Bathroom progresses- coping with chaos!

[Mickey]

Hi All,

Just thought I would share some 'nearly finished after' photos of our main bathroom, sadly we didn't take any of the 'before' because it was horrific.....rat holes in the flooring, wee impregnated carpet, chocolate brown plastic bath, brown basin, toilet and bidet :shock:

We are pleased with the results, just wish the rest of the house was finished. We are still battling the leaking wall and are now facing removal of the coping stones in order to pump in lime mortar since the top of the wall is full of massive voids and crumbling mortar, that's a job for the spring though.
Mickey

 

[Mickey]

and another

 

[angrybird]

It's lovely to see all the bathroom pics. I do love a good photo

I've included a photo of my first floor bathroom it's very compact and bijou ! and should NOT have that ceiling light before you all shout

J x

 

[JoceAndChris]

Ooh I'm loving all these bathroom piccies! Thanks to everyone and if you haven't posted yours please do! So interesting to see how you've all made (excellent ) use of the space and the fittings!

Mickey are those Imperial fittings? They look very good. I was so tempted by those tiles as well! A classic early 20th C look! Looks great. Another massive transformation by the sounds of things!

Angry bird I really like the chandelier, do you mean you shouldn't have it because it isn't bathroom rated? You can get bathroom rated chandeliers. I'm really thinking about one! We're doing panelling, can you tell me how you achieved your lovely panelling? Do you miss the shower or are you fortunate enough to have one elsewhere? We've spent years arguing over this issue, Chris likes showers, I like showers too but need the odd bath especially after injury which happens an awful lot with my tennis!

Anyway all looking simply great and very motivational.

 

[Mickey]

Thanks Joce,

All the fittings excl. taps and shower screen are Burlington. Tiles are a bit Victorian public convenience but I like them, they are made to look handmade if that makes sense rather than the flat uniform metro type and it is an old Vic school after all

I like the panelling too both old and new.

Good luck with the bathroom and I do feel your pain, although we had another functional bathroom during that refurb I was without a kitchen apart from a microwave for 5 months and lugged all the washing up outside to the utility, thankfully it was quite a good summer so we could bbq but I still never want to see another microwave ready meal!

All the best
Mickey

 

[angrybird]

Thank you Joce
The chandelier isn't bathroom rated I'm afraid I never knew there was such a thing!
The paneling is water resistant MDF painted in Little Greene intelligent egg shell
the bath was only £20 from eBay and they gave me the radiator for nothing, as for a shower I couldn't do without one, that's in the downstairs shower room
J x

 

[mims&pip]

More great bathroom piccies.....thanks so much for sharing, everyone

In the red bathroom (it was actually Laura Ashley Raspberry :wink: ) on the previous page we fitted a non-bathroom rated chandy. It was a Christopher Wray ceiling fitting with swag details in a burnished gold and nickel finish. Our electrician didn't want to be associated with it, hanging as it did above a bath with shower over, so my dad put it up for us! Can't find a pic right now (we completed that bathroom in c1999, so it predates us having a digital camera), but it complemented the swagged decoupage I had going on in the room - see side of roll top bath (I also applied these as a border beneath the picture rail, only doing so as I'd cut out too many for the hall at our previous house and felt it was a shame to waste them). The whole room theme was based on those left over photocopied swags, lol :lol:

I'm getting serious bathroom envy with all these lovely examples. Unfortunately our (one and only) bathroom here is more of a 'before' than an 'after' and unless our plans to move in the New Year change, is likely to remain that way. We had planned to fit in an additional bathroom/shower room on the second floor, but looks as though that's not going to happen either, but I can live vicariously through Joce's project :wink:

Mims x

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mims you are so sweet! I'm a bit wary of us piddling everyone else off with our decorations but maybe there does need to be a bit of feminine frippery on here from time to time!

Sorry, blokes, just avoid my threads if they're annoying! :lol:
I did notice the cut out swag on the side of your roll top bath and wondered if you'd done a Print Room. I can't believe I now know three other people who've done this! You, the antique dealer in Lincoln and my friend Claire Brainerd who owns Stubton Hall! ( take a peek at the website - she runs it a A's wedding venue and has done an incredible rescue job on the place) I just love the cut out swags and decoupage!

Interesting about the chandeliers. I will talk to Chris as
I really don't see why I should be forced to have a boring bathroom light when you and angry bird have had chandeliers. That wouldn't be fair!

Love C Wray as well

Angry bird I can't wait to show Chris your panelling - he will be so pleased to see another in moisture resistant MDF.

