It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about our renovation journey, because we’ve so busy since actually moving into the house – at long last! – on 26th August. The builders finally departed a week later (but will be returning to finish the kitchen), so we’ve been able to crack on with the unpacking, sorting, building furniture, moving things, starting the painting jobs that we’re doing ourselves, and generally creating a home. But, let’s go back a few weeks and take stock, starting with the main bathroom.

In the last blog, the sanitary ware was starting to be fitted and the tiling had been started, with us waiting on the arrival of blue ceramic edging tiles, to finish of the half level tiles. We were also trying to source a cabinet for the sink to sit on, and a chandelier. Our previous bathrooms have all been tiny and so we’ve never been able to have anything on an even slightly grand scale, so a chandelier has always been on my wish-list. Fast forward to now, and this is where we are up to the main bathroom :

the cabinet

This was eventually sourced, but not after lots and lots of research online and visiting various shops. Absolutely nothing was ticking the boxes – always a problem when I have a very clear idea in my head as to what I want. I didn’t want anything over-fancy or anything too vintage. Because we have so much to do in the house, I also didn’t fancy anything which required a huge amount of work in terms of restoring and painting it. I was veering very much towards a kind of mid-century style cabinet, with glass doors – rippled glass if possible – on which would sit our brass sink and brass tap. And, as has happened quite a lot, one of favourite go-to Spanish websites delivered. Sklum is a superb online shop – think Habitat or Heals quality, just not quite as pricey – and we’ve found a lot of really lovely key pieces for the house, and this is where we found the perfect bathroom cabinet. The Massilia, made of beautiful acacia wood, with doors, with rippled glass. Oh, yes – rippled glass.

It took a bit of work by the carpenter to get it to the exact height needed and to fit the tap, which had to sit to the side of the sink. We bought the sink separate to the tap and separate to the cabinet – but somehow, they all work beautifully together. And you wouldn’t now know the additional work which had to be done to make sure everything was correct and fitted properly.

tiles

The wall tiles are lovely and we’re delighted with them. We decided that rather than tile the whole bathroom, we’d only have inside the shower cubicle and around the free-standing bath and sink, to half height. Because they stopped where you could see the top of the final line of tiles, our perfectionist project manager suggested that we perhaps look at having ceramic edging tiles to finish them off. However, because of the pattern on the tiles and the tiny ceramic tile inserts on the taps and shower, we wanted navy blue edging. Again, the hunt was on because no colour ever seemed quite right. But, because the tiling needed to be finished, we needed to make a decision and so ordered online. And, this was the first – and so far, only – mistake we’ve made. When they arrived, rather than the navy colour they had looked online, they were more of a washed out pale blue, which we really disliked. They had taken a long time arrive, so we didn’t want to send them back, so we thought we’d paint them white.

But taking a bit of time, with design decisions, however small they might be, does work – and ultimately we decided, once the walls were painted, we didn’t actually need the edging tiles. They’re now sitting in a box, somewhere in the house, possibly to be repurposed elsewhere in the future.

the window

We did originally have two windows in this bathroom – one small one where the shower cubicle now is, and a lovely French window, where we have now repositioned the toilet to – meaning a French window, however lovely, just became impractical. Although we’re not really overlooked, there are a couple of houses with balconies higher up the hill and they do face our bathroom, so we felt we needed to rethink the window situation. The smaller window was blocked up to give us a full extra wall to create the shower cubicle and we decided that the bottom half of the French door (which was a bit impractical and dangerous as it actually opened over the courtyard…) needed to be bricked up, leaving us with a smaller casement window, to the side of the toilet. This window was made by the carpenter to match the style of all of the other windows, with two frames and two shutters which opened internally, giving us the privacy we wanted. But, we pretty quickly realised, once we started actually using the bathroom, that closing the shutters, also made the room dark, and we didn’t want this during the day time. The solution was actually really easy – we had a mandala transfer, bought back back in Istria, for the princely sum of €3, and cut in half and attached to each frame, gave us the privacy we wanted, without blocking out the light.

The frames are still be painted white, but for so long we had no window, that this feels like a luxury. White, we think, will make all of the difference, and will hopefully just finish off the bathroom, when we get round to tackling all of the paintwork on the first floor.

the shower

We have waited sooo long to have working showers! All of the various parts for the two showers have been boxed up for months, so to finally see them installed has been fantastic. However, as with most jobs in a renovation, there are still things that need to be done to make them perfect. Sometimes, when you are planning things from scratch, you only see, or realise, certain things in-situ and this has been the case with both showers. The main bathroom shower sits in the corner of the room, separated by a single glass brick wall from the bath. It’s a large enclosure which is great, and because of the colour of the brass shower fittings, we pushed the boat out and chose a brass coloured non-slip shower tray. A bit of an eye-watering price, but now it’s installed, and we’ve forgotten about the pain of payment, it was worth every cent. A good design decision! However, we think we may need to have a shower door installed as water does sometimes spray out of the cubicle. We did want it to be open, and it does look great with just the glass brick wall, but we don’t want to create a wet room. Currently, we just have a white shower curtain, which works well, so we think a white bi-fold shower door will work well. A shame, but needs must. And the joy of having a working shower cannot be underestimated.

the bath

The bath is an absolute joy. Despite the fact that it’s not yet plumbed in and the wall taps have not been fitted. So goodness know what it’ll be like when this has all been done. We’re not entirely sure why, at this stage, the taps have still not been fitted, so we’ll await the return of the builders to find out why. We think it’s to do with the fact that the drain pipe, which came with the bath, didn’t fit properly, so another one is being sourced. It is definitely a tiny bit frustrating having a beautiful slipper bath which we can’t use just yet, but we have our showers and so are just being patient. Good things come to those who wait…

It’s been lovely to unearth bathroom accessories which have been packed away for well over a year. Shelving has gone up, meaning that we’ve been able to start creating the bathroom we’ve always wanted. I managed, by sheer luck, to find a mirror online, which almost identically matched the sink and so there’s a feeling of real cohesion in the room. And, as the ceiling has the exposed beams and bricks, we’ve also been able to make use of our very realistic looking vines again. The hunt for perfect chandelier has proved almost impossible – they were either too expensive (all of teh ones I liked!), too bling, too small, not bathroom-y enough, and just not right in too many ways. So, a vintage copper light pendant, which we bought in Istria and never found the right place for, is awaiting the return of the workers, so that it can be finally fitted. We’re so nearly there with this room and from how it started, we couldn’t be more delighted with how it’s turning out.