Voila!
Renovations can be a challenge, and even more so when you throw a pandemic lockdown into the mix. But, not to be deterred, the intrepid renovators, Shayden and Georgia, from Moochstyle soldiered on and succeeded in totally transforming their bathroom.
Owning a villa, we knew we were going to have some challenges renovating it. When we started planning a full bathroom remodel, we were expecting to have a few curve balls thrown our way so we decided on the tasks we would DIY and the ones we would leave to the pros.
What we weren’t expecting, was having to dig a 25 m trench from the back of the house to the road for the plumbers to replace a corroded galvanised water main. This meant ripping up the floor to replace corroded pipes under the house and a six-week lockdown standstill which caused massive delays sourcing materials. Each of these events also pushed tradies availability, so we had no shower, no bath and no functioning toilet from January to the start of June. It goes without saying that we will never have a bucket shower again!
The bathroom came together in May, and we made sure we had everything before we went into lockdown to be in a good place for the tiler to start when we went into level three. During lunch breaks, we swapped our laptops for paintbrushes and made good use of the extra time we saved on commuting. From there, everything went relatively smoothly, other than some minor delays in couriers getting things to us.
Standing back and looking at the bathroom, you can see the mood board we put together with a vision of ‘earthy boho’. Replacing the original polished tiles with waterproof oak flooring has softened the room and connects the space to the laundry and dining area, not to mention how much warmer it is. Some late-night surfing on Pinterest inspired the handmade tiles from floor to ceiling. Stacking them vertically was something we wanted to do from the start to give a modern twist to the timeless subway. To complement the straight lines of the tiles, we installed HardieGroove to the tallest walls, which has given the room more appearance of height, with the sloping ceiling.
Choosing tapware is always tricky because you don’t want to be too ‘on trend’ and we wanted something that wasn’t going to date, so we opted for matt black to be cohesive with the fittings throughout the house. We then glammed it up by going high-end with the concrete vessel sink and the custom-made mirror, which is locally made.
While this project was full of ups and downs, we learnt a few things along the way. Good tradies are worth their weight in gold, communication is key to a big project like this running smoothly, and there are easy ways to scrimp and splurge to come out somewhere in the middle by shopping around and mixing things up. We documented the journey on our Instagram TV @moochstyle where you can find the full reveal.
