Downstairs Toilet Reveal – Renovation Diaries

It’s been a while since I last did a room reveal for our new house. And that’s because it’s been a while since a room was finished. Even now the room is 100% complete, but I’ll explain that later. Last year we had the master bedroom, ensuite, living room, office, and the kitchen diner. But now it’s time for the downstairs loo.

In terms of what else we have to finish. We have the main bathroom which is our next major project. And I’m so excited as I want a bath so badly. And then it’s time to start the garage renovation. Once that’s done and we can move all the boxes and stuff out of the second and third bedrooms they’ll pretty much be done soon. I’m holding out hope that we’ll get all of this finished by late summer. But who knows.

What the downstairs toilet looked like before

When we moved in the downstairs loo wasn’t the nicest. It had cheap lino-styled flooring, it was quite old-fashioned and just didn’t make the best first impression when you came into the house. The radiator was quite old and looked pretty discoloured. And it had floor-to-ceiling tiles that we weren’t fans of.

We knew straight away that we wanted to do one room that was a bit quirky and a bit extra. And a downstairs loo is perfect for showing a bit of personality. I knew pretty quickly I wanted to go jungle themed and Luke loved the idea so that’s where our plans moved to.

The progress of the downstairs loo

While the renovation was happening to the house and we had no ensuite or bathroom. So we had to keep this toilet in so there was a useable one. And due to all the dust and workmen etc, it got pretty disgusting by the end. Just before we moved around August last year in our ensuite was fitted so we stripped this whole room back. We pulled out the suite, the radiator, the tiles, the floor, the door, the architrave, the whole lot.

We had planned to get this room done as soon as we moved in but a combination of our things popping up and the pandemic meant it took about seven months to fully complete. The first thing we did was put a door on it. That way we could close it off and people didn’t see the empty mess as soon as they moved in.

The first thing Luke and his dad did was build out a bit of a wall behind where the toilet would be. To try and give the illusion of more space we opted for a wall hung toilet. So this meant a bunch of plumbing had to go behind it. As the condition of the walls wasn’t great we relined the walls in plasterboard for a smooth finish and got it plastered.

Actually finishing the room

In October last year, once the wall had been built, our tiler start doing the tiles on the walls of the toilet. About two-thirds of the wall tiles were done, but then we ended up having an unintentional three-month break. It started with lockdown in November, then our self-isolation and our tiler self isolating at various points. Then Christmas happened. Before we knew it it was late January and nothing had happened in a while.

In mid-February tiling started again and over a few weekends the wall was finished, the flooring was finished, and then the grouting and cleaning was done. After that, it was a case of fitting the radiator and suite. This wasn’t quite as simple as we’d hoped but we got there in the end. Then Luke filled and sanded down the walls ready to be painted and the accessories to be added up.

When the room is truly finished there will be palm leaf print wallpaper on the top half of the rooms to really bring out the jungle theme. But we didn’t fancy hanging it ourselves and matching up the pattern. And when we get the garage finished the decorator will be over to do that. So we figured we’d paint it while for now to be neat and useable. But we’d get the paper added on at a later date.

What the downstairs toilet looks like now

So the room is like 90% finished, but at least it’s a clean, pretty, usable room that is semi-jungle-themed. Although the wallpaper will make such a huge difference. We went for the same Rustic Wood Effect Tiles that we have in the ensuite (and we’ll also have in the bathroom). I just think they look so neat and don’t feel like cold hard tiles. Then for the walls, we knew we wanted a mid to dark green, so after a few samples, we opted for these Victoria Gloss Green Mini Metro Tiles. We chose white grout on the walls just so it stood out against the tiles.

As we chose to go for gold colouring in the downstairs toilet we went for a gold trim along with gold detailing everywhere else. For the toilet, we went back to Victoria Plum and picked up the Mode Harrison rimless wall hung toilet with the frame and push flush plate. Unfortunately, this is now discontinued, but I’ve found an alternative cloakroom toilet at Bella Bathrooms that’s very similar.

For our basin, we wanted one that wouldn’t take up much room so we got the a small one from Victoria Plum again. It sits along the wall. It’s more than big enough to use and frees up a lot of room around it.

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