Hello my lovelies.
First, some housekeeping.
I’m aware that I ramble and get carried away with the wordage. So I’ve devised a short cut read in italics and a more detailed rambling is available to enjoy with your cuppa if you have more time.
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Let’s move on to today’s matter in hand. Tweaking.
I’m a firm believer in getting big changes from small tweaks. Some tweaks can have a big visual impact like the bathroom I tweaked GREEN!, HERE.
Some tweaks have less visual impact but for the user they are just as significant.
Here’s an example of the less visual tweak. .
We moved to our guest bedroom with a smaller ensuite.
We were forced to move to a downstairs guestroom last year due to TP’s challenges with cottage eaved bedrooms. Along with our new bedroom came a little en suite. I’ve always liked this en suite as it does the job in ergonomic form, it’s there to shower you, brush your teeth and the other obvious stuff. But it was rather lacklustre and was extremely short on storage.
It needed improved storage.
(Apologies for open loo seat, a big no no in social media pics!)
We had already installed a glazed a mirrored bathroom cabinet, but that was pretty much the total of this bathroom storage
The oval pedestal basin was a little too large for the space and also quite a danger zone. Should anything fall from the overhead cabinet it’s swished back-and-forth in the basin three times gaining momentum with each swish and then launched itself, and unfailinhly landed in the loo! Splash!!!
This sort of irritated me.
I liked the size and shape of the shower however and felt this needed no tweaking whatsoever. It wasn’t broke so I wasn’t going to fix it.
Tweak 1
I added elephant accessories and upgraded the wall picture.
A very simple tweak was to add an elephant bath mat and matching towels in the room, along with an elephant storage box. The elephant plant holder was a hostess gift from a dear aunt, 1986. I also switched out the old faded framed print above the towel rail and put in a much smarter oil Seascape with an attractive silver frame.
The elephant storage box is to the right of the loo. It houses all the cleaning stuff out of sight.
I then lived with this for a while.
Tweak 2
Curtain made and storage baskets added on shelf.
The window looked harshly bare.
I made a curtain with fabric leftovers to soften the look of the window, making the space less “brutal”.
I bought a bathroom-loving trailing plant.
I shopped the house for some little baskets for toiletries storage on the shelf.
Make up and skincare was housed in crotchet hanging bags on the wall rail, right.
Culling the bathroom cabinet then made those baskets pretty much redundant.
But later I culled the bathroom cabinet which made those little baskets redundant and they were returned to their rightful place, a cute shelf rack in the grandchildren’s room.
The baskets went back on the children’s room shelf.
But I was still hanging make up and skin care in those little crotchet hanging bags.
So I went on the hunt.
Tweak 3
I found a drawered vanity basin to fit the small space. .
I espied this cute 2 drawer vanity unit in our local builders merchants. Eureka! It would fit the small basin space. More storage!
I settled on white as being more suitable for the small space, and it’s neutral for all future colour palettes.
The vanity unit was fitted and glass shelf and towel pegs were removed for decorating.
It arrived some weeks later and our lovely plumber quickly stepped in to install it.
Wall and woodwork paint was refreshed.
All woodwork and walls were refreshed.
The ceiling above the shower meant we found yet another use for the trusty IKEA stool.
These things are invaluable in a household.
Do you have one of these IKEA stools?
Shopping my house I created a pretty container for spare toilet rolls!
I found a storage box elsewhere in the house, making something pretty from toilet rolls!
We shopped the loft for “new” towel ring, toilet roll and toothbrush holders.
TP found still-in-box towel, toilet roll and toothbrush holders, intended for the upstairs ensuite which had never been used there, probably driven by the fact that there was no convenient space to place a holder near the toilet.
The third bathroom in the house also suffers from a similar layout, so no roll holder there either.
So it’s been such a celebration to have one holder in the house!
We added the new towel rail between sink and heated towel rail to keep the hand towel drier. The old towel peg on the left is now used to park the bath towel when showering.
The glass shelf above the basin was permanently removed to fit the toothbrush holder.
The removal of the glass shelf under the cabinet made way for the toothbrush holder and anyway, there was sufficient parking space around the new vanity unit.
Before and After Comparisons
Before and after comparisons !
The bathroom now flows and is user-friendly.
It may not look very different but it certainly is for the user IRL!
Costs
Cost just over £500.
Basin (discounted) and fitting, £500ish.
Paint, £20 ish.
Rest, shopped from Chez Pout.
I hope my italicized version helped you busy ladies to get the gist of my tweakings.
A la perchoine,
Mary x.
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