🖼️
The project:
To gut, or save the 60’s. This was our deliberation for months leading up to the commencement of our project. Our 1960’s main bathroom has been the final room of our home to renovate. It had some nice original features, in the cast iron ‘Armitage Shanks’ bath (painted white, but flaking to reveal the flamingo pink), pistachio green wall tiles, scalloped cornices and tiled in shell soap holder. But retrofits in the stark white vanity, mouldy shower curtain, Hogg bristle painted walls brought a dated, clinical feel.
We wanted to bring in warmth, cosiness and texture whilst honouring the original. We wanted richness of colour to complement the green and pink. We knew it was possible, but had trepidations in how it would all come together.
- Materials:
All paint and paint brushes purchased from Bunnings warehouse.
Builders Bog
Ardex Optima 2 step
James Hardie Villaboard
Tiling trowel 12mm
Cement sheet screws
Selleys Bathroom silicone - ivory
Tricleanium paint stripper
Dulux Bathroom Paint
- Tools:
Ryobi Multi-tool
Knee pads
Makita drill
Ozito Spray Paint Gun
Chrome bath plug
- Step 1:
First step was to peel (literally) back the layers of the bath to check its condition, underneath the more recent flaking white paint job. It was beautiful. Who would have thought dusty pink and green would work?
- Step 2:
Removing the water damaged section of gyprock above the shower came next. Commonplace in most 60’s bathrooms, the tiling only came up to shoulder height hence water and splash had slowly made it’s way into the bottom half of the gyprock above the top tiled row.
After this removal, I sought our local plumber to increase the height of the water outlet, to fit the future shower set. I installed James Hardie Villaboard 12mm, as well as additional studs to secure to. Waterproofing followed, which I continued to the lip of the top row of original tiles.
- Step 3:
The original floor tiles didn’t survive this project unfortunately. The 60’s mosaic of varying tones of green and off-white didn’t exude the warmth we were looking for and just added another colour to try and have to blend with later. So we decided to bring in a warm terrazzo tile that would has used in our laundry renovation, to similar effect. The flecks of beige, caramel, off-white, and dark browns bounced well with the final decisions on wall and vanity finishes.
I used Ardex Optima tile primer to tile the new tiles directly to the existing floor, both in the bathroom and bottom of the shower. I used an insert drain to cover the original drains and Selleys bathroom silicone to seal around the edge, as we had no problems with the floor waterproofing.
- Step 4:
Tiling the shower.
Amongst other arduous decisions, this was up there. A contrasting tile to somehow complement 60’s pistachio 90x90 wall tiles. Initially we turned to socials, vintage tile warehouses, and word of mouth to try to source more of the same tiles in an attempt to just add further up the existing tiles to the ceiling. But alas, no one keeps old tiles, as we found out.
Then followed a thorough search for a new alternative. When we came across the beautiful stack levanto burgundy marble tiles, we could see the light between the trees. I added a thin black pencil tile as a transition between the old and new, as well as linking to the original black strip feature tile on the wall.
- Step 5:
Fixtures, paint, texture.
To soften the green, we needed timber. In came the ADP Archie wall hung vanity. Plenty of options to added moderate tones of brown and caramel in the melamine and vanity top. We opted for mixed metals across the room, as we couldn’t modify the existing chrome towel rail or bath handle. Brass against the burgundy. Copper pulls on the vanity, as well as a sneaky copper sleave to cover the white PVF waste which exited through the floor. As we wanted a wall mounted vanity to add a feeling of space, this proved a nice solution compared to looking at white PVC.
After 13 Dulux paint samples and about the same amount of visits to the Bunnings paint desk, we settled on rich loam (Dulux). The initial vision was coming together.
Warm wall sconces brought further luxury, to an otherwise undeserving space. Brass plated light switches replaced the previous white, again to remove the stark white contrasts where possible.
Similarly, I used a Ozita spray paint gun to spray the tastic and exhaust fan in Dulux rich loam, of which we also installed to replace the originals.
- Step 6:
Replacement of the shaving cabinet. We opted for a larger cabinet here, with hinged doors that opened outwards to both maximise the space for a larger mirror, as well as increased storage. The curved edges tied in nicely with the curves in the bath and vanity. I removed the old cabinet and cut further into the stud to allow the larger cabinet to fit. A tricky plastering job to seamlessly bring the mirror tight to the wall.
- Step 7:
The shower screen was sourced and installed from a local Glass company. They did a beautiful job matching the brass trim of the semi frameless shower to our existing brass choices. We opted for height – to accentuate the stunning shower set.
Selleys silicon all sourced from Bunnings – in ivory to blend better to the caramel/beige vanity top and around the base of the shower.
Voilà, our (now) favourite room in the house.
