Downstairs Bathroom Flooring

To follow up from my last post on the new bathroom I thought I'd show you the layout of the downstairs bathroom.  The plan above is the layout of the bathroom when we bought the house.  Excuse my crude scribbles, it's roughly drawn!  As you know from the last post we ripped out the corner shower unit and redid the layout.  We moved the toilet to where the shower had been and placed the new bath under the window.  I much prefer the new room, it's a very small space - just 9' x 6' 8" - but that makes it cosy!  Below is the new layout after we did our recent renovation,

I forgot to mention the floor tiles in the last post.  These were another great bargain buy . . .

I bought the porcelain 12" x 12" tiles at Budget Tiles, Kinsale Road Roundabout, Cork for just over €1 per sq ft or €10 per sq metre!!   I bought 7 sq m - that's €70 for ALL the tiles.  I like them because they have a similar colouring to marble.  Needless to say the floors weren't level!  We also wanted to take out the wooden 'saddle' between the tiles in the bathroom and the wooden floor in the hall.  

This is a saddle between the kitchen and back hall.   (Darcy getting in on the action . . . )

To do this we needed to raise the bathroom floor a good inch to level it with the hall floor.  Despite saving money on the tiles, we spent a small fortune on levelling compound.  It also meant alot of drying time but at least now there's a seamless flow between the two areas.  

We're actually taking out all the saddles throughout the downstairs to make a seamless flow from room to room.  Criostoir, our baby, has special needs (he's 3 but because he can't walk - yet - he's still my baby : )  His special high chair has wheels and keeps getting caught on the saddles.  So they're all coming out.  Even though we had to get rid of them I much prefer the downstairs without saddles, much better flow between rooms.  Criostoir is also getting too heavy to carry upstairs so we're moving him to the downstairs bedroom.  His new bedroom is nearly finished, so more photos to come soon.  

The Downstairs Bathroom Before & After

At last, the downstairs bathroom is finished! Phew! Didn't think it would take so long but got there in the end!  I LOVE bargains and rummaging around antique, vintage and second hand jumk shops which is just as well as I had a tight budget - I have to say I got some nice bargains.  When I first started the room I was going to use chrome or satin nickel finish taps etc I've always disliked gold taps - thought they were a bit tacky!  but I when I bought the bath it had brass taps in a gold finish and the more I looked at it the gold taps the more I liked them, the colour is so aged and warm, so decided to keep them.  But I did want a shower and tap mixer for cleaning the bath (it only came with two taps) so I bought a shower/bath mixer set and switched out the taps and put the taps from the bath onto the sink (that had very ugly chrome taps).

Before . . . 

The bathroom was very tired and in need of an overhaul.  Also, the layout wasn't ideal for a bath, so we rejigged things.  We put the bath in front of the window and moved the toilet to where the shower had been giving us much better floor area.

During . . . 

I love tongue in groove panelling, I decided to go for this over tiles on the walls because I felt it had a warmer feel and added more character to the room. 

Originally I wanted to put Cornforth White on here, a pale grey colour but when I tried the sample pot it was way too dark.  This is a small room facing North West so doesn't have great light.   Here I'm trying out Strong White (top left) Skimming Stone (bottom left) Blackened (top right) and Great White (bottom right) all by Farrow & Ball.  I actually liked all of them but ended up going for Farrow & Ball Pointing on the panelling and Strong White on the upper wall.  

After. . . 

 Before . . .

 During . . .

After . . .

Before . . .

The main reason we started this particular project was because we wanted to take out the shower unit and put in a bath.   Then the tiles were hacked off and the whole area replastered.  All the fittings we took out I sold through ads rather than putting them on a skip.

 After . . .

 

Before . . .

 

After . . .

 

I have two of these mirrors but the problem is I want to use them everywhere - I love them!

 Before . . .

After . . .

 Phew!  Almost done, my husband Niall (its the Irish version of Neill and is pronounced like the English Neill) just had to fill the holes left by the old wall lights.

Niall trying to explain how to fill holes properly while I'm trying to make him laugh for the camera!

 Work done, time for some fun . . .some flowers . . 

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some candlelight . . .

 

I really enjoyed doing up this room despite being on a tight budget, actually looking and finding the bargains made it exciting    Guess how much the bath cost??

 

I found the Victoria and Albert claw foot bath on donedeal.ie (online second hand ads) together with the sink and toilet for €250!!!!! BARGAIN!!  These were definitely my best buys.  I adore the bath. 

 
Vintage Bath and shower mixer bought from an ad on  Adverts.ie   €30

Vintage Cast Brass Chandelier bought in CJM Furniture Cork a second hand store in Cork €30.
 

 Vintage Gold and Cream Oval Mirror bought in Pandemonium  a second hand store in Kinsale selling an eclectic mix of new and secondhand clothing, jewelry, art, furniture and collectibles. Bought for  €30.

Vintage brass candleholder bought in CJM Furniture a second hand furniture store €5.