Mickey the Burlington is fantastic and so so similar to what we've chosen by Imperial. I like period style in an old house especially when it's sitting in a house stuffed with period features!

 

[Hobden]

Just being nosy - what age are your houses? Or should I be able to figure that out from the furniture :wink:

I'm firmly in the shower camp, never really seen the point of baths, but Mrs H insists we have a bath even though she hardly ever uses it. I'd rather have a big stonking shower enclosure and/or the extra space. I wonder when the first showers appeared in houses?

 

[JoceAndChris]

I have seen Victorian campaign showers up for sale and Vicky showers over bath arrangements but very rare and upper class!


My house is Regency -1810 ish - no real idea of the bathroom then. Dorothy Wordsworth had a washstand with a basin of water and that water was made to last 3 days. William bathed in the lake.

I am pretty sure we had running water here in 1810 with the well being served by a hand pump on the side of the building and emerging in the scullery. But the first flushing loo came into my house in the thirties, in a small room carved off the porch, and is still working well and completely intact.

 

[mims&pip]

Thanks Joce

Yes, I've always liked the idea of a print room, although neither of the two I've done were the real thing and nor were they anything like the scale of yours! Back in 1993/4 we painted the hallway of our late Victorian house grey (ahead of our time, lol!) below the dado rail and yellow above it. Below the dado was the original - but rather uninspiring - lincrusta and above we hung lining paper. I then photocopied a gazillion swags found in (iirc) a copy of House Beautiful magazine :wink: I remember spending countless hours painstakingly cutting round each one whilst I was supposed to be running my little shop :roll: It was quite a fair-sized hallway (typical two-storey, four bed detached 'villa' with front door in the centre and staircase round the corner at the end of the hall) and the swags ran throughout. When they were affixed, Pip varnished over the whole area above the dado. There was a window on the landing and I made a grey/black curtain with swagged pelmet for this.

When we moved in 1997 to a larger version (1888, six bed), I found I had some swags left over, but not enough to do the new hall which was vast, plus I wanted a different look for that house (that's where our huge butterfly collection eventually lived). I really wanted to do the whole print room look as you have, but stumbled upon some framed architectural prints, including one in a rather lovely and unusually-shaped black and gold frame, so being lazy decided to use these instead :lol: I think the idea for using the swags/prints in the bathroom came from finding an old urn that we seemed perfect for spare loo rolls, not to mention the side of the roll top bath just crying out for one of those swags

We only have one set of friends that have similar interior ideas as us. Pip has always been convinced they copied us as we were the first to decorate in dark, Victorian colours.....till the day in 2003 I was wandering round a carboot sale on the south coast - where we all lived at that time - and was amazed to see seven rolls of wonderful Zoffany gothic wallpaper on a table. I was even more amazed when the seller said he wanted £5 for the lot!!! Despite this I hesitated. Why? It was the very same wallpaper our friends had just hung in their drawing room - same colourway and everything :shock:

It was too good a bargain to miss though, so I snapped it up and used it in a spare bedroom. To this day we all joke about us copying their choice......

Mims x

 

[mims&pip]

Just being nosy - what age are your houses? Or should I be able to figure that out from the furniture :wink:

I'm firmly in the shower camp, never really seen the point of baths, but Mrs H insists we have a bath even though she hardly ever uses it. I'd rather have a big stonking shower enclosure and/or the extra space. I wonder when the first showers appeared in houses?

Hi Hobden!

Our current house is 1853 with an extension added in Arts & Crafts style in 1924. It is one of only two detached 'cottages' dating from the mid 19th century remaining in our lane. Due to being built into an escarpment, some of our rooms are semi-subterranean. At that time the houses (about ten at that time) were in a rural setting, but the village has now become very built up. The neighbouring properties today range from a rather grand late Victorian house once owned by the village mayor, to much more recent builds. Our original building is three storey plus cellar. The later addition is two storeys. When first built, it had two rooms on each of the three main floors. No bathroom. At the time it was extended a bathroom and separate loo were carved out of one of the first floor bedrooms and on the ground floor a verandah and cloakroom were added. The two storey extension added a further four rooms and balcony.

