New bathroom!

As promised, the new bathroom.  As a small reminder, here is the old one:

• Tiny bathroom cabinet with the doors on upside down so the pull-handles are at the top - check
• 3 backsplash tiles above fugly sink, placed at a 5 degree angle - check
• Enourmous bulbous shower-bath in a tiny bathroom - check
• Glass screen with broken handle - check
• Ugly round flourescent lights that belong in a railway underpass - check
• Space for 2 people to brush their teeth - check (provided 1 person stands in the hallway)

 

Wow, that's an image that is so familiar, and yet reminds me of so much pain. I almost miss it.

Even GG is having 2 showers a day!  Its a far cry from the final death throes of our old bathroom - only scalding hot water available from the bath tap which meant filling it an hour before and then washing your hair with an ice cream container.  For once I was loving working away from home!

Sorry the photos are a bit dark.  

The glass shelf isn't actually glued down yet, there are a couple of wonky tiles that the builder has promised to fix, and will be done when the tiler comes back to do the kitchen splashback.

And the shower tray was a major drama. However in the few intervening weeks what seemed like the biggest disaster at the time has now receded from memory.  Suffice to say, originally we wanted black, now we're totally happy with the white, and there was a bit of extra work and messing about to get it to fit. It creaks a tiny bit at the open end, which is pretty annoying but given whats underneath it, I guess we can't have expected much else.  I will say, it is fascinating knowing exactly how you're bathroom has been put together under all those shiny tiles and neat groutlines.

And we couldn't decide whether to go for grey grout or white, but in the end went for white since it could have been a bit overpowering with floor to ceiling tiles... Still undecided but its too late now. Maybe we'll splash out on the kitchen.

You can't quite see it in the pics, but we spent a disproportionate amount of time deciding on a toilet brush (compared to say, the fridge and freezer, worth 10 times as much).  Its from Labour and Wait, my favourite little homewares store on Redchurch st in Shoreditch.  Everything was so shiny and modern in there that I wanted to rustic it up a bit.

I was also hunting for a nice handwash dispenser.  GG was all for the Vipp, but at £85 we thought it a bit steep. Particularly as GG doesn't seem to use handwash but I try not to think about it too much.

But I found the perfect soap dispenser when I was out shopping in Shoreditch, and happened upon Aesop, an Australian apothecary, whatever that means.  Bath stuff, as far as I can tell.  And I picked this up, recommended by Remodelista, in spectacular oldy worldy type packaging.  

Unfortunately the bottle is plastic, not glass.  Even more unfortunately the price wasn't marked, and I went slightly pale as she said the price was £25, but was too shocked to back out of it while standing there with my card in hand.  I don't know what I thought the shop assistant would think of me if I put it back - probably 'smart girl' rather than 'rich twat' like she was actually thinking. Oh well, its there now, it looks great, and I guess I'll just keep refilling it with cheap stuff once its empty.  But my hands do smell nice in the meantime.

3 months in 30 seconds

Oh, has it really been that long?!? I vageuly remember posting about how proud I was to have kept it up for a year, and how GG and I were launching a new look to celebrate.  Got you all excited and then... nada.


No excuses, really although I could try plenty on.  But we do have some progress to share, so get your cuppa ready, its going to be a whirlwind tour of the last 3 months in shitpoor resolution/lighting/framed blackberry photos... 


April: Berlin for GG's birthday, Paris with my friend Louise from university in Perth, now contently blogging all the way from Montreal.


Highlights were (1) the Friedrichshain flea market:

Lampy!!

(2) Mies van der Rohe Niunationale Gallerie, spectacular architecture, and stocking a few from my fav artist Franz Marc:

And (3) currywurst and beers in the park:

 Paris. Wine. Cheese. Tasty bits.

 And this view from our little studio apartment.

May. Enjoying new shoes from Paris. Walks around the neighbourhood admiring the local architecture. Flying back and forth to Spain for work and enjoying the local cuisine.

June. Finalise builder selection. Confirm start date. BEGIN RENOVATION. Yes, you read correctly, we started!


So, in photos, here is the progress so far. Stage 1: Teardown. There used to be a bathroom there! Toilet's a little exposed at this stage, but functional nonetheless.  In this photo you can see where the builders have ripped the floor out to extend the bathroom by about 70cm beyond the original wall.  Sounds like a lot of fuss for not much gain, but actually 70cm + layout change = a bathroom big enough for 2!

Stage 2, construction begins. We ummed and ahhed about whether we should go ahead with our hairbrained psuedo-mezzanine/loft idea, and in the end we thought, bugger it lets just put our crazy-assed stamp on this place for good. And here it is, in frame form:

If you're thinking its not a lot of space up there, then you'd be both wrong and right, since its about the size of our bedroom, but with the headroom of a bunk bed.  Which is how we'll use it; its a sleeping nook and storage area, and we're going to stick our guests up there.  As long as they're not afraid of heights. Not sure how they'll get up there yet.

On the left you can see the new hallway with lower ceiling, I love how it really feels like the room really opens out when you emerge from the other side. And look how fugly that toilet is! After scouring the internet for days looking for the perfect poocatcher, I'm unfortunately very well versed in every curve, feature and style of ye olde toilettes,


Next came the internal cladding and plumbing. Minor setback as we decided to add an additional showerhead on a hose as well as the fixed showerhead, but our fantastic builder took it all in his stride and accommodated us with no complaints.
The internal view of the bathroom - the walk in shower is at the far end, the width of the room.  You can see the 2 built in shelves for shampoos.  The bathroom cabinets are actually 2 x 2-door flatpack units from Ikea, but are the perfect size and saved the builder a heap of work.

