Cast your mind back to oh, about a million and a half years ago, back in the mists of time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I had an urge to paint something.....of course I'm exaggerating.......it was definitely only the early 90's when I started this project. I kid, I kid,it was a mere eighteen months ago,it just feels like more because I spent most of it having the same argument with a four year old about why she couldn't watch a third hour of youtube kids, and that shit drags.
So, somewhere around the late Jurassic period, I first found myself with a tin of paint I didn't have a particular use for and decided to start making over our ensuite bathroom. It's a good sized shower room off the master bedroom, but the layout meant that it was really tough to add any storage in there as the only free wall space was right inside the door. I needed storage, I needed it to be pretty, needed it to be grown up and sophistocated.
I shared my plans with you guys when I was about to start, and I was full of enthusiasm to get going on my new, child-free, industrial/glam bathroom. These were my inspiration photos....
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| Amy Bartlam |
Aaaaaaaand this is what I actually had to work with.....
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| I don't know what to tell you, all the photos came out slightly sideways. |
In a word...grim. But with some imagination I thought it would be easy. Some paint, some art, storage. Easy peasy.
*Record scratch, freeze frame*
Reader, it was not easy peasy.
So yeah, obviously it wasn't the cake walk I had planned. I think the problem was that I started the project by painting just because I had the paint to hand and I found myself with a free afternoon, but not having a definite plan in place really put the kibosh on the whole thing. Like, I knew what I wanted the space to feel like, but I didn't actually have a solid plan as to how I was going to achieve that. And the longer it took the more I changed my mind.
So here we are, eighteen months later, and the project has finally limped and dragged it's way to the finish line...or as close as it's going to get anyway. I could do more, I wanted to do more, but sometimes you just have to say "good enough" and post the damn photos!
So basically, I changed the wall colour from pukey green to a soft linen white. This made a huge difference to the feel of the room and made it a lot brighter and more modern.
I painted the grout in the shower to try and make my bog standard white tiles a bit more interesting, and then I installed a new shower curtain rail above the shower enclosure and hung some voile panels from Penneys in order to disguise my mid-90's, cheapest of the cheap shower. I'd love a fancy new shower guys, but......money! The painted grout did need to be touched up recently, but that's once in a year and I'm ok with that. It's a really cheap and easy fix that's made a really basic, grim shower feel a lot more special.
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| You can see that the voile really hides the old shower enclosure quite well. |
Gavin allowed me to talk him into turning an old dresser into a vanity unit. I painted it, he cut it, plumbed it and swore at it, and now we have a beautiful unit that gives us loads of storage as well as looking great.
I really wanted a large round mirror to contrast with the other square shapes in the room, but it was impossible to find one I liked in my budget, so I called up a local glass shop and discovered that to commission one in the exact size I wanted (70cm) was only €35!! It's really thick and heavy and I love it. And obviously two weeks later Sostrene Grene were selling one with a black rim for €27 but whatever, I like mine!
We got the lights on lamp and light.ie reduced to €12 each. Just be careful that you get proper bathroom lights as normal lighting isn't safe around so much water.
Then, just as I was about ready to hang the last few bits of art and the mirror, I completely lost the plot and decided to stencil the floor.....and I'm so glad I did. It was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be, and it totally transformed the look of the room.
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| Extra storage over the door for my stockpile of shampoo and shower gel. |
Then I added the first full length mirror I've had in over ten years so I don't have to stand on my bed and jump in the air to see my shoes and outfit at the same time. Seriously guys, I'm living the high life here!
Gavin made me some beautiful shelves out of pallet wood and some brackets I picked up in Sostrene Grene. I love them. He just gave the wood a rough sand to take off anything that could give us splinters and that was that. I love the look of the raw wood.
A few plants and knick knacks to bring a bit of life to the place and we were done!
I'm really happy with it, especially seeing as I spent a very small amount of money on it. Here's the breakdown:
Paint and varnish - €80 (with left overs)
Long mirror - €30
Round mirror - €35
Shelves - €5 x 3
Shower rail - €30
Voiles - €16
Lighting - €25
Decor - €50
Sink - €60
Tap - €30
So what do you think? I'm actually really happy with it, I'm just sorry it took so long cos I never got to have that satisfied "it's finished!" feeling. But still, I have a lovely new grown up bathroom that's a million times better than the bland, depressing space it was before. In total the whole thing cost less than €400 and now I have a sophisticated place to hide from my children. Yay!
One last before and after......
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