My bathroom was a relic of the bygone days when blue lino was all the rage and feature tiles with artful designs every fifth tile were the thing du jour. A renovation was long, long overdue.There’s really no easy time to do building work, particularly around kitchens and bathrooms that are heavily used all day everyday with a family and with kids it is somewhat of a struggle but I figured it wasn’t going to get easier and I just had to do it. So this year I bit the bullet and decided to undertake a bathroom renovation in a 1911 house in Auckland, New Zealand, using tiles from Tile Depot, Phoenix taps from MICO, Athena bathtub, Michel Cesar vanity, and a vintage dressing-table mirror. My builder was Steven Cope of Scope Building, and many thanks to Anya Brighouse for helpful advice.
Here are my photos of the bathroom renovation.
BEFORE
The walls had the original horizontal tongue and groove timber, and you can see wide planks beyond those.
The bath was ripped out and moved from the right hand wall to the left hand wall and a kitchen cupboard removed that took up bathroom space. Everything got inspected by cats.
I was delighted to see the Matai wood planks underneath the blue linoleum flooring.
A little helper.
Indoor-outdoor flow? The outside toilet could be a lovely new feature for any home.
Here’s the floorboards after being sanded.
AFTER
Here’s the after pic of the gorgeous Matai flooring under the blue lino.
Bathroom storage ideas all from Ezibuy. Jute rug, ladder shelf, and bath wine glass holder – I mean, soap rack – from Ezibuy Home.
Tiles are rectangular subway tiles from The Tile Depot. I went with a medium grey grout as white grout gets dirty quickly and I like the graphic look of the outlines.
The toilet is the Grande from Mico.
Bath is an Athena corner free-standing bath tub from Mico. The bath was a tricky part of the reno, as I loved the look of free-standing baths but you can’t have a shower head over them as the water falls onto the floor around them which rots the timber. You usually have free-standing baths as a bathtub only, and have a separate shower. Due to limited space, we couldn’t have a separate shower so needed to have the shower over the bath, so a corner fitted free-standing look bath was the solution.
The vanity is the longest vanity I could buy to fit the length of the wall, to optimise storage. I do have a lot of makeup! I chose the Michel Cesar Moode white vanity in white oak with two drawers and a marbled top. My husband joked it was already perfect for flatlays on. The taps are Phoenix in Vivid in gun metal.
The oak-backed round wall mirror was actually a dressing table mirror and it was a vintage find for $10 at Hospice opshop. I thought having something old in a modern bathroom was nice and suits the age of the house.
Relaxing and celebrating the new bathroom with a glass in the bath!
Megan Robinson
26 November 2018