Home Ideology

Sayonara stark, white walls. Hello fresh, inviting sanctuary. It’s safe to say I even impressed myself with this bathroom transformation (I’ll put the trumpet away in a minute, I promise). January was productive to say the least! Once I decided the bathroom was getting it with some paint, there was no stopping me. After nearly a year of being surrounded by blandness, I took the plunge (not the plunger), and added some much needed colour. With a little confidence boost from my Instagram followers in a colour poll, I went slightly darker than I normal would, and I’m so pleased with the result.

In total it took me 2 weekends over the space of 3 weeks in January to complete. Once I’d decided on the blind colour, everything else fell into place. It would have been easy to go for a white blind and keep things simple, but I feel if there’s one or two rooms in the house you can have some fun with decoration, it’s the bathroom and guest toilet.

Waking up at 6am Monday to Friday and spending endless hours in the bathroom each week getting ready, I wanted the room to inspire me each morning. Adding a touch of nature with some indoor plants brings the space to life, and me in the morning too, especially when I’m half asleep.

Everyone that has visited has said I’ve done a great job of cutting in the paint, which I wouldn’t have been able to do without green frog tape. I’ve used other brands in the past but they aren’t as good in my opinion. A tip is to make the pieces you tear as long as possible, because the shorter the strips the more chance it will show on the wall with a small over lapping marks. I always take my finger nail over each section I overlap, to make sure it’s as seamless of a line as possible. I learnt the hard way with the overlap marks You live any you learn hey! Also, don’t leave the frog tape on long after you’ve painted, 20 mins max, because you’ll take half the wall with you.

I had my paint mixed bespoke at B&Q, which turned out really well. I was going to go down the Farrow & Ball route but decided it was too expensive for the bathroom. I’m more than happy with the results. When choosing a colour to paint your bathroom, first decide what tone would match your tiles, then find a colour you like in that spectrum that you feel you could live with day in, day out. I didn’t get testers because I was matching it to my blind and just wanted it as close as possible, so I went straight in. But if I wasn’t matching it to something specific I would have got 4-5 testers to see which one I preferred.

My paint application tips (that I learnt the hard way, and you don’t have too):

• Invest in good paint roller, and give it a fluffy out with you hand before you begin to remove any excess fluff before you dip it in the paint tray.
• Don’t cake the roller in paint, even if you start getting bored a few walls in. Take a break. It will take longer to remove all the specks of paint that fly everywhere but on the walls.
• If you take a break but you don’t want your roller or paint tray to dry up, wrap the whole thing air tight, in clingfilm. It will be like you never left when you start again. You can also do this with paint brushes, usually holds out up to about 3 days.
• Don’t tip fresh paint into a used paint tray if you’ve not cleaned it out properly, you’ll get dry bits of paint all over your walls as it comes away from the tray as you start to apply.
• If you’re painting the bathroom, make sure the walls are complete dry beforehand or the frog tape will lift up the adjoining paint, like the ceiling paint.

Below is a list of some of the places I purchased my bathroom décor, furniture and blind.

• I’ve had lots of comments on my Instagram about my floating shelves. They are from IKEA, click here to view on their site.
• My blinds are from Make My Blinds. My whole house is full of them, they are great quality and if you’re handy with a power drill the instructions are super easy to follow. I’ve put up every one of mine, without a problem. Make sure you use wall plugs though, screws alone won’t hold them up! My blinds are ‘in the recess’, it can be a bit confusing when deciding where to put them, but I like being able to style my window ledges. Click here to see the blinds I have.
• My tall bathroom unit is also from IKEA, it’s called ‘Godmorgan’ and it’s a new range in their bathroom department. It cost £140 with the additional chrome legs at £10 each. I built the unit myself and it went up pretty easy, but I’d suggest having a helper around to help you lift it up on the wall when needed. It doesn’t say anywhere in the instructions about using wall plugs when screwing in the bracket to the wall, but they are necessary as it won’t hold up with just screws. This unit does need to be fixed to the wall as it will topple over if left freestanding. Click here to see the unit on the IKEA site.
• My plants are from IKEA and my favourite umbrella tree from B&Q, I found B&Q had the best selection and all reasonably priced, around £8 each. They have some nice pots too. Most of my ceramic pots are from Homesense, which I defiantly advise going o for inspo, if you’re undecided on a general theme. Click here to see some plants I purchased.
• My bathmats are from Homesense, they are the Elle Décor label and were about £14 for the pair.

I’m still in search of a beautiful wall mounted, LED bathroom mirror which I hope to find in the next few weeks. This will evidently finishes the bathroom off perfectly and I will share a picture on my Instagram feed @home.ideology

To see more of my home transformation follow me on social media @home.ideology

If you go ahead and purchase any of the above items I used in my bathroom, please tag me as I’d love to see how you make it your own!