Bathroom reno ideas

[bigdealbaby]

Hey guys,

Currently getting ducks in a row and figuring out prices for an upcoming bathroom renovation.

A little background, 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 2 car weatherboard and tile which I payed $290,000 for in 2011 and was last valued in march pre renos for $320,000.

The house has a small bathroom with separate toilet, this is as it looks now:



toilet is off to the left like this:




-So the original plan was to knock down the wall between the two rooms and put a frameless shower where the toilet is.

-Bath under the widow

-1200 vanity where shower

-and toilet where doorway area is an put cavity slider between toilet and vanity

So after thinking about it, looking at costs and what I plan to do with the property I am now leaning towards the cheaper option of leaving wall where it is etc and sticking with the similar floor plan like the second photo as I would only be spinning the bath around really and everything else is the same pretty much.

Any ideas / opinions?

 

[wylie]

I wouldn't touch it. It looks like it is in good nick and pretty cool/retro and would leave it alone.

 

[bigdealbaby]

I wouldn't touch it. It looks like it is in good nick and pretty cool/retro and would leave it alone.

I'll take that as a compliment! lol.

Real estate agent photos mate, make it look a million bucks.

Where the brown tiles go up, they are actually built out onto a 50mm frame off the wall presumably still has original tiles underneath, it's a VERY rough job.

Trying to extract a bit more equity out of the place, and from what i've read and been told bathroom and kitchen are the places to do it.

So being that it needs re-doing regardless I will presume you recommend the more simple reno option.

 

[wylie]

I get "real estate photos" and know they always look much better than the real thing. If indeed this is a rough job and doesn't look as good as the photo, then I'd replace it exactly as it is. That would be the cheapest way. If you are going to gut and start again, you could maybe close up the door to the separate loo, if there is room to incorporate it into the main bathroom without moving plumbing drastically.

We've always had a loo in the bathroom, and love it, but others hate it. It is a personal choice. If it can be done, it will likely give you a bigger bathroom.

I'd go white everything, but sell the pink pieces. You'll get good money for them if they are in good nick.

 

[bigdealbaby]

Thanks for the tips, would've never thought to sell the pink toilet, bath, vanity etc.

Can get 300x600 white wall tiles for 16.90m2 so will be going that way, still deciding on the floor.

Judging by the second photo they've only tiled the shower area and a but above the bath etc which seems like another good way to save a bit of cash.

 

[wylie]

Is this bathroom for a rental or your own home? Easy clean is the way to go.

We used 300 x 600 matt finish white tiles for our bathroom at home and floor tiles in a grey concrete-like pattern. They are sooooo easy to clean compared to the plain colour we had before. If you go to my gallery you can find our bathroom photos.

We used a wall hung basin to enable more floor tiles to be seen and make the room feel bigger. We have a double door white glass linen and general storage cupboard in our bathroom, so didn't need a vanity with storage under it. We also pushed our mirror cabinet into the wall cavity and went for an in-wall toilet. I wanted wall hung loo but beams under our floor meant that couldn't be done easily, so we have a floor mount.

Pushing all the storage into the wall cavity and pushing the toilet cistern into the wall cavity allowed us to split the bath and shower and keep them separate without making the room too squishy.

Matt finish tiles mean less smearing when cleaning them -

 

[bigdealbaby]

Your bathroom looks great, any before photos?

I live in this place currently but will be renting it out in the future, shooting for 6-8 months.

I see that matt finish tiles as a bit of a trend at the moment but was unsure of them as I was of the impression they would be harder to keep clean because of the "grain" of them so to speak.

Was thinking grey floor tiles as well as I've painted the interior walls grey also:



Am planning on going with a 900 wall hung vanity with storage.

Does the back of your linen protrude into the next room or is it a shallow linen as for me to do that it I have only maybe 100-110mm to work with as far as wall depth.

 

[wylie]

Here are two "before" photos. We chose the retro design 16 or so years ago, but wanted a change.



Our bathroom backs onto our bedroom and the wall behind the towel rails and the basin is our cupboard in the bedroom (two thirds of the length of the wall). We could have used more storage in the bedroom really, but also needed a linen/storage cupboard so chose instead to donate that one third to the bathroom.

It is the depth of a normal wardrobe, so we "could" wall up half way and have a narrower cupboard in the bathroom and another narrow cupboard in our bedroom if we wanted to.

This bathroom is about 3m x 2m and a good size, but splitting the bath and shower meant finding more room, hence pushing the mirror vanity, wall niches and toilet cistern into the wall cavities. For the niches (shower and under the mirror cabinet, and over the bath) we also had white stone pieces cut to sit proud of the tiles to give a wider ledge area for bottles. We had a thin groove cut on the underside to stop drips running back to the wall.

We wanted the tiles bevelled so we didn't have an aluminium strip, but our tiler said he could guarantee us that even a reasonable bump with a shampoo bottle would see the very thin edge of a bevel cut tile corner start to look chipped and horrible, so we went with a brushed aluminium edge.

This is the niche over the bath, pushed into the external house wall beside a window. It is only about 8cm wide, so we had a stone piece cut to fit extending the shelf to about 10cm. That 2cm mades quite a difference to sitting things safely and not having them fall off.

Here is the same thing in the shower. We placed the niche on the wall which we face when showering and that avoids water splashing on it.

[/url]

 

[PHP]

very interesting designs and ideas. I always like posts with photos.

Can't wait for my first reno project. Hopefully soon....

 

[wylie]

Forgot to answer some of these...

Your bathroom looks great, any before photos?

I live in this place currently but will be renting it out in the future, shooting for 6-8 months.

