‘I mixed the old WITH The new’
Katie Alice teamed upcycled pieces with modern sanitaryware for her dream space
We moved in 18 months ago knowing this place needed plenty of love and attention,’ says Katie Alice. ‘My partner Matt and I wanted to stay in Stamford as we love it and were brought up here.
Previously, we lived in a Victorian twobedroom terrace on a busy road. We were planning to have children, so we needed more space. We’d been looking for a while when we heard about this house. Matt wasn’t very sure, as it was dark and dingy and needed so much work done to it. But I managed to convince him that it had everything we wanted.
Plan of action
In the bathroom at the back of the house, the layout was awful. The big problem was that you were staring at a brick wall from the doorway. There was no window in the back wall overlooking the garden and just a tiny one at the side of the house, where there was a small shower. The bath was on the back wall so when we opened the door, it banged into the tub. The loo was straight in front of you, so that’s all you saw from the hall. The tiles were all dated and the floor tiles were brown, plus there was an enormous mirror, which just made the whole thing feel even more weird.
First things first
We ordered a window in keeping with the age of the house for the back wall, to add some light. It’s not a bad-sized room, so we realised we could fit everything we wanted if we just arranged the layout differently. There was space for a bath under the new window, and, if we blocked in the little window at the side, we could fit in a bigger walk-in shower. The loo could slot in next to that, with a basin unit on the opposite wall. Once the new window was in and the old one was blocked up, it made everything much better. We ripped out the existing
fittings and it took us a day to smash up the mirror, as it was stuck to the wall.
Choosing a style
I like an eclectic mix of old and new and didn’t want a contemporary look because of the age of the house. So we started with a roll-top bath, then we added a modern shower with retro-style fittings and a classic loo. For the vanity unit, we wanted to do something different, so we found an old desk at an antiques market and fitted a bowl to it. The taps are set into the wall, which we were tiling, so there was room to hide the plumbing.
Colour scheme
I decided to go for dramatic floor tiles, smaller off-white wall tiles and a matching paint colour for the rest of the walls, as white would have been too stark. We bought loads of floor tiles, as they were great value. They were the key to the colour scheme. I looked at the colours within the tiles – blue, pink, cream, yellow and black – and picked out the deep rich blue as my main colour. I love Little Greene paints, so I found the nearest match, Marine Blue, and painted the outside of the bath with it, as well as an old mirror and the legs of the vanity unit.
Finishing touch
We saved one of the old kitchen cabinets to mount on the bathroom wall and just changed the knobs. It makes things personal and unique. That’s what I like to see in any space – a bit of individuality.’