Have you ever ripped out a new bathroom and re-done the whole thing? We've gone back to the bricks
Welcome back to my blog. Bathroom renovation 101 and the really sad facts about ripping out a brand new #bathroom. As much as I preach about embracing and using what you have, when we've bought our house, the bathroom sadly had to go :(.
“DIY or not, unless you are very good, I recommend hiring a professional to fit your bathroom”
I always recommend people, if they can, DIY as much as possible and spend money on the important things when renovating a house
Why did we rip out the new bathroom? 🤷♀️😒
When we first came to see this house, the owner has very proudly presented the "new bathroom", which would have been nice, if it was done to our standard. There was nothing wrong with it, except, we could tell that it was a poor DIY job, the tiles weren't straight, the joinery was poor and the bathtub was covered in paint marks (I know, I've tried cleaning it, it just didn't work). It turns out, tiling over the existing tiles won't make it attractive either (I couldn't actually figure out why did those tiles look so odd, until demo day, when everything made sense). Unfortunately, I didn't take any close up before photos, so you will just have to trust me on this. I did however find the photos when the house was listed (first in 2013 and then 2018 when we bought it), so here they are with their previous looks and it makes me feel really bad when I look at it, cause it does actually look good on this photo:
If you are buying a house that needs some TLC and it isn't going to be your forever-house, then please do a very good job with your renovation. The kitchen and #bathroom are the two places where you can add a lot of value to a house and you really don't need to spend that much on materials, so please hire a professional to get your bathroom fitted.
So how much does a bathroom renovation cost?
This is what we've spent on materials:
Taps £71,
Toilet & Basin£149
Bathtub £97 + Fittings £5
Shower cabin £187
Electric shower £119
Tiles (including adhesives and grout) £536
That is a total of £1164 on materials, plus bathroom fitters labour £1100. We also needed a full re-plaster (including ceiling) as we ended up going back to the bricks £350. Grand total: £2614 Depending on your budget, this may sound really cheap or may be a lot; for us, it was about how much we were prepared to spend on this bathroom. We have salvaged the panel for the bathtub which is actually wood (I've given it a quick sanding and stained it to match the rest of the theme in the house). We have also kept the radiator which was obviously brand new and very much to our liking.
You can spend crazy amount of money on pretty things, so I encourage you to examine closely what is important. To me, if the quality of the workmanship is up to a high standard, then even with not so expensive materials, you can achieve something beautiful. For us, it was important, for this space to look as good as it possibly can, so we've paid for labour, but we didn't spend stupid amount of money on a bathtub or toilet, but I've picked some beautiful tiles for the floor (which I
would like to add, everyone thinks it's real wood) and some #subwaytiles for the walls. I love subway tiles (they are my favorites), I feel, they will never go out of fashion and it's really easy to integrate them in modern or rustic decor.
We've also picked some classic taps - do shop around for these, as there are similar looking ones and the price range is huge between them. I always recommend picking one with a shower head for the bathtub, even if you don't use it for showering, it helps a lot when it comes to cleaning (especially if you are like me and like soaking in bubble baths or you use bath oils)... I am making a point mentioning this, as the previous house we rented didn't have one and it just made my life a lot harder when I had to clean the bathtub!
I would also like to add, if you can, please add mixer-taps! I really don't get why people still fit separate ones, when they don't need to🤷♀️. It's a different question if you are renovating a listed building, but when you have the option, you can still keep the character by using a traditional style #mixertap.
Here are some in progress photos. I would like to add, that once pieces start to make their way into the room, we got excited and thought, yeah that's it we will be finishing this tonight. A week later same thoughts every night. If you are a beginner, like we were, you tend to underestimate all the little jobs, so don't get discouraged when painting the walls takes longer then you thought. Skirting boards and architraves are your finishes, allow yourself time to do a good job, you will enjoy the end product so much more knowing you've done your best.
Could we have spent more money and add more designer items? Absolutely! Would it have made sense to do so? Nope. We've picked out things in the bathroom, that we felt would add value to the house in the long run and it is nice enough, for us to enjoy it. This is not our forever home and we are planning to turn this into a rental when we are ready to move, so we've made sure we don't lose that vision.
Styling a room is probably the most exciting thing when renovating. I've had this shelf and boxes from IKEA for 6 years now, they are so simple, yet they make a huge difference. This is just to show, don't underestimate simplicity. The rich brown, and the natural materials of the boxes instantly warm the space up and whilst you space will evolve over time, I love going into this bathroom today as much as I did when we first finished it.
So what do you think? Do you like our bathroom? Would you be able to take a relaxing bath on an evening in here? I'm sure I can!
I hope this was helpful and useful, and don't forget to comment below or message me any questions you might have. You may also like to check out some of my essentials from my amazon shop.
Until next time,
Piri
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