Renovating a bathroom is not a pleasure, when we moved into our new apartment we had a bathroom with lots of aesthetic work to do. Well, as much to tell you that previous occupants were not clean with DIY and cleanliness. Of course, we had to deal with darkened hall seals, but also a complete lack of protection against splashing water between the bathtub and the rest of the bathroom. The floor was made of a PVC coating in self-adhesive strips ( obviously not adapted to a damp body of water and subject to temperature variations ), a faience desperately out of fashion by a decade ago and especially mixers of another time (one of them surely period, ie the 60s ).

For starters, we have filed ( a good technical term that simply means we ripped it off like crazy ) the PVC blades. As much to say to you that the glue of the adhesive strips is really horrible, to remove it and to make place clean it is necessary to envisage a good laundry in the old English style and why not of Acetone ( it is necessary to envisage for this a time of drying and rinsing, but also a means of aeration ).

My advice: do not want to go too fast and especially have a clean and healthy support as you can read on the documents of tinkering. Well, it’s not a joke, you really need to plan this time in your bathroom renovation.

Once the soil was deposited we attacked the preparation of our walls. The faience was certainly outdated, but it was healthy and well posed.

My advice: to test your faience, do not hesitate to tap with a mallet, or with your finger, if it sounds hollow, you have to pick up the tile ( if possible ), otherwise, we put down a faience.

So we chose to repaint it in white to put in value our objects and especially to enlarge this space which does not measure more than 6 m2. I wonder if people of the sixties had the same concerns as us in their bathrooms. It is certain that no when we see the volumes of ours. Short.

For the painting, we were able to paint for specific paint which we have passed in 4 layers. Yes, 4 layers! It is long but as our faience was dark, it was absolutely necessary to do the same. For this type of painting, I recommend the use of a brush for joints and a foam roller suitable for earthenware, available in any large DIY area. After, it’s 14 hours of drying between the layers, 68 hours out of water and 3 weeks without blows. The results are really bluffing and the resistance far beyond what we could imagine. The paint does not crack, does not crack, and resists perfectly all the attacks of products present in the shower.

My advice: respect the times indicated on your pots and especially do not play with the drying time, this is the only rule!

The work plan does not measure more than 1m20, we decided to keep for a few years still the basin chosen by the previous occupants, one of the only elements a little fashionable, even if its quality is much lower than we would have liked We will eventually go to a round basin, quite small, but with a coating anti-trace. The base. White again to gain volume impression. The mixer chosen is sober, but we have surely made the mistake of choosing something flat, indeed, which says flat, said water stagnant and therefore traces. For a maniac like me it’s a bit of a galley of everyday life .

My advice: measure the height of your basin before choosing your mixer, you can win a trip to your DIY store.

Once the walls were dry ( ie at least 3 days after the last layer ), the bathtub was unpacked and the protections removed we attacked the ground. We had spotted a pretty imitation cement tile floor in a PVC ( non-stick ) that was made for the water features.

The advantage of this soil is that it would resist even in case of severe water damage ( our neighbours do not know it but they can bless us ) and second advantage, it is extremely simple to ask, a blow of big cutter and a good rule, and voila. The surface to be covered was so minimal that we changed the floor of the bathroom for less than 80 $! At this price, why deprive yourself ?!

As you can see in the photos we have chosen a pretty soft blue that goes very well with the white and gives us almost the impression of finding Greece ( yeah, well, do not mess anyway … ). At this time of work we were already very happy because the room had taken a much more pleasant and warm form. If it was again, we would make the same choices, except for the mixer that worries me so much

So, with a floor and walls more to our taste, we tackled the plumbing and the annexes. The shower mixer did not please us either, it had to be a first prize of a generation of outdated mixers, so we opted for a model aesthetically vintage mixer mode, ie with two wheels to turn for mix yourself warm and cold. We love the retro side of this mixer that gives a little cachet to the bathtub.

My advice: do not play with the dimensions of the mixers, check the distance between the two water outlets ( hot / cold ) and especially check the condition of your columns if you have on your bathtub. When installing your faucet, do not forget to cut off the water supply!

Speaking of a bathtub, the apron had been covered with the same PVC as the floor, we removed it, scraped the glue and covered the whole deck with a thin PVC plate placed on a plank of water repellent, in sandwich, to be sure not to see any coulure or cause water damage ( we are never too careful ). In white it gives an architectural rhythm and enlarges the room.

In the same place we searched several months a shower wall that would fit the size of the bathroom and would be perfect to take showers in our bath . We had totally ignored KIMBERLEY shower wall for this kind of room and yet! We put my parents-in-law to work to negotiate in Bunnings, the ideal shower wall and we had it for less than 120 $. A nice economy, because this wall is worth more than 260 $ and it was in perfect condition. The advantage of this wall, and for which we took a long time to find it, is that it opens in both directions, and that it is composed of two parts, its height is sufficient to My darling who is very tall, and she is equipped with a glass that does not explode (just in case ).

Later, we could also see other bath walls online.

My advice: to install it must be planned to be two cons, because it is neither practical nor light!

The adjustments that followed were as tedious as they were interesting for you, it was a matter of adjusting and putting back into operation the heated towel rail that was not connected to the rest of the house, redoing the plumbing under the basin for which the tubes PVC had never been glued or even redo electrical arrivals to connect the washing machine while leaving a plug for the dry hair.

The rest was decoration, and for that I was pleased, I diverted a small shelf frame holder to deposit pots and give the impression of a longer basin plan. I also went to baskets at Target and containers with a natural side in “braided” to give a pep pep’s this rather neutral interior. We then installed a swivel mirror, a soap dish and cup holder as well as pretty trinkets to chew up the place.

I love my new bathroom so much that I can spend hours and even if it does not allow two at the same time because of its size, we got used to it and we would finally do nothing different !