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January 18, 2017

The Budget Bathroom Challenge

One of the great things about being an interior designer in Cumbria is that I see jobs of all shapes and sizes. And contrary to what you might think I enjoy the budget jobs just as much as those with more to spend. The Northerner in me loves to see how far I can stretch a budget and still achieve a bit of wow. A few months ago I wrote about my Budget Bathroom Challenge. The bathroom was finished well before Christmas but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and there were a couple of minor snags to fix before I showed you the finished result. And now it’s ready for its close up….hold on to your hats you won’t recognise this room.

The Budget Bathroom Challenge

If you’re a regular reader of my blog (thank you lovely people) you might remember this is the customer who knew his house needed work, particularly his bathroom and kitchen. But a combination of time, budget, overwhelming choices and the upheaval had caused him to procrastinate. That is until he slipped in the shower and pulled the curtain rail down and some of the tiles off the wall. That was when he called me.

Budget bathroom - before image

As you can see the bathroom was more than a little tired. But because of the size it had huge potential.

Budget bathroom - before image

It even had lots of existing storage space which we could improve.

Budget bathroom - before image

The Plan

Changing layout is something you should try to avoid if you’re on a tight budget because of the cost of labour and materials but the customer was desperate for a separate shower. We also knew we would need to plaster the whole room, another additional cost. So to keep it within budget I shopped around for fixtures and fittings, limited new lighting and suggested a sheet vinyl floor and acrylic panels instead of tiles which we would limit to wet areas.

As the property is Victorian we wanted to keep some traditional elements. However, traditional bathroom fittings tend to be more expensive than contemporary ones so we made a small saving by keeping the existing sink and just replacing the taps. (Tip – look for tap packs rather separate sets for the bath and sink to save a few pennies).

Bringing in separate trades to do everything can also be expensive, and make your project take longer but I work with a great fitter Ben Butler Joinery & Home Improvements. and Ben (and his colleague Will) do everything except plastering and painting which is a godsend.

Modern bathroom with traditional elements in a Victorian terrance house designed by Amelia Wilson Interiors

I was initially planning a pistachio green colour to add warmth and a contrast to all the white fittings, but I then discovered the customers favourite colour was blue….. So goodbye pistachio, hello Windblown Blue by Valspar.

Budget Bathroom - Windblown Blue by Valspar paint

The Final Reveal

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

I’ll pause for a moment so you can scroll back up to check this is the same bathroom……

So the finished bathroom now has a large walk in shower enclosure with a powerful 2-outlet thermostatic shower and recessed storage for shampoo bottles. I originally planned to include a heated towel radiator above the bath and a tall column radiator by the door until I found this Tissimo towel radiator which gives out a whopping 4649 BTU’s which is plenty hot enough for this bathroom. (Tip – buy a plumbed towel radiator and a dual fuel element so that you can run the radiator off the electric in the summer to dry your towels).

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

Check out that stone flag effect vinyl floor, looks like tile doesn’t it?

We managed to squeeze a 1600mm long bath under the window. Thats only 10cm shorter than a standard bath, so unless you’re a giant you’d probably never notice.

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

This left plenty of space for the toilet and sink on the wall next to it. There’s nothing worse than knocking your knees on the bath when you sit down, or cracking your elbow on the sink when you reach for the loo roll.

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

We used white metro tile effect acrylic wall panels inside the shower, behind the bath and above the sink. If it wasn’t for the fact that most people use grey grout these days and these sheets are all white they’d be easily mistaken for tiles.

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

The old cupboards had old shutter style doors and very few shelves which were slatted so stuff would fall through. The customer now has much better storage with access to the boiler, space for the laundry bin, and extra shelves for toiletries and towels. And you’ll have to take my word for it as I’m not showing you a picture of the shelves. Toiletries and packs of loo roll aren’t pretty and would spoil my post….

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

We were economical with the lighting to keep costs down and just replaced the central light fitting and added a matching wall light above the mirror and a recessed spot above the shower.

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

And lastly, a new window blind from my favourite online supplier Blinds2Go. They do a great range of very affordable made to measure blinds and curtains and will send you free samples which always gets my vote.

Light modern budget bathroom with traditional elements in Victorian terrace by Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd

Budget

This is a good sized bathroom, everything except the sink had to be replaced, and we needed to do a lot of joinery, plastering, plumbing and electrical work. For a project like this you can typically expect to spend at least £7-8k, but (drum roll please) we did all this for just over £5,000 proving two things:

  • Employing an interior designer can save you money
  • Budget can still be beautiful

And most importantly the customer loves it. What do you think?

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AMELIA WILSON INTERIORS LTD

Tel: 01946 861 194
Mob: 07712 079 728
Email: [email protected]

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A Note from Amelia

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Amelia Wilson Interiors Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales. Company number: 09446883. Registered address: Holly Cottage, 4 Asby Lane, Asby, Workington, CA14 4RT.
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