Previous houses - as per the bathrooms I posted piccies of earlier - were late Victorian and Georgian. We tend to do our bathrooms in fairly traditional, period style, although we do occasionally throw in a few more contemporary touches :wink:

Mims x

 

[Zebra]

Mickey, what's that post just beside the shower?
My house is 1700s but this bathroom is in 20th century extension.
Thank you Joce, yes I did the tiling myself. The windows were made by a local joiner and I fitted and glazed them.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I wondered about that Zebra. Wow to the tiling, I may be asking you for tips shortly! How flat does the wall need to be underneath? On our bathroom end wall I'm hacking away the gypsum skim. Underneath is mainly lime plaster is good order but I've hit a section where it seems to be not a gypsum skim but a gypsum something else :? Like pink rock rather than the flaky rubbish on top. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion the wall was skimmed to provide a nice level surface for tiling - the entire bathroom was tiled. I think where the wall seriously bows out they've stuck in this pink rock type stuff I'm having a job to get off. The tiling area will be much less, just behind the shower, and the other part of the wall panelled, so I'm hoping to get away with a wonkier wall and the old lime plaster as a base.

Mims you've had an absolutely fascinating history with house projects and have been lucky to put a magic touch on some real gems by the sounds of it! Great to hear about your semi Print Room projects! Lovely to have that interest and passion, and to have had a lot of chances to put your skills to work! I sometimes feel sad Beacon Cottage had me as a virgin bride and I'll never leave! What will I do once it's done?? You have another project to look forwards to as well 8)

 

[JoceAndChris]

I'm firmly in the shower camp, never really seen the point of baths, but Mrs H insists we have a bath even though she hardly ever uses it. I'd rather have a big stonking shower enclosure and/or the extra space. I wonder when the first showers appeared in houses?

I just spent about a year arguing with Chris over this bath for the very issue you raise.

My idea was the bath would live in the dining room behind a very pretty giltwood screen I have. I'd light a fire, wheel this bath into the hallway which is adjacent to our bathroom. I'd use a short hose to fill the bath, and then wheel it to the fire. And bathe with roaring flames, candles, and wine! Afterwards I planned to place a submersible pump in my bath water and another hose and open the dining room window, run the hose out and let it drain onto my rose garden beneath! This brilliant plan would have freed up our one and only bathroom to be a nice big shower room! But Chris wouldn't agree the plan! Nevertheless I'm posting this as I feel it's pure genius and someone out there may trial it for me!

 

[88v8]

Tall short bath. Our bathroom here, a poky 1960s addition, houses a bath, but for me it's at least a foot too short.

I had vague plans for going through the outside wall just at bath level, and building a sort of mock bread oven to cover the resultant external bulge, but there is a huge old clematis out there that I'm not willing to disturb.
Then there is the possibility of eating a lump out of the adjacent shower room/loo but for various reasons that doesn't work.
OH suggested a tall short bath, but shamefully I hadn't thought of an antique.

Have you used one? Do they permit a satisfying soak?

In our previous bathroom I bathed twice a week, lit the fire in the winter, long bath in the long bath.

Bath. Civilisation.
Shower. Pah.

Ivor

 

[mims&pip]

Ivor, I have to agree.......baths are civilised, showers not so much :lol:

The bath we installed at our last house - see piccies about half way down the first page of this thread, the one in the peachy coloured room (paint was actually Gobelin Cream, which made our plumber chuckle!) - was short and relatively deep. I wasn't a fan - not that I'm particularly tall at 5' 6 - but it wasn't deep enough to compensate for the lack of length, imho.....

Otoh, the one that Joce posted is to die for and the suggestion of bathing by a roaring fire with copious wine and candles sounds divine.......although the accompanying blurb does state that it's not water tight :shock:

We nearly bought a (new) copper bath a few houses back. Pip's best friend who is in the industry (he's now MD of Arte Form so that ship has sailed) was going to get us one, then we had second thoughts as we knew we'd be selling the house at some point in the not too distant future and opted to put in a Sottini roll top*. In a 'forever' house such as Joce's it would have been a different story!!!

At the last house Pip almost persuaded me to get a Japanese bath which are also small but deep. I like the idea, but they don't exactly scream "period house" and we wanted at least one bathroom there that wasn't contemporary! Love Tubby baths too, but they're even tinier :lol:

Mims x

*It pains me to admit it but I settled for a hot tub instead!

 

[Mickey]

Hi Zebra & Joce,

the post is one of two cast iron supports for the beam holding up the cross wing - our house is and old Victorian school with the first wing, one long school room with a porch and bell tower built 1846 and then subsequent cross wing and mirror image large school room the other side added on later (sorry don't think I explained that very well but hope you get the gist!) We also have a massive cast iron support for the beam which runs front to back - see photo below.

Mickey

 

[Zebra]

I sometimes feel sad Beacon Cottage had me as a virgin bride and I'll never leave!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Zebra]

the post is one of two cast iron supports for the beam holding up the cross wing

Very interesting!