LIMITED SPACE’

Re-jigging the layout allowed Jane to fit both a bath and walk-in shower into her modestsized bathroom

e moved to Spalding because my husband and two sons all play rugby here and we were spending so much time travelling from our former home an hour away,’ says Jane.

‘Our old house was our self-build dream property, which we had designed ourselves, so finding a new home was always going to be difficult.

WWorking it out

When we saw this house, we couldn’t believe our eyes: it was character-filled, with original features and so much future potential that we simply couldn’t miss the opportunity. We agreed to live in it for a year without doing anything other than painting and decor, so that we could get a feel for how we would use it as a family.

However, the rooms we weren’t able to live with were the horribly dated and poorly-designed bathrooms, where space was simply not maximised. Having three large males in the house, this was a top priority. The main bathroom included a bath, but no shower, while there was also a tiny shower room across the landing, but to be honest it was a bit of a nightmare in the mornings with all four of us trying to get in there.

Rethinking the layout

I was keen that the new bathroom feature both a bath and a large walk-in shower. However, given the modest size of the room, this seemed impossible. Our builder then suggested removing the wall between the bathroom and hallway, and repositioning the door to create more room. This made space for a shower and a cute alcove for the bath to nestle in.

We also decided to install underfloor heating rather than have radiators to save further wall space. Choosing built-in storage is great for towels and toiletries, too. Neither of these jobs