Bathroom reveal...

Hi lovelies

This blog heading should read more like "sneaky peek" bathroom reveal!!

After months and months our bathroom is finally complete, except for the "prettyfying" that includes new pretty, coordinated, fluffy, towels.

Rather than the course, stiff, mismatched collection the kids have been using up until now.

Due to this "naked" presentation, I just don't feel right showing you the whole kit and caboodle...and because it is a very small bathroom, I am limited for space to do anything too flash anyway.

Alrighty, enough (guilty) justification for my lack of appropriate decorating for the grand reveal....truth is, I just couldn't wait to share!!

...drum roll please...

...try to not run screaming...

Please welcome to your screens,

BEFORE !!!!

Yes, what do you say?

• lovely timber stained window framing beige yellow window - check
• nice beige tiles - check
• gold tapware - oops, already removed;
• apricot beige bath, sink and vanity - thrown with much enthusiasm into the trailer ready for the tip.  (I'm sure you are sad you missed those babies!

  

...but wait, there's more!!

• lovely beige plastic trim shower screen
• gold detail tile running around the walls
• dirty-erck (yes, I am now officially making that a colour) floor tiles

ah, and the pièce de résistance...

check out that light fitting!

Yes, that's them,...

that row of bulbs mounted to a bit of wood on the wall!

The reason this all took so long:

• The lovely was going to tackle this job himself, until he realised there was not a standard fitting in site.
• The bath we bought was longer (the previous bath was for the vertically challenged).
• The tiles did not want to come off neatly: we ended up cutting the tiles out, wall and all.
• There was no waterproofing.
• It wasn't as easy as it all first appeared.

 So by the time;

•  we got a chap to come in and do the work, which didn't include fitting everything;

...the lovely DID do that...

• I attacked the window with multiple coats of priming undercoat, undercoat, gloss top coat;
• we changed the door from an 80's flat panel to a panelled door, including painting;
• we changed the light fitting (naturally!)
• the lovely painted the walls this past week while I removed all children from the house for some coast time!

we are complete (minus nice towels etc etc)

...drum roll please...

...cue the applause...

(or polite clapping if you prefer)

I give you AFTER:

We had white everything installed:

• tiles on the wall
• tiles on the floor
• and the vanity with the seamless sink top - so wonderful and easy for the kids to keep clean.

We (well, the lovely) painted the walls in Dulux Hogsbristle half strength;

We fitted a switch tap in the sink to make it easier for the kids to clean their hands after the loo - also easy to turn off again!

All fixtures are in silver;

We chose brushed nickle hooks for the kids towels - less hassle of trying to teach them to fold them to hang them, plus they will each have their own hook - and one for the guest.

We included a brushed nickle three-bulb rail light - much nicer that bare bulbs on wood!

The vanity has four deep drawers - one each for the kids to store their things and one for guests.

Can you see that little sneaky peek? There, on the floor of the shower?

Those are my much coveted pebble tiles that are supposedly marble, squished flat. Surprisingly they are indeed comfortable under foot. My selling point to the lovely for these, other than I liked them, was they are rocks - and our wee one likes rocks...so if we stick them on the floor of the shower, perhaps she will be happy to shower in there, rather than with us!!

So there we have it; one last time!

Before:

After:

I hope you have enjoyed this little venture into my main bathroom - past and present. I am so glad it is over, but learnt a heap of things in the process.

Hugs

Cath
x

Almost there!! The bathroom "To Do!" list

Hello dear friends

It has been too long since I have posted and I really love that you keep popping back to visit and leave beautiful comments anyway - apologies again for being a dork and accidentally deleting rather than publishing some recent comments (don't ask!) -  I really appreciate the encouragement and friendship that you each offer.

So, what's been happening? Work and all things hectic leading up to the end of the school year. Crazy!! But last night I popped my lovely boys on a plane to spend 3 weeks weeks holiday with their Dadda on the Gold Coast of Australia.  This leaves me, the lovely and the little Boo together for Christmas - but most importantly - I gain loads of extra time to paint! Hoorah!! I should add, painting in this case extends to walls, windows, furniture and some good ol' fashioned canvas :-)

My first goal is to finish our main bathroom. We are still waiting for our shower screen and mirror and once I paint, it will be complete.

So, to keep me focussed I am sharing with you my "to do" list:

Undercoat the window
Did you know that certain timbers have a higher concentrate of tannins that will bleed into a water based undercoat? Or, that the best undercoat to use in these cases is a shellac based undercoat? Really! You did!! I had no idea until the yellow was still bleeding through after two coats of water based undercoat. So with a little google research I headed down to our local Dulux centre foolishly with three children in tow, right in the middle of the witching hour, and bought the perfect, shellac based, solution.

Sand the patched walls
Our enthusiastic tiler cut patches of the old tiles straight out as it was simpler than chipping away at all the manky tiles and just putting big holes in the wall anyway! So in went new plasterboard, slapped with a few layers of bog stuff (I am *so* technical!) and now I get to power up and sand away!!

Undercoat the walls
Just for those parts that were patched of course.

Paint the walls
We have chosen Dulux Hogs Bristle in half strength. Yummy, and it will compliment the accent tiles perfectly!

