All posts tagged: Bathroom

The Georgian Apartment – Bathroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Hello May, how are you all doing? Your umbrella been getting a good outing this month? Today i’m back at the Georgian Apartment for for the final reveal of the bathroom. Hoorah! This is what we started with… Before A very small and narrow space indeed which surprisingly (or not) the previous owners had squeezed in a loo, basin, bath and a separate shower, but absolutely no storage whatsoever and not a lot of room for “people”. When planning a bathroom, always allow space for you, the user(s) to move around, especially family bathrooms as they often have the whole clan in there at bath-times. Original Layout Initially I gave Mr B a few layout options, which looked at providing a walk in shower next to a plunge bath (a smaller footprint bath with much higher sides so you sit up and soak rather than lie down), but as Mr B also needed to use his bathroom to shower off his little Yorkshire Terrier after long muddy walks, we stuck with a shower over bath …

The Old Forge York – Two Years in the Making – Final Reveal Part 2

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello, how are you all? Thanks to everyone who read Part 1 of final reveal for The Old Forge. I’ve heard from Karen (the owner) that bookings at the newly renovated holiday cottage have been going swimmingly since its launch with Next Door @ The Old Forge now being fully booked until the end of September, so get your skates on if you’re looking to book a break in North Yorkshire over the October half term or fancy an autumn/winter break. So, where was I on the final reveal tour? I think I was about here… Corten steel cladding with a slither of hallway peeking through By their very nature of generally being long and narrow, hallways are spaces where people don’t tend to push the boat out design wise. However, a hallway is a place (much like a downstairs loo) is a place you can have plenty of fun. It’s somewhere you pass through fleetingly on the way from one place to another, not often somewhere you hang about for shits and giggles. But …

The 70’s apartment – Final Reveal of the Marble and Black Bathroom

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello! From kitchens to bathrooms, today i’m back with another final reveal post from the 70’s flat. This time it’s the marble and black bathroom, and thankfully despite bathrooms always being the most difficult spaces to design, plan and implement, this room (unlike the kitchen) went swimmingly. As this bathroom is in a flat, things like relocating the foul pipe onto another external wall or altering the size and shape of windows were not allowed. Basically anything that affected the external appearance of the building as a whole was a big fat no. We also couldn’t move or take out any internal walls within the flat, which was pretty frustrating as the bathroom housed a huge, floor to ceiling cupboard which took up about a 1/6th of the floor space. Before – Massive storage cupboard which originally housed an old water tank We did however, relocate the washing machine (originally in the kitchen) and added a drying space into the massive cupboard, meaning the flat never needed an airer setting up in the spare room. The classic …

Monochrome Bathroom Final Reveal by Making Spaces

The Monochrome Family Bathroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

Oh how I love a final reveal post. I get all bubbly in my tummy when I get to share something i’ve been working on for months. I really hope you enjoy today’s post as much as i’m enjoying tapping away on my keyboard right now…. Let’s start with the before pictures from my first visit in October 2017. Before I wrote a whole post about the plans for this room, which included some mega important info about what to consider if you’re planning a bathroom. So, if you want to jump back one, then come back for the eye candy afterwards it would certainly make more sense. But if you can’t be bothered, suit yourself. You’re in charge. After The brief: Can you design us a Scandi inspired, monochrome bathroom, with some wood in? We need lots of storage, we’d like good quality fittings, we like minimal… but it still needs to be family friendly? Paraphrasing of course. It took a while to consolidate all of their ideas, needs and wants, but we finally …

