‘WE MADE SOME BRAVE CHOICES’

After a floorplan rethink, Holly converted a small bedroom into a designer-chic bathroom, making room for a luxurious shower and bath

Swapping a bedroom into a bathroom has given Holly the designer-chic space she yearned for

With this house, it wasn’t just a case of a simple update; we had to completely gut the property,’ says Holly. ‘But it was quite freeing to be in a position to make decisions that didn’t compromise with the previous owner’s taste or renovations.

The original bathroom was tiny and as wrecked as the rest of the house, and it was too small for our growing family. I wanted a much bigger, lighter space, and as we’d already decided to redesign and extend the whole house, it made sense to move the bathroom next door to the smallest bedroom and knock through to make it slightly bigger. This meant we could keep the old bathroom in use while we did the work, so even when the joining wall was removed and the end of the old bath was cut off, we still had a shower we could use in the other end of the room.

In the beginning

We started by gutting the room and then drew out the new plan on the floor. The design was mine, with some discussion and small compromises with my husband, who is really handy and brilliant at facilitating my ideas and making them a reality. I get inspired by other people’s homes and bathrooms, and I always take photos of decor that I like. I saw the floor tiles in a magazine and instantly fell in love with them, though they were eye-wateringly expensive, so we could only afford a small meterage.

The hard work

As we were renovating every room, we had to be mindful of where our

‘The bath is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe masonry paint. It’s made from lightweight acrylic, so was easy to manoeuvre into place’ Shop Holly’s style

‘We’ve used rustic materials to suit the farmhouse’s age, mixed with up-to-date pieces’