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This stylish D.I.Y. renovation brings a bright new look to a centrally positioned bathroom that only has a skylight for natural light.
The project
We recently updated our entire bathroom. Our house is a 90-year-old double-brick home, which made things a little tricky.
The bathroom is in the centre of the house. It has a skylight but no windows, so creating a light and bright room was our key focus.
We hired a professional tiler to do the tiling and a plumber to move the plumbing, but my clever partner completed everything else, including building the nib walls and installing the toilet, shower head, vanity and shower screen. We managed to complete everything on a budget of $10,000.
We removed the old tiles on our own, right down to the old floorboards underneath, and only replaced the walls and a few water-damaged floorboards where necessary.
We we found a huge 1m x 1m concrete block smack-bang in the middle of the floor, which made things interesting. The tiler laid a concrete screed to create the fall for the shower area and to level everything off. We now have a small step of about 30mm in the doorway due to the screed and tile height, but it's hardly noticeable.
The tapware, shower head, toilet and accessories are from the Mondella range at Bunnings and the shower screen was also from Bunnings in Wagga.
In terms of budget, we had to forgo some things, like a new vanity (I bought the unit and basin on Facebook Marketplace – it was practically brand-new, but half the price).
My partner is pretty handy and was able to do all the demolition, and building the nib walls and the new door jamb (we changed the door to open inwards rather than outwards).
Our tiler waterproofed the entire area – the three layers took over three days to dry (we had snow for a week while he was here!). He charged us just under $3000 and was here for about eight days. He did wonderful job but now I wish now we'd gone one tile higher for aesthetics – we went to 2.4m but our ceilings are 3m high.
We're still really happy with the final result.
Before and after
How to plan a bathroom renovation
No matter what type of bathroom you have, it all starts with planning and research to discover how you can make best use of what is often the smallest room in the house. Check out How to plan a bathroom renovation by experienced Bunnings Workshop member Adam Woodhams for advice on how to redesign your space.
More bathroom renovation ideas
For more inspiration check out our Top 10 most popular bathroom projects, and let us know if you need a hand with your project. We're here to help.
