Small Bathroom Dreaming

The one room in our house that is my nemesis, our tiny as a postage stamp bathroom.  I longingly look at other bathrooms and pin away those that I would love to call mine but alas I make do and mend with the one I have.  We only have the one bathroom so put off replacing it time and again.  I just think we are scared to take the plunge, even at the beginning of this year we ventured into a local showroom and enquired and before we had even left the store the quote given was £10K – £12K for a full refurb, so that is where we stand, too scared to do the work ourselves and completely skint when it comes to the figures above.

So maybe to shame myself I am showing you all my little room for ablutions.  Some days I don’t think its that bad, we have taken up horrible laminate flooring and painted the boards, changed taps and loo seats, had the window replaced, made a new bath panel using scaffolding boards, ripped out and found horrors that were hidden behind badly boxed in pipe work that I have now just left open.  I also painted the ceiling and wall black which I think works quite well and would do again if renovating.  The down side to this space is the tiling which is awful and the encased dado rail that goes all away the room, yes even in the shower! It’s this that I hate so very much and the granny grab handles on the dodgy acrylic bath.

I think I know how I would want this space to be if we/when we ever get around to replacing it all, I want a plain no fuss enamel bath, we don’t have the room for a separate shower but one over the bath is absolutely fine.  I would like the fixtures and fittings to be neat and sleek, no fiddly handles and places that are hard to keep clean.  I also want a square wall mounted sink to give the illusion of space, no pedestal that takes up so much room.  Apart from that I’m happy with everything else. I want that modern rustic look, so would stick with white tiles with a darker grout which is easier to keep looking nice.  In my head I do mull over patterned or darker tiles all the time but always come back to white.  Plain matt white tiles would be the way to go to keep the budget down, but just configuring them in a different way with overlapping courses like brickwork.  I’m always a little stumped when it comes to bath panels as obviously you need to get access to pipework just in case you spring a leak.  Our panel is removable but many on the market are a bit cheap looking and plastic.  I shall have to keep looking for a better alternative.

I’ve always had my heart set on tiles from Mandarin Stone and taps from Samuel Heath, apart from these definites the rest is a minefield.  Any fabulous suggestions and recommendations are very much welcome.  I think I shall start doing some serious research on sinks, baths and toilets to find the right ones for my little space.  Then next is finding the right team to do the work, I want a professional job but sticking with my modern rustic look, this is the bit that scares me the most!

So I shall be sticking with my make do and mend bathroom for the moment, squint a little to not notice the dado rail and be thankful that the suite is white.

Above are some of the bathrooms that have and will continue to inspire me and hopefully you too and of course my fantasy bathroom Pinterest board so I can carry on dreaming.

Images 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12