and the ceiling was damp and covered in various soap suds since it wasn’t high enough for a bunch of male uni students to stand under the shower and not hit their heads on the ceiling. Our en suite being under the eaves always reminded me of that damp and dark room, so I knew when we moved in, I wanted to do something about it when we had the chance.
It also had a bath that was about three quarter sized, meaning we didn’t use it at all. It was teeny! Plus we had to step over the edge of the bath while ducking under the ceiling to have a shower. And the shower screen was slightly broken and very rickety. Do I need to justify a bathroom renovation any further?
Without further ado, the before and after shot:
So much lighter and brighter, plus it looks bigger too!
Shower Enclosure vs. Open
I spent a huge amount of time getting ideas for how I wanted this bathroom to look. Ben and I went back and forth over getting something open like this (my idea all along) or a quadrant style shower enclosure. Fortunately my parents redid their bathroom at the same time, and when Ben saw their open and frameless shower enclosure, he decided I was onto something with it!
The only reason he’d been against it in the first place was because of the sloping ceiling – it made it difficult to figure out how to fit a glass panel in without having one custom made. We went back and forth on it, visiting bathroom showrooms, every bathroom site on the internet (or so it seemed) and finally found this shower tray and glass panel that fit perfectly from Aquabliss. We did discuss putting in a false wall or some sort of shelving during that time too, but luckily, these bits fit without needing that.
We bought a new shower too, not because ours was old and useless (actually it would have been fine if we left it), but because this one was pretty and had a showerhead that I like to call a “rainforest” shower. Plus it was a really good price on Amazon at under £100 – it felt like a bit of a risk ordering from there but it feels far more expensive that the price suggests and we haven’t had a single issue with it yet.
Subway Tiling
The tiles I was never in any doubt about – I’ve always wanted these for the kitchen, but was won over to them in the bathroom when I saw them used in this attic bathroom at House Beautiful. We knew we wanted the grey grouting immediately too so that they would “pop” and have that real subway feel about them. Having white grouting would have made it too clinical for our tastes.
Replacing the flooring
We were also definite about changing the floor in there too. The original flooring was a really nasty laminate that we didn’t like at all – and sadly we still have it in the family bathroom! It was supposed to look like marble tiling, but really just looked cheap. It was also bubbling in places like our kitchen. I can’t remember exactly which one we went for in the end as there was so much for laminate flooring for bathrooms, but we knew we wanted a cushioned one with a light wash or bleached oak. I love the one we chose as it has a lot of texture in it and is really sturdy – trust me on this one, I tested a sample out with a pair of stilettos and a lot of force.
All in the details
As well as the new shower tray and glass panel, we also bought a new towel radiator. We had only a single hook to hang towels on the back of the door previously and a rather large space on the wall above the standard radiator that was in place, so it made sense to get a proper towel one. We chose a stone grey one and I’m so pleased with how it looks – it makes a great focal point for the room and the colour goes really well with the tile grouting.
Finally, we chose not to replace the toilet or sink as they’re pretty new and in very good condition. In the end, we just replaced the tap because I am in love with waterfall taps and I wanted one. Plus it was pretty cheap actually – again from Amazon at £30 and no issues whatsoever.
Actually wait, there’s another finally. I had to add details! I’m very particular about towels, but I wanted some to go with the decor and give the room some colour – we found these ones plus the bath mat in George at Asda and Matalan. The grey/yellow colour scheme feels very scandi-chic to me against the white subway tiles. Then a reed diffuser is Sea Salt and Lavender from Primark – since this picture, we actually bought a bigger one, it’s my fave. We’re a liiiittle bit obsessed with reed diffusers in our house (ask Ben what he spent £75 on a couple of months ago…) and the Primark ones live up to all our Next, Zara and Yankee Candle ones, definitely check them out if you’re looking for one. Then a Matalan soap dispenser and toothbrush holder (we used to have a matching pair from IKEA but the soap dispenser had an accident…we don’t talk about that…) both in grey finish off the look.
What do you think of our bathroom renovation? Would you have done anything differently?
Its lovely! Thanks for the tips! I would never have thought of Amazon for a shower. We’re doing our bathroom soon and so its great to see how other people design theirs!