The Merchant of Velvet

8 weeks to perfect a functioning and efficient bathroom with built-in cat tray… (oh so glam).

This is it. Headfirst, into the unknown. We’re doing the One Room Challenge. We? Royal, of course. It’s just me. It started last week, and I did actually make a little headway but completely forgot about signing up, oops.

Anyway, huge news, I’m tackling my bathroom! It’s been through a few upgrades before, but it’s never quite been finished to the standard I’d like – or rather, I got to the point where I felt like it was enough, and I’d had enough. It did its job, it was efficient and functioning. Except it’s not been, for a while.

Plan of Action

Firstly, I’ve had a lack of storage in there since I moved in over 6 years ago – uh oh, she’s used it, the trending “S” word. I’ve organised the small vanity under the sink with its drawers more times than I can count all my fingers and toes, with all the containers you can think of – thanks The Home Edit – but unfortunately, it just doesn’t work for me, partly because of, out of sight out of mind, but also the small space between the bath and the sink is not forgiving and the drawers don’t make it easy. There’s also fun varying floor levels everywhere because who doesn’t like to feel like they might fall over in their bathroom and smash their head on a sharp corner everyday? Thanks 1970s conversion! I live in an old Victorian school house, but my flat is the basement conversion. Let’s call it the garden flat, that’s a little more romantic. So anyway, I won’t be able to do much about the levels, really it’s just going to be a facelift in terms of decor, with a little added functioning storage. 

Next up, I have a cat. Her cat tray is a god damn eye sore. I can’t bear to look at it anymore, or smell it! It’s lived in every room of my 1 bed flat, except for my bedroom because of obvious reasons, and I’ve had enough! And the cat litter stuff gets everywhere. Really, this should actually be at the top of this list of reasons because this is actually why I’m doing the bathroom. I scratched my head for a long time thinking how I can build the cat tray in, so she has easy access to it, as well as it being easy for me to access it, too. I don’t want to have to look at the hole that I make either, every time I walk in so it needs to be discreet. The biggest space I have in the room, is when you walked in on the right, in front of the end of panel of the bath so for months I have been deliberating. Finally, I realised it just wouldn’t work that side of the room because of all the varying levels so I moved it over to the left. And I think it’s going to work. 

Thirdly, possibly lastly, I’m going to make my own bath panels, as mine is rotten and disgusting. When I moved in, very shortly after, my dad helped me put in a Crittal style shower screen (reduced on Amazon, bargain!) which replaced a bi-folding (dirty) white screen that didn’t really even do its job. It created a leak all down the side which, at the time I don’t think I realised it was as bad as it was, but in doing some investigation the wood down there is rotten. So that’s something I won’t have tried before but will be interesting to see how I get on – if not slightly terrifying. I don’t want to have to get any professionals in during this project, so it will be all me – DIY me. Just to note, there’s no daylight in there, just a loud horrible extractor fan. I *may* need assistance with this but that will be last if need be.

Where It All Began

Here is a visual below as to where the project will be starting progress wise, so anything will be an improvement. As you can see, I also painted the floor tiles from the horrible turquoise to black, however I used shockingly bad paint and didn’t use a sealant so I’ll need to re do that (it took so long last time, I’m dreading it). Check out those varying levels!

And here is a visual as to where it was… feat. no storage/no cat tray – really, it was looking pretty darn good right? Nothing wrong with that really! I just outgrew what I needed to use it for.

And here is a visual as to where it was even before that feat. ugly dirty white broken screen, ugly blue tiles.

See below below for the rotten tiles around the toilet (but feat. painted shower tiles). It was fun wondering if today would be the day that you’d fall through.

The painted tiles around the shower have actually have lasted a really long while, but after 3 years it’s starting to yellow so I’m going to paint that again. 

Updated Decor 2022

Below is kind of the vibe I’m going for (but I’m one to change my mind so… we’ll see!) What do you think? Please don’t judge me on the quality of this image, I mocked it up so quickly in Key Note!

I bought some William Morris towels (see above) because currently I’m obsessed with anything blue/navy/teal and orange/rust which is a slight problem as this is what my bedroom scheme is teetering on. You know when you just spot something and you love it? This is that time. So I’m going for it! They will be the starting point of the decor scheme.

The dark blue below the wallpaper will be panelled but the people before put in some radiators in some really dumb places so it’ll be navigating around that, and around exposed pipes – that you can’t see down by the toilet. The tall blue bit on the left will be a built-in cabinet with the hidden cat tray. And the rest we’ll just cross our fingers and toes and hope for the best.

It didn’t feel like there was that much to do but now I’ve written all about it, and with a far longer explanation that I was expecting – and having seen all these pictures in one place, perhaps these 8 weeks won’t be enough! What a challenge. Let’s go!