After 23 years, my mom finally got her new bathroom!
It started with a locker we were given, which my talented and artistic mother hand-painted beautifully with browns and blues. Then we got a friend with a laser-cutter to cut out the Balinese wood accents (we painted them white before they were cut) for the locker sides, the mirror and the toilet paper holder kassie above the toilet.

The standard original bathroom door, opening inwards, has always made the bathroom feel very small and cramped. We decided that a sliding door would create a more vintage feel. This freed up a lot of space, which got our imaginations going.

For the longest time, we have had a Singer sewing machine stand, which we definitely wanted to use in some or other creative way. This inspired the look and feel we wanted to go for: vintage/Balinese. For this project, we collected, over many years, the mirror, the metal locker and the countertop, which is a family heirloom.

We started the revamp by installing new IsoBoard and cornices over the old and tired ceiling and cornices. This already made a huge difference in the room, brightening it up tremendously. We then scratched the old grout out of the blue wall tiles, which we decided to keep (still the original tiles from the farmhouse built in the ’50s), and re-grouted with new white grout mixed with Tilebond bonding liquid.

After taking the old vanity out, we saw a patch of missing tiles on the wall and the perfect spot for the Singer sewing machine stand! And continuing the floor tile up the wall would accentuate this stunning feature. Removing the old Linoleum floor was a struggle – a few days spent on our hands and knees with chisels, spatulas and a variety of other tools. We eventually ended up with a clean floor for our beautiful new tiles. We chose these not only for their beauty, but also for their practicality when it came to cutting the various angles.

We then installed the Singer stand as the base for the countertop and new countertop basin. The countertop going across the bath added useful surface space and it’s a great place to put your wineglass whilst taking a relaxing bubble bath.

In our original thinking, we knew the old diamond cubical shower had to go, and the swinging door was not practical; it made the bathroom feel very small and made the floor wet when it was opened. We took a cut-out to Chamberlains to see if the more rounded quadrant shower would work on the existing floor plan. As luck would have it, the shower we had our eye on would be a near perfect fit. We used some of the old shower’s aluminum frame as an extension, and it worked out perfectly. Then we just replaced the old Cobra taps on both the shower and bath with new Victorian-styled taps, and with that we had a stunning new bathroom. My mom, Sue, added the finishing touches by making a new window blind and finding new towel hooks and the Oriental boxes for storage.
We love the new bathroom and have started on the other one!