En-suite Bathroom Makeover

I’ve been a rubbish blogger recently. I’ve even been too busy to do much on Instagram as this en-suite makeover has taken over my life (& house) a bit for the past couple of weeks. Everywhere has been a building site with random bits of wood, paint & all sorts gracing rooms which I haven’t even bothered to clean because workmen are messy little tikes so it’d be completely pointless.

I feel like i’ve lost my ‘mojo’ slightly due to this as firstly I haven’t really left the house or seen anyone much with workmen (who you can never trust with a bargepole half the time) wondering round the house. Did anyone play the sims & when they didn’t leave the house they’d get all miserable? Well that’s how i’ve been feeling; stir crazy.  Plus when the house is messy I just end up feeling a bit deflated & stressed out by the whole situation, BUT, boy oh boy has it been worth it.


So this is actually the last room to be decorated in the entire house. We moved in when I was 8 months pregnant in March, so have basically made-over 16 rooms (including hallway/landing & so on…) in 7 months whilst either heavily pregnant or with a new baby & a 2 year old. Call me crazy….I think you may be right. The en-suite had been redone about 18 months prior to us purchasing the house with probably one of the biggest baths you’ve ever seen, however it really wasn’t my ‘style’. The bath was so big that it offered no support & i’d just bob around in it like a swimming pool, the shower had some sort of problem so always came out cold, the toilet would leak at the bottom, the drawer on the sink unit would always randomly open & all in all it was just a bit too modern/plain/black & white (literally).

BEFORE –



We visited The Pig – Brockenhurst last month for our 1 year wedding Anniversary (see my blog post here) & I literally fell in LOVE with the place, but mostly with the roll top bath that graced our room. I immediately knew I just HAD to have one. Everything kind of went from there….I saw the floor tiles via Instagram as someone had visited a showroom & (thankfully as I literally couldn’t love them more…) posted a picture, I absolutely love panelling so that was an obvious choice. The Mirror I found on Gumtree & the angel wings I bought from Home Sense last month but hadn’t found a suitable home for them yet.


Unfortunately, everything that could have gone wrong…did.

Friday 2nd October – the ensuite is removed by a handyman I found on Gumtree for £80 per day. You kind of get what you pay for & i’ve learnt that in this instance. Unfortunately he hadn’t disconnected the pipe to the bath properly as after we’d bathed the littles in the main bathroom (& I jumped in with them) the water began pouring down into the kitchen. It was quite comical looking back as I was upstairs drying my hair, only to hear my darling husband screaming downstairs so I ran down butt-naked in a panic, then slipped in the water & skidded across the soaking wet floor into the dog bed. I still have a bruised bottom. You can’t really tell in the below pics but everywhere was drenched. 
Saturday 3rd October – Joe & I started removing the tiles. Unfortunately they didn’t quite play ball so upon taking them off….the entire wall came with them. This was a nightmare as then we had to get new plasterboard as well as pay the handyman to fit said plasterboard plus a plasterer to skim it! I didn’t take a photo of the wall down because my stupid phone ran out of storage (as always) but you get the gist i’m sure. 
Monday 5th October – I arranged for sheets of plasterboard to be delivered whilst I was out wedding dress shopping with my bestie. As it was raining, I specifically told the company to call Joe 1 hour before delivery for him to come home from work. Unfortunately I came home to some very soggy plasterboard left down the driveway.
Tuesday 6th October – tiles get delivered, all broken.
Wednesday 7th October – delivery of the bathroom suite is cancelled as the courier had ‘lost’ the entire suite….told it’d be delayed until Tuesday 14th October. 
Monday 13th October – bathroom suite magically appeared after several angry phone calls on Friday 9th October. It is fitted, then that evening I notice that not only is the sink leaking all out of the back when the taps are turned on, but that the toilet leaks all at the base when flushed & the radiator gushes out water when the heating is turned on. 
Tuesday 14th October – handyman comes back to rectify what we thought was his mistakes, only to find out that it’s just the shockingly bad quality suite so he has to buy additional fittings other than the supplied to stop the leaks. Plus the toilet had a hole in which had been basically ‘bodged’ by the manufacturer. Another angry phone call & a new toilet is sent out on next day delivery. 
DURING – 


Paint wise, I wanted a pale sage green so bought these tester pots from Wilko’s, they are, from left to right, English Folly (very similar to Farrow & Ball ‘Vert de Terre’ in my hallway & downstairs toilet but for 1/3 of the price, will definitely use this at some point), Whispering Sage & English Sage. Unfortunately after painting a bit of panelling (& some advice from two of my favourite lovely ladies of Instagram @joannalouise87 & @gettingstuffdoneinheels) I decided green wasn’t going to go, so played it safe with my absolute favourite Wilko’s ‘Coastline’ (my wall paint colour in my bedroom & dining room) however it came out a really different colour on the MDF panelling than on a wall…..in a good way! Plus I had some in the shed so that didn’t cost me a penny. The walls & skirting were painted in Home of Colour (Homebase) ‘Brilliant White’.

