CENTRE STAGE’

Taking a bathroom from boringly bland to dark and opulent has given Stacey and Chris their dream space that’s all about the bath

We’d just completed a four-year renovation on a house nearby, and Henry was only three months old, so we weren’t looking to move,’ says Stacey. ‘But when we saw this beautiful house for sale I convinced Chris to view it, and the moment I stepped inside, I fell in love.

It had been empty for years, but had obviously once been a charming home that was crying out to be loved again.

In the beginning

The bathroom had been updated by the previous owners, so although it wasn’t to my taste, it was functional and there was more pressing work to tackle. We’ll usually give anything a go, but the bathroom felt like a major job as I wanted to incorporate a freestanding bath and redesign the room to be more in keeping with the rest of the house. We decided to save and get the professionals in, which meant this room went on the back burner for a few years.

All change

The wait gave me time to consider what I wanted from the room, particularly the layout. To make space for the bath and a large vanity unit, I planned to move the shower and remove a false wall hiding some pipework. Once we’d finalised the layout, we started thinking about the fixtures and fittings, which was when we chose our gorgeous bath and decided to have a wet-room style shower, so that the beautiful, tiled floor I’d chosen was uninterrupted by a shower tray.

Nightmare moment

We initially expected the work to take about three weeks, but it ended up taking six because we struggled to get the bath into the room. It’s huge so I initially

IDEA TO STEAL ‘Unusual animal prints add a fun touch to the sophisticated room’ SHOW-STOPPER ‘A copper bath was the dream, but I soon realised how expensive they are so we saved really hard for it. I love its patina and the way it changes with the light’