Not only did I save myself a small fortune buying second hand items, another bonus is that all these things have been recycled and saved from the dump!  Antiques, vintage, preloved whatever you call them they're all second hand and they're all GREEN!!

So tonight I can finally enjoy my new bathroom, some candles, some lavender and some bubbles - in the bath and in the  glass!  

Sharon

xxxx

Primrose

Isn't she is a beauty?  This is the first primrose to come out in my garden.  Spring is on the way.  I love these humble little wild flowers, creamy petals, happy little faces - so simple and pure.  Looking for new buds in the garden and discovering little wild blooms in the hedgerows makes me happy.  Simple pleasures I know but aren't they the best ones? When you sigh contentedly and say to yourself "life is good" or "ah, La Vie en Rose".  

The literal translation for the French phrase 'La Vie en Rose' is Life in Pink, the English expression is 'to look at life with rose tinted glasses'.  To me the phrase 'La Vie en Rose' (with a little poetic licence),  means Life in or among the Roses, well my 'pink' are my roses and flowers.  The primrose (Primula Vulgaris) comes from the Old French primerosa or the Latin prima rosa, meaning 'first rose'.  So she is the first rose of my garden this Spring.

Cafe curtains and chandeliers

 

 Before the Living Room Project was finished I started on the downstairs bathroom project!  The bathroom really needed a bit of an overhaul and I'm glad to say it's nearly finished, should have photos tomorrow.  I really didn't know what to do with the window treatment in this room.  All I did know was that this blind was going!

I just don't like venetian blinds very much, I find them too officey.   As this room doesn't get alot of light, I wanted something that would let light in but still give us privacy.  After a quick flick through the internet, the choices seemed to be sheer curtains, shutters that can be closed at the bottom but left open on top or opaque/frosted window film.  I wanted the bathroom to have a cottagey look so I thought sheer curtains in a cafe style would work well.   The bathroom project had a tight budget so I turned to Ikea.   The curtains I got in the end are called Wilma and were reduced to the unreal price of €2.99.  They did need some adjusted and before I went at them with sellotape and a staple gun (I cannot sew for the life of me), hubby's mum Deirdre very kindly offered to do them for me, she's so good.  (Deirdre on the othe hand is fantastically creative with her hands and can make anything, sewing, knitting, cooking, baking, she can do it all.  I'll have to do a post sometime on her cakes, she made our wedding cake, they are amazing!).  I had some screw in hooks already lying in a drawer and I found the curtain pole in a bargain bin at B&Q for €10.00.  Total cost:  €12.99! Not bad!  I love them, I love the floaty feel of them and the way they 'puddle' on the window sill and the light can still get in at the top.  Thank you Deirdre!

Aswell as getting the bathroom curtains done, the bathroom lighting fixtures were also changed.   The electrician came round yesterday and finished the list of jobs I had for him.   He hung this vintage chandelier in the 'new' bathroom,

This was a lucky find, it's cast brass and cost me €30 in a second hand furniture shop in Cork (CJM furniture).  I spotted it last week when I was up there and as you can see it's definitely a bit worn, I wasn't even sure it would work but bought it anyway as I thought if it wasn't working I could always put candles in it!   But sure enough when Eddie (the electrician) tested it, it worked fine.  Just before he put it up, as I was handing it to him I straightened one of the arms and it broke off!!  I could have kicked myself, but Eddie was so sound and took it away and welded it back on - couldn't tell which one had broken,  I was thrilled!

Then the old wall lights came down, bye bye . . . 

and these went up instead

I would have loved something vintagey but couldn't find anything I liked, so these babies from B&Q roughly €35 each will do for the time being.  After the bathroom lighting was done, Eddie put up the chandelier in the hall.  Would you believe this light fitting has been sitting on the floor under the stairs for almost 3 years!!!  I've had 3 different electricians over that time come to give me a price for hanging it but they never came back.   Maybe they were scared of heights, it's a double height hallway . . . it's a loooong way up . . .

 

It looks antiquey but it's not.  It's from the Belgian interiors company Flamant.  I LOVE Flamant products and their showrooms are amazing.  In all their showrooms they have 'rooms' set up so it feels like you're walking through a Belgian house, think weathered oak, linen etc - divine!  Anyway, here she is in all her glory . . . 

I was over at   For The Love of a House looking at Joan's chandelier for her barn room, it's bigger than mine but thought not totally dissimilar.  Joan's like mine is new aswell and she very cleverly made and added a new finial to the underside and added an antique chain and cup to hers and I have to say it looks as though it was always like that, looks perfect now.  Our chandelier needed a longer chain aswell.  Eddie bought some standard black chain and spray painted a gold colour so that it blended in, I think he did a great job.  It's so nice to look up and see a chandelier istead of  a bulb glaring down at me.  The black shades came with it but I thought I would hang it without them but the light was too harsh and looked so much better with the shades so decided to go with them in the end.   It really feels that the place is starting to come together now.  Feels more like home . . .