And that's how it stands right now.  Shower tray poised for installation (that's a bit of a nightmare story for another time), tiler and plasterer due onsite tomorrow. Kitchen appliances and cabinets on site. All systems go.


Sorry for the marathon post. But you're all up to speed now! I'll post a little more next week about the fittings, appliances and tiles we've picked.  I'llbe back more regularly now we actually have solid progress to write home about.

Green

That's how I feel looking at these bathrooms. Green with envy. And maybe blue with confusion. I'm obsessed with all these bathrooms, but I'm still slightly confused as to whether they are the right style for our flat.  
On the white tile (99% sure this will be a subway tile) there is no question.

Photo courtesy of Emma's Design Blog

Photo courtesy of LivingEtc

Photo courtesy of Katy Elliot via Apartment Therapy

But the sink and fittings? I want an older 1930's style sink etc but have a feeling super-modern built in floating cabinet could be the right decision... and yet after half an hour of intensive searching, I came up with nada that I deemed worthy of sharing.  But I know I've seen them before, so hopefully I can come back to you on this one.

It would be so easy if there was something good about our bathroom that we could keep. Anything. But unfortunately it is a late 90's wasteland of ugly kidney shaped bath, crooked beige tiles and cheap tiny wobbly sink.

We are also faced with a conundrum: to bath or not to bath. No, not literally.  But whether to have a full size bath or just a shower cubicle.  I prefer cubicle but there's this myth that when people are househunting they will look at a bathroom with only a shower and think 'oh, I just don't see how I could relax after work with candles and a magazine in that shower'. Even though they probably haven't had a bath in years and wouldn't have time to use it anyway. To add insult to this myth, in England they will actually advertise your flat as having a 'shower room'. I think we'll have to keep the bath just to avoid turning potential buyers away before they've even seen it.  I hope the same is not true of overhead kitchen cabinets.

Which means I can pretty much kiss this cedar shower floor goodbye: 

Photo courtesy of Inspiration Bubble

And this one:

Photo courtesy of Art + Culture

But I can certainly have this - hate the marble, love the shower fitting:

Photo courtesy of Remodelista

 I hope that's one decision made.

welcome

I've been thinking about creating this blog since my boyfriend GG and I bought our first flat in December last year.  The flat itself is in need of a bit of work, and given that I get so much enjoyment out of following other home improvement and design blogs, I figured someone else might enjoy reading about ours... Luckily for you, its 5 months in and we've not yet made any significant improvements :)


But first, some context... We are both Australian, and have been in London for 4 years.  We both work in fairly uncreative jobs in the software and business sectors, and find ourselves craving the creative outside of working hours... I have a passion for good design be it for style or function... I love modernist furniture and architecture, recycled homewares and old buildings... In all cases I like to honour the time and effort that went into making something the first time around by using it again.  


I'm hoping to explore the amateur end of the architecture and design spectrum, and hope to move from mere appreciation to contribution - at least in our own domain as we go about the process of putting our style stamp on the 62sqm of London that is ours (in the mortgaged leasehold sense anyway).


Combine the unfulfilled inner artist with a love of industrial architecture, and it is no surprise that we wanted to live out the 1980's NYC artist's dream of living in a 'loft' (although that word doesn't have quite the same meaning in the UK as every terrace house in the country has or is in the process of converting the roof space into usable rooms - the 'loft conversion').  Anyway, we of course searched out a flat in a converted warehouse, and after some ups and downs managed to find a great flat in an old Brewery in our favourite suburb of Clerkenwell. Here is the exterior:

Our flat is 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 living area with open plan kitchen.  Here is the floorplan:

Room layout was a critical factor for me (much less so for GG!), and there were a few key selling points here: 

1. Bathroom right next to bedroom; I personally hate curtains and blinds and love using the fact that we are above street level to get away without them. What I would hate is having to run past my curtain-less windows in my towel to get back to the bedroom every time I take a shower.
2. Bathroom not ensuite; in a 1 bedroom flat, unless you have visitors every day this is not a huge issue, but I do think its nice for visitors to be able to get to the loo without seeing that I haven't made my bed.
3. Washing machine not in the kitchen; nothing spoils the calm of a living area like the sound of a spin cycle. Its not in the bathroom either which is also a bonus; it has its very own cupboard in the hallway.
4. Wide entrance hall; halls might be wasted space, but in a country like this where you actually have a need for winter coats I am beginning to appreciate this odd little room.

But layout aside, the flat has some great original features; 11ft ceilings with concrete beams, huge crittal-style factory windows, and a cast iron supporting pillar in the living room.  


Here are some interior photos taken in the first 2 weeks of moving in:

The current state of the flat is quite liveable, depending on your point of view.  There isn't a built in kitchen at the moment, just what was already here when we moved in: a freestanding kitchen sink and a freestanding cabinet, both from Ikea.  The remainder of our bench space comes from the under-counter fridge and freezer (that currently have no over-counter).


The bathroom is a bit of a layout and style travesty, its so small you can barely swing the door open, it has zero positive style elements and recently has become less than functional (broken mixer tap means the water comes out scalding hot and we are resorting to baths instead):

So, as you can guess there is a long list of improvements to be made, with bathroom fast rising to the top of the priority list, followed by kitchen and then decorating... Now that we have been living here for a while the momentum is building to start doing some of the major work.  We have lots of exciting ideas, ulitmately the budget will make the final decision but I'm looking forward to sharing some of the pipe dreams and the realities with you over the next few months :)