AD (Unpaid) – For our bathroom renovation, I have partnered with some carefully selected brands. Therefore some of the products in this blog post were kindly gifted by them in exchange for being featured on my social media channels – All products are clearly marked at the end of the post. I only ever work with companies that I’m proud to partner with and that I genuinely love, so I hope that you will love too!
If you’ve followed my blog or Instagram for a while now you’ll know that we’ve been renting for over 10 years. You can read a little bit more about our situation here, and also my mindset when it comes to decorating a rented house.
Bathrooms and kitchens are definitely the most frustrating spaces to add your own stamp to when renting. When we first moved in, the bathroom was painted yellow (see image No1 below), I’m not a fan of too much colour, so I immediately painted the walls white (Image No 3 & 4 below) and then a few months later decided to paint the vanity unit grey, I did it grey so that it was almost an extension of the floor and wouldn’t stand out to much. (See image No2 below). I then accessorised with lots of plants and prints which is a great way to distract the eye and made the bathroom feel a little bit more me! There’s not really much more that you can do other than replacing the bathroom suite, which you obviously wouldn’t want to do when it’s not your house.
The before.
1.When we first moved in. 2.After I had painted the walls and vanity unit.
3. Added a gallery wall and a few plants. 4. After painting the walls white.
So we’ve lived with the bathroom like this for the past 5 years, it has a shower over the bath, a basin and a toilet so I’m not going to complain, it’s far from my dream bathroom but I realise that it could also be a lot worse.
Then at the beggining of this year, our landlord sent me a message to ask if we would like to get the bathroom replaced. We’re very fortunate that they care about their investment that they have in this house and the upkeep of it. Last year they invested some money into the hallway and replaced the stair carpet. This year they wanted to update the bathroom. Those are words that you won’t hear very often in a rented house, you can imagine my excitement. They were happy for me to design and project manage it, so like a kid in a sweet shop I went straight over to Pinterest and started mood-boarding ideas.
Designing a space in a rented house is different to doing it in your own house. When decorating a rental you have to try and create something that suits everyone and anyone, whilst being hardwearing, durable and cost effective.
The moodboard
The design.
The bathroom isn’t a huge room, but one thing that I was really hoping for was to be able to fit in a separate shower and bath, which would mean changing most of the pipework around. I got the tape measure out and realised that it was actually possible to do and that by having a wet room style shower would utilise the space more, but wet rooms are more pricey so it all came down to the price and whether the landlord would agree. I had 3 quotes and then put my proposal to the landlord who was happy to go ahead.
I wanted the bathroom to have a classic look with a modern, industrial edge and a touch of glam! I chose a traditional, full pedestal basin as I’m not a fan of vanity units, the bath had to be able to fit at the narrower end of the bathroom to allow for the shower and basin to go at the other end. I found a freestanding one which was the perfect size at Soak.com.
I really wanted to include some polished concrete/ micro cement in the bathroom as I just adore the industriaI edge that it gives. Advance group are a local company who specialise in polished concrete floors and walls throughout the UK. They knew exactly what I was looking for and were super helpful in answering all my questions! It is very hard wearing and waterproof so perfect for bathrooms and kitchens. I decided to go for tiles half way and then micro cement on the top half. I was going to go for subway tiles but in a weird twist of fate, when ordering samples from Mandarin Stone, I ordered the square ones by mistake! As soon as the Zellige Nouveau white gloss tiles arrived, I just knew it was meant to be! Mandarin Stone have such a fabulous range of tiles, I was totally spoilt for choice so I ordered a selection of sample tiles for the floor and chose the Casablanca Mono Decor 12/12 Decorative Porcelain, I’m a sucker for monochrome and it never dates.
I fell in love with the brushed brass Crosswater MPRO range from Drench. I love the warmer metal against the cooler tones of the concrete and the brushed finish is perfect for hiding grubby little finger prints! My favourite from the range is the knurled head basin tap. I had my heart set on wall mounted bath taps but unfortunatley Crosswater don’t do them in this range. This wasn’t a huge problem though as they do a slightly different rage in brushed brass, it has a different finish as it is unlaquered but I’ve never been a matchy matchy kind of person anyway so these were perfect!
When it came to choosing lighting for the bathroom renovation, I wanted to add a touch of glamour so I went on the hunt for something that would’t look lost when hung over the bath and also the perfect wall light for above the basin. I didn’t realise how restrictive bathroom lighting was. I quickly learned all about IP44 rated fittings which are highly recommended for bathrooms and I was so happy when I was introduced to Fritz Fryer, they have the perfect selection of IP44 lighting. I chose the Ledbury ribbed bathroom light which is so elegant and the perfect light to soften those harsh bathroom lines. I couldn’t find a brass IP44 chandelier that I loved so I bought a chrome one and sprayed it using Plasti-kote.
The Reveal.
The details.
I’ve tried to link everything below but leave a comment if I’ve missed anything off the list! Items marked * are PR products which have been gifted to me for this project in return for content on my channels.
Polished concrete/micro cement*
Shower Screen – Soak.com
Bath – Soak.com
Radiator – Soak.com
The end.
So it’s taken almost 8 weeks from start to finish and it’s been a challenging project for the plumber and the tiler, mainly because this is an old house so you never know what you’re going to discover when you peel back the layers! I’ve designed and project managed the whole thing which also came with it’s challenges and lots of dust!! But we got there in the end and although it’s a rented house, it was totally worth the dust and disruption that comes with replacing a bathroom. It’s such a luxury to have a separate shower and bath and I’m so happy with how it turned out. I’m thinking of adding curtains or blinds and maybe some artwork or a wall cabinet, but I think it’s better to live with a space for a while before you rush into anything. So what do you think? Would love to know which part is your favourite, leave a comment below.
It can be tricky to track down good workmen but I would thoroughly recommend the guys that did our bathroom. So if you’re in the area and need someone here are their details:
David Heslop, Bathroom and tiling – 07930 109707
Matty – Plumbing and heating – 07904 411333