Embellish
A simple amount of lovely accents that the three chicklettes will not;
a) kill, like a pot plant (though I am pretty good at that without help from anyone);
b) break, such as anything glass, or
c) cover in toothpaste...hmmmm, that kind of eliminates everything else. I will find something I am sure.

Reveal
Share with you lovely friends because happies are for sharing around.

Then I will move on to painting more stuff....

Hoorah!! Stay tuned.

Hugs

Cath

Room with a view...

Happy end of the week my lovelies

For a change, I have just a few words today;

Breathtaking....

breathtaking,
breathtaking. images from Interior Exterior Plan

OK, so that was one word, three times :-)

Which location would you choose as your Friday night wind down location?

Whatever you do end up doing, I hope you have a devine evening of bliss!

hugs

Cath

Still thinking...

I am still inspired....still looking...

DecorPad

This is similar to our bathroom layout, only minus the loo!

Although ours is white, and a single, the line of the basin is similar to ours with the shower on this side of the photo.

I love these tiles.....and the light...the soft towels, the little vignet in the window. Just delightful.

David Jimenez

Pure and pretty!!

This I love...the bath nestled in a little nook, with a quaint little window that overlooks a clearly well screened garden ....

I would love a lovely, long soak...an escape from the wee Tig-tribe, where I can lock the door and pretend I am not in there: fill it right up, stretch right out, candles flickering, yummy bath scent...adding more hot water because it is getting cold. Ahhhh, bliss.

Have a great night,

hugs

Cath

To do list: number 1 - choose bathroom tiles

Good evening my lovelies

Okay, so I am very keen to hear from all you renovating gurus on what to do when you have "the vision"...but your lovely husband just isn't seeing it. Or maybe he is the voice of reason in amongst all my delusions of bathroom grandeur?

The original plan for our main bathroom was that Mr Handy-Tig (aka Hubbie) was going to install a new bath and vanity himself. The tiles are neutral beige, so we decided to save on cost and live with those at the moment. We agreed that the brassy gold edged-shower would also be going, but hadn't reached the point of purchasing the replacement.

So there he was, Mr Handy-Tig, poised with his tools of the trade, ready to delicately extract the epitome of 80s neutral tonings, beige, cream and apricot with an accent of gold.

Me? I would have gone at it with a sledge hammer.

First, out with the apricot toned timber vanity with "cut in" towel rails, followed closely by the beige apricot bath that was both short AND ugly.

Next, Mr Handy-Tig brought in the new pure white vanity with seamless moulded sink...(is that angels singing), followed by our new long white bath.

Stand back. Admire. Uh-oh, hang on. What's this!?

The plumbing, set into our concrete slab, is not where it should be. Oh! And the new bath is slightly wider than the previous pretender to the job; this will require lifting the first row of tiles out. Hmmm, that wasn't in the plan.

"Okay! Never fear" exclaims Mr Handy-Tig, "I will get my trusty tools and remove each tile, hopefully not cracking any in the process".

At this point, I made coffee.

Cut to a little bit later...hark, is that the dulcet tones of Mr Handy-Tig muttering to himself. I'm not sure if it was the language, or that his delicate touch just wasn't delicate enough, but those beige tiles cracked...and cracked.

At this stage my lovely Mr Handy-Tig decided that the job was going to be a bigger nightmare than it was worth and it was time to bring in reinforcements who get paid to do this stuff for a living...by choice!!

Hoorah!!

So come October, we are getting the complete new fab bathroom. Now I would love a free standing bath...a chair...a cupboard...a vaulted ceiling...no kids to ever enter the space to ruin the illusion (sigh) ... but the reality is, it is a typical bathroom for a bath, basin and shower. There is room to stand - and if we are super lucky, all three children are NOT in the bathroom at once - this is a chaos factor, not a limited space issue.

So I am inspired. I would like white everywhere, with our vanity, bath AND the tiles, then I would like to paint the walls in Dulux White Duck quarter - a warm grey - to bring in some tone with all the white, but without darkening the space.

Issue - the tiles. What type. What size? I pondered this, and thought that perhaps smaller white mosaic tiles on the floor, with a subtle shift in "whiteness" - then a "coaster" sized tile on the walls of the shower and edging the vanity and bath. We are not going to tile our whole space because we don't want it to be sterile. So I thought the smaller tiles in the smaller bathroom may add an element of interest amongst all the white.

So, I really liked this....

...and Mr Handy Tig said no way - it reminded him of "old bathrooms". Old bathrooms with timber floors and rustic elements he likes - this, he doesn't. Fair enough...but I am stuck.

I would love to have some extra guidance on this, given these are going to be there for a while!! I am inspired by the idea of the lightness, the airy feel, by the luxury of soft towels, gorgeous soaps and the occassional opportunity to soak in a lovely bath...

Tara Dennis

love this colour

Okay, I am dreaming here...

I am not sure where I got these two beautiful images from...

please let me know if they are yours, or you know who deserves credit.

Okay lovelies, thoughts...ideas...inspiration...guidance?

I would love to hear from you....

Bigs hugs!

Cath