Our Victorian Home: The Bathroom

We’ve been in our Victorian terraced house for just over two years now, and we’ve been busy giving the whole place a makeover! One of the rooms that we’ve given a big makeover on a budget is the bathroom. We’re really lucky to have a big spacious bathroom – it was originally the second bedroom and the original bathroom was downstairs.

But at some point the downstairs bathroom switched places with the bedroom, so that’s how we ended up with the spare bedroom downstairs! But anyway, when we moved in to the house the bathroom was very much useable but needed a bit of work to make it more up-to-date and stylish.

Here’s a little before and after shot so you can see how it looked when we moved in…

Retaining original period features

I actually love the original Victorian bathroom door! It’s a gorgeous solid wood with clear patterned glass and old brass door knob. You can see lots of little holes in the wood where various locks would have been added over the years. I just love how unique it is! I thought about sanding the wood down but I decided to leave it as it is, and I just added the ‘bathroom’ sign which I bought from Next for £7.

Accessorising a traditional bathroom

The bathroom has a full size bath as well as a nice big shower and I tend to alternate between the two! As the bathroom suite was plain white and reasonably modern when we moved in, we’ve kept it all and just updated the fixtures and fittings instead – and of course accessorised! By adding little bits and pieces to the room it instantly looks more homely and stylish.

I love the cheeky bath mat from B&M and the white wooden bath tray from Dunelm which I keep some small artificial plants and a candle on. I think plants look great in a bathroom setting, but I’m not great at keeping real plants alive, so all of these ones are fake!

I added a new traditional style bath mixer tap which I bought on Facebook brand new in the box for only £20! I love browsing Facebook for bargains for the home. You can pick up some really unique vintage pieces or brand new bits that someone’s just never got round to using! I was really lucky to find this as I was going to buy one online for £100! And it’s so much nicer than the old one that was fitted.

Bathroom lighting

We had some awful light fittings in the bathroom when we moved in, so I wanted to update the with something a little bit more modern. I was kindly sent a pair of LED flush bathroom lights from Litecraft which I had fitted by an electrician. When I started looking for bathroom lights I struggled to begin with as it was difficult to see on some website whether or not the lights were suitable for use in a bathroom.

But on the Litecraft website it’s clear which lights are double insulated and they have a large range of bathroom light fittings to pick from. These satin nickel finish lights are simple but stylish and I much prefer them to the old ones! Also how cute is this gold pineapple light pull from Dunelm?!

Replace bathroom taps on a budget

We also got new sink basin taps! Although actually, I discovered that you don’t actually need to replace the whole tap if you just want to change the look. I bought a ‘basin tap reviver kit‘ which is basically just the handles on the top of the taps. So you can just update the handles without having to mess about with the plumbing, and the kit was only £12!

We also got a nice new mirror from Dunelm to put above the sink – I love the vintage style bevelled edge. Above the loo I’ve hung this gold circular shelf on the wall with a few little trinkets on. The shelf was from Primark and the little nik-naks are from Home Bargains/B&M!

Stencilling a tiled bathroom floor

The tiles on the floor were originally a beige colour when we moved in. They weren’t too bad but I didn’t like the fact that they always looked grubby even when the floor was clean! As we didn’t want to splash out on a whole new floor, I decided to give the tiles a lick of paint. I used V33 tile paint in white to cover the whole floor, and then I used a Dizzy Duck stencil to paint on this pretty pattern in Rustoleum slate grey paint.

I did this project whilst I was on furlough so I had plenty of time to complete it, which is good because it took days to stencil each tile! But I do love the final outcome – I think it looks amazing! I wasn’t sure if the paint would last as I was worried it could chip or peel, but it’s been over a year now and it’s still like new!

We bought a really great brand new shower fitting from Lidl for only £30! I love it because you can switch between the rainfall showerhead or the handheld hose. Absolute bargain and it looks so much more expensive than it is. The geometric print grey and white towel set is from Portfolio Home and I think it goes really nicely in our bathroom.

Above the radiator we have an extra long towel rail, and then above that we have fitted a bathroom cabinet on the wall which comes in handy for extra toothpaste storage etc! I bought the cabinet from Argos and spray painted the handles gold to match the other accessories. I added some tropical wallpaper samples inside the little gold and glass frames which I hung either side of the cabinet, and then topped it with more artificial plants!

What do you think of our bathroom budget on a makeover? Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for the latest updates!