Planning a Bathroom Refurb? – Me too! New Project Time

Published by Karen Knox

My work takes me all over the place and I get to see some stunning properties on my travels. None more-so than the one i’m about to introduce you to today. A neo-gothic converted college located in the middle of nowhere. Down a long and winding path somewhere in Leeds is a property that took my breath away. On my visit the sat nav decided it would take me down an alternative route where eventually, the winding lane began to disintegrate under my wheels until I found myself driving into woods. You know, just on soil. Amongst trees and squirrels. Gave myself flipping whiplash on my first outing to find this place. After reversing backwards for what seemed like a mile (probably about 12 meters) and doing a four million point turn to escape my journey into the wilderness, I finally managed to pick up the correct route, my sat nav finally locating the property postcode. Not a tree in some woods. Upon driving into the grounds (yes I said grounds) the final destination warranted …

ABC in the Bathroom (Anything But Chrome)

Published by Karen Knox

If you’re currently planning a bathroom refit and looking to break with convention and not go down the easy route of chrome brassware… you’ll soon experience what I refer to as The ABC Nightmare. Anything But Chrome. Black and Brass are currently the choix du jour and has been for a while but the market is taking some time to catch up. As you already know our loft bathroom was graced with a black tap, bottle trap and waste from Olif. The Minimo Matt Black Tap is still available on their website, which they’ve recently revamped, so definitely worth a look. They also do gold, copper, bronze and anthracite taps… basically, Anything. But. Chrome. So sourcing a black tap for our loft shower room wasn’t too bad… but could I for the life of me find a shower or a shower screen with black fittings (that wasn’t a million ££’s)? No. No I couldn’t. But guess what? They’re finally trickling down onto the market, so I thought i’d save you a month’s painful search and pop ’em all here for …

The Loft Bathroom – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

It’s here. It’s flipping HERE! Week 20 or something are we now? I dunno, I stopped counting after 17… My ideas for the bathroom are finally up and at ’em and I can’t wait for a sit down and a biscuit. I don’t think i’ve had a day off since September. God, I need a day off. Anywaaaay, here was the vibe I had in mind for the bathroom. Strictly monochrome, in keeping with the loft bedroom. If you haven’t seen that yet, I reckon you should have a quick pop over here so you can see how the two spaces connect. Our new bathroom was going to be 2m x 2m. So, small, but a good size for a second bathroom i’d say. These tiny spaces are certainly not easy to plan at all. And i’ve lost a fair amount of beauty sleep over this space, i’ll tell you that for free. Here’s where we were at the beginning of December. Before And here’s where we are now. After We have a bathroom! I …

Black Wednesday – Week 11

Published by Karen Knox

If you’re in or close to Leeds, you may have heard me on Wednesday last week. You might have mistaken the noise for a small pig being squeezed in a vice, but no, it was me. Screaming. I don’t remember the last time I felt so angry (it was probably the week before) but you know you’ve completely lost your shit when your husband comes home from work early. Without you having to even ask. Don’t jump! We’ve been waiting patiently for our staircase for 11 weeks now. Keep getting told, they’ll be started on it soon and it’ll be another week. Each and every time a new trade comes in to crack on with their job, I get; “When’s the staircase coming?” “Where’s the staircase? “Haven’t you got your staircase yet?” Erm, yes, don’t you like it. It’s there. We’ve had an aluminium staircase made to look just like a bloody ladder. **eye roll** The last we were told (Monday 14th November) is the staircase was being “made right now”. Factor in two weeks to make …

The Loft Extension – Wk 6/7

Published by Karen Knox

Firstly, i’d just like to apologise for the radio silence over the last week. I think it’s fair to say, this loft conversion is starting to get to me. Like, properly. It’s not the mess, dirt, cold, the fact I can’t walk down the hall without banging my knee on a boxed toilet or the plastic floor covering that crackles when you trot over it. No, not these things. It’s the fact I can’t actually sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time and concentrate on ANYTHING as our front door is moving continuously with various trades coming in and out. I’ve never made so many cups of tea. I’ve also never got through so many bags of sugar. They’re all “two sugar” guys. Two! The other thing my busy mind is struggling with, is the continual trouble shooting. Overall, i’m a negative, pessimistic person. I focus entirely on worst case scenarios which makes me really good at project management. How does that help? I combat anything that might go wrong before it actually …