This is the timeframe (if everything had gone to plan!) –
Friday 2nd October – handyman remove existing suite (1/2 day)
Saturday 3rd October – we remove all the tiles….which obviously also removed half the wall (1/2 day)
Tuesday 6th October – handyman put up new plasterboard (1/2 day) then plasterer comes to skim it (3 hours)
Thursday 8th October – handyman fits new skirting board & easi-panels (like in our hallway & downstairs toilet) fitted (full day)
Friday 9th October – handyman tiles floor (full day)
Saturday 10th October – I grout the tiles (3 hours)
Sunday 11th October – I then paint the skirting, panelling & walls (full day)
Monday 12th October – new suite fitted (full day)

COST –
Handyman – £340
Plasterer – £100
Plasterboard (walls) & plywood (flooring) – £88.74
Tiles – £150
Bathroom suite – £480
Radiator – £125
Panelling – £175
Paint – £10
Skirting – £36
Mirror – £45
Angel Wings – £25
Other supplies including tile adhesive, grout, glue etc – £60
TOTAL – £1634.74

I found the suite on eBay for a bargain price (including taps & all fittings) for £480 including P&P from Comparethebathroom.com, I also got the most beautiful radiator/towel rail from them too which was £125 including P&P. Unfortunately you get what you pay for & they really aren’t great quality at all so expect to pay a plumber to use better quality fixtures/fittings than those supplied….I can’t fault their customer service but still wouldn’t purchase their products again. 

I did budget £1,300 however lots of things came up unexpectedly like plasterboard/plasterer. I think with projects like this you have to over compensate as things always seem to crop up…or in my case several things. I managed to sell the existing suite for £150 on Gumtree, the mirror for £10 on Gumtree & the radiator for £20 to the handyman so it wasn’t too bad. It is worth every penny in my eyes though. 

AFTER – 


Bathroom sign – Matalan
Over bath caddy – Home Bargains (£6.99!)
Artificial Peonies – Next (£10.00)

Mirror – Gumtree


Hot bath sign – The Range


Heart candle holder – The Range
Toilet brush – Matalan


Glass jar – Home Bargains
Rinse & lotion – The Range
Pamper me box – B&M


All you need is love bespoke art – Gingerhearts

This is now my absolute favourite room in the house. I can’t stop staring at it & it is my idea of bathroom heaven! I’m looking forward to many hot bubble baths over the next few cold months of Winter.


Love, Charlotte x 

11 Comments

  1. October 15, 2015 / 8:28 pm

    Wow looks beautiful- love the tiles 🙂 was worth all the hard work in the end

    All things nice…

  2. October 16, 2015 / 4:44 pm

    Really lovely 🙂

  3. October 17, 2015 / 12:37 pm

    It looks amazing! So annoying everything went wrong.. this is what happens to us everytime we try to do something haha! x

  4. October 17, 2015 / 3:16 pm

    Is it possible to love a room in someone else's home? I love it all can't believe you've completely transformed it for just over 1.5k!! It ties in so much better with the rest of your home now xxx

  5. October 19, 2015 / 11:49 am

    I'm literally in love with it too! Luckily it is in my house so I can stare at it all day long paha x

  6. October 19, 2015 / 11:50 am

    I feel like it's put me off doing anything big again…i'll stick to decorating that I can do myself in future eeek x

  7. November 25, 2015 / 12:51 pm

    It looks lovely! 🙂 Can i be cheeky and ask where you got the tiles from please? Im in love with them! 🙂 xxx

  8. Adele Morgan
    July 28, 2018 / 8:37 pm

    Hi. Love your bathroom. Looking to get the coastline paint for panelling. Did you use gloss or satin Wilkinson’s paint?
    Thank you for your time
    Adele
    X