Twice as nice A light, stylish bathroom

Shortly after Jessica White, 37, and her husband James, also 37, moved into their three-bedroomed Victorian semi in Manchester, with children, Sienna and Luca, they decided to tackle the bathroom.

It needed updating and was too small, particularly as they wanted a separate shower enclosure. The solution was to sacrifice an adjoining box room and knock through to create a bigger space.

Where did you start?

The bathroom was too small for the rest of the house, so we thought sacrificing a box room made perfect sense. I was keen to include a freestanding bath and double basins, while James’ priority was to have a large walk-in shower.

Who designed the space?

We decided to design it ourselves. Removing the wall meant the room would benefit from two windows, so we chose to centre the bath between them as the main focal point. As this was our first attempt at designing a room, we drew up a scaled plan and marked out the proposed position of each item to ensure the new layout would work.

How did the project progress?

Discovering that the dividing wall was structural was a problem and we had to have a supporting steel joist fitted. Once the wall was down and the second doorway bricked up, we were reassured the expense was worth it. We did recoup some funds by opting for an acrylic rather than a cast-iron rolltop bath and an ex-display vanity unit. Keeping the WC close to the existing soil stack also proved a money saver.

Tell us about the design concept

Boutique hotels we’d stayed in inspired us. We wanted to include a mix of traditional and modern fittings similar to those. In fact, we spotted our fantastic floor tiles while on holiday in Miami and I set about tracking them down as soon as we returned home.

Did you encounter any problems?

Only with the floor tiles, as the delivery was delayed. To keep the project on track we went ahead and ripped out the old bathroom, which meant using a temporary shower in the room. It felt like a building site and is not something I’d recommend with children.

What were your thoughts behind your colour scheme?

We used different tones and textures. The walls are painted a soft grey to act as a backdrop for the warmer wood tones, statement tiles and crisp white blinds. Green accessories brighten the overall look.

You’ve added some lovely finishing touches

The quirky hooks are from my favourite online store, The Vintage Wall, while the wine crates were bought for £20 each at Altrincham market – we took a gamble on the size and they fitted the vanity shelf perfectly. The cupboard was a high street bargain at just £50.

The final result – your verdict please!

I think the combination of modern and traditional works really well – it feels indulgent, while being a practical family space.