I see that matt finish tiles as a bit of a trend at the moment but was unsure of them as I was of the impression they would be harder to keep clean because of the "grain" of them so to speak.

No "grain", nothing to hold the dirt at all, just a clean matt finish. I love the fact you don't see soap scum or smears. My bathroom cleaning time is almost nil now. I like your photo, nice colours, nice floors.

Was thinking grey floor tiles as well as I've painted the interior walls grey also:

View attachment 13284

Am planning on going with a 900 wall hung vanity with storage.

Does the back of your linen protrude into the next room or is it a shallow linen as for me to do that it I have only maybe 100-110mm to work with as far as wall depth.

I looked at wall hung vanity with storage, but with the storage we had, it was better for us to keep the look clean with just a blade style vanity. Without storage, I would have gone with a two drawer wall hung to keep it up off the floor as far as possible.

One thing to consider is that if you are gutting the room and exposing the wall cavity anyway to start with new bathroom grade plaster, then the cost of sheeting out a narrow wall storage cavity and just putting on Ikea glass doors is probably less than sheeting and tiling the same wall, plus you gain storage.

Even narrow storage is better than none. The linen cupboard that was already in our bathroom from when we did it 16 years ago had solid doors, and we wanted white glass doors to "disappear" but also bounce light around so hubby modified the opening a little and we bought an Ikea one metre wide cupboard and glass doors to match. Even if you have doors that, once opened, reveal painted battens (if you don't want to remove and insert lintels, that is hidden most of the time and still provides needed storage for smaller items).

 

[wylie]

I just googled "wall cavity storage" and this gives clever ideas, here are a couple to help describe this idea -



This is what I was trying to describe earlier. Imagine you remove the plaster off one of your walls that doesn't need waterproofing, isn't near water and maybe you just attach cheap ply to hide the wall behind and maybe even hide the sides of the studs, and paint it. You might want to remove some studs, but will need to put in a lintel. With hidden storage, I'd leave them there. You may have to insert another stud between two existing studs to take a ready-made door, like an Ikea ready-made glass or solid door and you can create in-wall storage to whatever size you want. Imagine this storage with a door on the top. Leave some open or hide it with a door.

 

[nww]

Is this going to be PPOR or IP.

 

[wylie]

Is this going to be PPOR or IP.

Answered in post # 7. This will become IP so a balance needs to be made between function and easy to clean (in my opinion anyway).

We are hoping to build townhouses to hold and rent. I'm looking at "easy of cleaning" because even though tenants are "supposed" to clean, I know who will be doing the final clean

 

[bigdealbaby]

Good ideas wylie on the in wall storage.

Was going to put a niche in the shower anyways but didn't think about one near the bath.

I will have to see the price difference between the gloss tiles and matt finish, I know the matt finish is very in at the moment.

Cheers.

 

[bigdealbaby]

Is this going to be PPOR or IP.

Yeah mate, will be IP in 6-8 months.

 

[whiteduck]

It will be cheaper to keep the plumbing in the same or similar place rather than moving it extensively. There are many quite inexpensive tile options around and you can get many bathroom fixtures at good prices. Ebay often has some good bargains. I'd avoid Reece, they seem pretty expensive

I'd stick with a neutral pallete that will appeal to most. Not necessarily white, although white will never look dated.

I've done a bathroom using matt floor tiles. They stay looking cleaner longer and are not as slippery when wet. Very large tiles and ones without the beveled edges are apparently harder to work with/more difficult to lay - particularly walls.

 

[whiteduck]

Wylie I LOVE your bathroom, lovely design and fittings, looks great.

 

[bigdealbaby]

It will be cheaper to keep the plumbing in the same or similar place rather than moving it extensively. There are many quite inexpensive tile options around and you can get many bathroom fixtures at good prices. Ebay often has some good bargains. I'd avoid Reece, they seem pretty expensive

I'd stick with a neutral pallete that will appeal to most. Not necessarily white, although white will never look dated.

I've done a bathroom using matt floor tiles. They stay looking cleaner longer and are not as slippery when wet. Very large tiles and ones without the beveled edges are apparently harder to work with/more difficult to lay - particularly walls.

Cheers for the advice mate.

I think I will go with the plan "B" we will call it of leaving the walls as they are and not moving the shower/bath around too much so that is will look basically exactly the same layout as the picture I posted.

I am a lecco and my brother in law is a plumber so that work won't cost me anything except materials, I have my all of my taps and fittings already which I got for free from a mate.

Just chasing a RELIABLE builder at the moment who doesn't charge an arm and a leg.

I am definitely going to look into the matte tiles now after hearing a few positive reviews.

I was doing some reading about the wear resistance of tiles and it seems matte tiles are more scratch resistant also as opposed to gloss, winning!

 

[wylie]

Wylie I LOVE your bathroom, lovely design and fittings, looks great.

Thank you

 

[WattleIdo]

I wouldn't touch it. It looks like it is in good nick and pretty cool/retro and would leave it alone.

I honestly really like your bathroom and the fact that the toilet is away from the bath and shower.
Although I've done it all my life, I can't get over the fact that we try to relax in a bath with a toilet right near our heads. Like shoes in a bedroom wardrobe, to me it doesn't work.
I love the colours of your bathroom. I reckon this look will be desirable in the not too distant future. We'll be talking about how you could pick these old baths and sinks up on E-bay etc etc. (You heard it here first.)
Can't you fill in the non-backed tiles and do whatever you can to make the old style acceptable in your eyes?
However, if you were going to change it, it would have to come out looking as good as Wylie's. As soon as I saw that picture, I changed my mind.