Creating a downstairs loo

We’ve lived in our house over a year now, and in that time we have made a lot of changes. The main projects we have focused on are creating a family bathroom, Win and Ru’s bedroom, our bedroom, an office, adding a downstairs loo and extending the lounge. Between the two of us we have lots of progress photographs and I love looking back on them to see how much we have accomplished. Not one of the rooms is completely finished, and this can be frustrating. Once a room is 95% done, it can be tempting to move on to more important jobs – leaving the final finishing touches behind. We have lists of tiny little jobs that never seem to get done – probably due to the youngest member of our family (!)

Downstairs there was a toilet in the utility room, next to the washing machine and tumble dryer. We always felt that this arrangement was slightly odd, plus the toilet was in bad condition, difficult to clean and smelly. We managed to find a thin space downstairs to create a new toilet, and have since ripped out the old sink and toilet to make way for a bigger utility room. We also knocked down a brick wall (to extend the lounge), had a beam installed, bricked up three interior doors and one window, then added a new window, strengthened the floor, built a new stud wall and had both the gas and electricity meters relocated, so that they weren’t such an eyesore.

Jared and I think long and hard before we make any changes and it’s surprising how strongly one of us can feel about some details. Thankfully we tend to have strong opinions about different things, so we can usually come to a decision quite quickly. For example, Jared wasn’t sure about adding a window, but I was quite adamant that the toilet would need some natural light (plus some air flow) and he agreed.

My instinct is to always go for white paint – it’s fresh, clean and unoffensive, but as the space was quite small we decided to be a little more adventurous and go for a dark blue. The end result is a look that I would consider quite far away from our usual taste, but we are very happy with the outcome. We kept the ceiling and a small portion of the walls white, so that the blue wouldn’t feel too heavy, and everything else seemed to come together. I promised Winston and Rufus that I would let them have some gold paint somewhere in the house, and if you look carefully you can see a thin line of gold separating the blue and the white paint. I love it.

Our plumber was so willing to do anything we asked him to (even though he often rolled his eyes). My favourite feature has got to be the sink. I love the natural edge of the wood and the metal frame that miraculously fitted together after I ordered (what seemed to be) a random selection of black metal fixtures.

Projects for the year ahead include: painting Otto’s bedroom, updating the utility room, painting the attic bedroom and painting the hall, stairs and landing, as well as the million tiny little finishing touches. Turns out that this little loo is incredibly difficult to photograph, but I did my best!

Light fitting – Laura Ashley

Mirror and glass jar – IKEA

Tile for backsplash – Topps Tiles

Bath mat – Anthropologie

Towel – H&M

Hook and loo roll holder – Miller Bond

Plant pot, lantern and storage basket – Homesense

Radiator – Victoria Plumbing

Wall hanging – Bobella

Sink – Iflo

Tap – ebay

Black metal pipes – JTM Plumbing Limited

Paint – Farrow & Ball in Stiffkey Blue

E xx