#FOLLYMILLRENO BATHROOM

As I'm working on more residential projects, I thought it might be a good idea to share our own house renovation.  I personally love looking into homes of others, an addict of interiors magazines and my Instagram usage is off the scale!

So first up is our Bathroom.  In all the houses we have lived in we have never done a full bathroom makeover.  I don't think I have deliberated so long on any project of our own.  I didn't want to make a mistake and I had to work out what I really wanted within a realistic budget.

The Brief
The house was built in the 1960's so had a separate toilet and bathroom, so we knocked down the wall between the two and bricked up the door leading into the toilet.  The toilet door was at the top of the stairs and my complete bug bare was the boys leaving the toilet door open even whilst going to the loo! Our front door has glass panels in, so that was a delightful view, even from outside!  I definitely knew that doorway had to go! 

The toilet was to be moved, facing into the room to create space for a walk in shower.  I was determined to squeeze one into the small space as I didn't want a corner shower with an ill fitting shower screen.  Some suggested getting rid of the bath, but that was non negotiable.  I love my baths, especially after a long day in the shop!  The bath had to fit behind the door, so the challenge was to get one to fit exactly and wasn't too narrow.  It transpires that lots of baths have quite wide sides and not very wide at the bottom.  I definitely needed a wide bottom!

The Design
We definitely wanted black taps, so that was the start of our design.  You have to start somewhere!  With black taps, the look was clearly going to be quite contemporary, although I was hoping to add something rusty and distressed!

I also knew I wanted lots of Green, either in plants, towels or products!  Whilst I wasn't planning on going with a monochrome scheme, I knew that I should play it safe with the tiles rather than going with a Green patterned tile that I loved, so they wouldn't date and I could change the colour scheme completely if I wanted to.  So my hunt was on for white tiles for the shower, wall and floors.  How difficult could that be?  Quite difficult as it happened!

I'd seen many bathrooms in the US lay tiles vertically, including the swoon worthy renovation of Mandy Moore's 1950's Mid Century home in Pasadena. Whilst they don't show the bathroom here, check out her Architectural Digest tour and you'll know what I mean!! So I decided on slim metro tiles laid vertically and horizontally rather than the popular brick and herringbone design that most people go for. I chose the same Lampas tiles from Topps Tiles, laid vertically in the shower and horizontally around the walls with grey grout in the shower to make them look a little different. 

I'd had every sample of patterend black and white tile known to man and still couldn't decide, so I bought large plain Abrasio tiles in Steel that looked like concrete from Topps Tiles. It was the week that the bathroom started that I found the Astro black and white tile from Your Tiles. Yes, I was still looking, so clearly wasn't 100% happy with my choice!  A similar design to the Ca Pietra Lily Pad tile I really wanted, but couldn't justify the cost.

I've bought tiles from Your Tiles in the past, for our hearth and front porch. I definitely recommend them, their service is excellent. So the concrete tiles went back and the Astro tiles arrived the night before Stuart was due to lay them!

I really wanted a Crittal style Black shower screen, but whilst it was never an option (as we couldn't afford it!), I'm so glad we didn't.  As its a relatively small bathroom, the full height glass panels from Drench make the room look so much bigger.  I would have much preferred the supports in black, rather than Chrome, but we had to compromise somewhere!

The cost of Black powder coated taps varied dramatically.  We are very happy with the Iker Matte taps and shower we sourced from Soak.  We had to get quite a narrow sink due to the walk in shower, so my plans to 'roughen up' the bathroom with a distressed Green table from Hungary that I'd saved for two years were thrown out the window! We found a slimline unit in Ikea with two deep drawers so everything can be hidden away, much more practical! I'm really happy with it.

I was planning to paint the walls a dark Green, possibly Poison by Zoffany.  Then I saw an image on Pinterest and loved the colour with the black and green plants and thought it might be a little more restful than a dramatic colour.  The colour was Peignoir by Farrow & Ball which we painted on the walls and ceiling, I love it! A combination of Pink and Grey, but if my husband or sons ask, it's definitely not Pink!

I did think it was rather indulgent, but my husband really wanted Quartz window sills. We had a few arguments over it at the time, but I loved visiting the workshop to choose them and they do make the bathroom!  I'll listen to him in future!

The Finishing Touches
Once I'd finally made a decision on the main elements, I could start sourcing the finishing touches. The fun part!  I had been collecting some things over time, vintage green bottles, French preserve jars and faux plants.  I didn't really want to clutter it all up, so I bought some black metal Hiba shelves from La Redoute. I'm saving the large one for elsewhere.  I was planning to have some of our photographs blown up from our holiday in California, but unfortunatley the resolution wasn't high enough, so I sourced some prints from Desenio with a similar feel. 

Green towels from H&M Home and lovely handwash and shower gel from &Other Stories the smell of this one is divine, very masculine! And to finish it off, real and faux plants, vintage stool and First Aid tin from our shop, Vintage Style Living

I am thrilled with it!  The endless hours of searching and sourcing were all worth it, we all love it!

I hope you've enjoyed the tour!  Any questions, do let me know.
Visit Highlights on Instagram #vintagestyleliving for a virtualtour
#follymillreno