Upstairs Bathroom Renovation, part 2

I'd like to talk about my plans for this bathroom renovation and how it's all going to come together. In an ideal world, I could walk into a place and say, "Give me that, that, that, and that," but first off, that would be expensive and also I literally haven't found one place that has everything I want. There are approximately 1 trillion bathroom renovation places in Ireland and they're all basically flogging different price points of the same stuff. The fashion, it seems, is to make a bathroom with floor to ceiling tiles in some sort of grey or beige colour and shiny fixtures that look like a hotel. Well, I love staying in hotels but I wouldn't want to live in one.

That's all a long way of saying I am cobbling this bathroom together piecemeal -- or cherry picking, if you will. If you clicked on my Twitter thread from my last post, you probably have a good idea of what I've been considering for the design. Unfortunately, my tastes are a lot more expensive than my bank account, so I've got to find a way to get the look I want for the price I can pay.

Let's start with the tub. You can spend a lot of money on a tub. Luckily, space dictates that I get a small tub (150cm by 70cm). And while I'd love to get a cool tub with jets and bells and whistles, that's simply not in the budget. So we're going to go with basically the least expensive tub available. How much is that, you ask? Well, I think I'm going to go super budget and get this tub for €102.

I was going back and forth in my mind because there are squared off ones that I like the look of, but cost 30 to 40 euros more. I have a lot of right angles planned for this room, and since I had already decided to go for rounded sinks, I thought the rounded edges of this tub would go with those, thus justifying being a cheapskate! 

Speaking of sinks (known in the bathroom game as basins), I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to use a vintage sideboard for my basins -- I'm going with a double sink so that I no longer have to feel rushed when I'm brushing my teeth at night! You may have seen these kinds of projects on pinterest. Something like this: 

There are loads of examples online featuring all different kinds of sideboards, dressers, and cabinets. I was on the lookout for something mid-century like this, but I also had some pretty strict size requirements. I was aiming for 120cm wide and no more than 140cm. A lot of those mid-century sideboards are looooong! And what's more, the ones I found were either just slightly not what I was looking for, or they were out of my price range. I also was looking for something kind of rustic looking -- NOT SHABBY CHIC, mind you! But something that didn't look new. After trolling the different used furniture websites for several weeks, I finally came upon a piece that I thought I could work with, and the price is right - €40! Even after I pay for the man with the van to collect it and bring it to my house, it still will be in the €100 range. However, it needs some TLC. Some heathen painted it, so I'll have to strip it back to the wood and refinish it. Luckily, I enjoy these kinds of projects:

It was made by Tibbenham furniture makers in Ipswich, England so I think I'll be able to remove the paint, sand it down, and finish it off with a nice water resistant oil for the look that I'm going for. I like the clean lines of this piece, and I like that it doesn't go all the way down to the floor, so it won't look too heavy. And if it turns out that the wood can't be re-finished, I'm happy to paint it a cool colour. I also figured that if I want to upgrade in the future, I totally can.

So what about the basins that will sit on top of it? I wrote a long thing about doing a countertop basin, but the thing about this sideboard is that it's 89cm high. Your average pedestal sink is about 80cm high, so it's already sitting on the high side for a bathroom sink. Therefore, I'm wary of doing a countertop basin and bringing the height up even more. For a recessed sink, I could go with two basins, or I could also go with a double sink that is one piece. This one, for example, would leave 8cm on either side and basically take up the whole depth. 

But I worry that it won't look good with that centre drawer section that comes out. Also, I had hoped to do something more rounded as a contrast to the straight lines of the sideboard. So, I could go the traditional route, like one of these (with a different tap, of course):

This would leave me with about 11.5cm on either side and between the two sinks. I think with a black tap, this could end up looking pretty cool. That one on the right is only about €50 (each), which I think is pretty affordable.

Speaking of taps, I want to go with black taps! But black taps tend to be on the pricier side. Also, it's harder to find inexpensive black taps that have the stark, minimalist look that I want. I took to ebay, and here's what I found. For the bath tap, even though it's going to take some construction to build out the wall for these, I think it's going to be super worth it because I absolutely love this tap and I found it on ebay for €55.

For the sink taps, I found these guys, which are about €36 each.

One annoying thing is that living in Cabra, we really don't want to go without an electric shower. We had a very bad experience living in a place without one and let's just say I took many a cold shower with zero water pressure in that place. But electric showers are uuuuuuugly. Even the expensive ones are ugly! So that will put a damper on my lovely design choices - seeing that ugly electric shower there. 

As for the electric shower, I'm undecided whether to get a new one or whether to just relocate the one that is in our current bathroom. I guess the reason why I'm hesitant is that it's probably about 15 years old and it's kind of a miracle it's lasted this long. It makes a sort of high pitched whining sound sometimes, too. So I'll probably replace it. But then - which one to choose? No matter what, I will probably spray paint it a matte black to match the rest of my fixtures. I mean - why not? They have this cool rubber paint now that might work.

And speaking of the shower, I want to talk about the bath enclosure! I have had my eye on some cool industrial ones, like this:

 

But actually you can't find them in Ireland. And the ones outside Ireland are about six times a normal bath screen anyways. So I decided I can easily DIY this look with a bit of black spray paint and some small strips of metal or wood. And if I want to add the frosted effect, they've frosted glass paint for that as well! Here's a photo of a white screen from Argos so you can visualise what I'm talking about. It's €100. I think it would be easy to turn into something resembling the photo above, especially with the tile grid in the background.

Other bits and bobs: I would like to put in a shaver outlet in a hidden cabinet between the door and the bathtub. This would also be where the shower switch would be located, and where we'd keep our towels and other sundries. But I haven't sourced that yet. Likely I'll buy some kind of second hand piece of furniture. 

Also, even though there is a window, I'm considering whether we'll need an extractor fan installed and whether that can go in the ceiling and shoot into the attic, or rather through the attic and outside. That will be an extra cost to consider. 

I might talk about tiles and colour palettes in a separate post. This one has taken longer than expected!