Browse Forums Bathrooms and Laundry 1 May 23, 2009 9:36 pm Hi first time poster, first time renovation and need a little advice. We are doing everything except the plumbing ourselves because we have an extremely limited budget and figure, why pay thousands when we can do it ourselves with a little time patience and help from dad lol I should mention our bathroom is extremely small measuring 4m2 of total floor space with a 900 x 900 corner shower, a pedistal vanity and a 1525 x 800 standard bath so we want to jazz it up abit to get away from boring Our colour scheme is white wall tiles with three blue feature glass tiles and dark blue edging tiles for the floor and white floor tiles in the centre So my questions: 1. We want to put in a couple of niches, one in the shower and one at the tap end of the bath. But I'm a little concerned where to begin. Are there recesses that you can fit into the walls and tile directly over or will we need to build the niche ourselves? Which begs the question- how do we waterproof to prevent leakage? 2. Heated towel rails, to have or not to have? power usage? 3. Feature tiles- we've picked out glass tiles called Four Seasons Summer which are stunningly beautiful lol but of course extremely expensive. I wish to minimise the cost by using the feature tiles in the niches rather than do full strips down the wall. As they are charged per linear metre I figure this will possibly be more cost effective. 4. What kind of storage do you have in your bathrooms? Recessed vanity? Shelves for towels? 5. Am I allowed to post photos of my before and after? All advice is welcome as is how to guides if there are any out there Re: First time bathroom renovation 2May 23, 2009 10:31 pm Just wondering whether your feature tiles will be wasted in the niches as you usually put items in there and you won't see as much of the tile?? Definitely post before and after shots!! Re: First time bathroom renovation 3May 23, 2009 11:06 pm klscomps Just wondering whether your feature tiles will be wasted in the niches as you usually put items in there and you won't see as much of the tile?? Definitely post before and after shots!! That is a good point, something I didn't think of. I wonder how it would look with the feature tile going around the niche on the outside rather than being on the inside. At the moment to do two strips down the walls it's almost 700 dollars so you can imagine why I want to put the features elsewhere Re: First time bathroom renovation 4May 23, 2009 11:34 pm Hi kaorihana, I just did a post on my own bathroom renovation, similar size to yours - http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=18472 You can pick up heated towel rails that use less energy than a 50w, incandescent light bulb. And they're definitely worth it; especially in a cold house I'm not building much storage into my bathroom as it is right next to the linen press. We're just going to have a shaving cabinet recessed into the wall above a floating bench and basin. As for your niches, I'm not sure of any prefabricated units on the market (but I'm sure there probably are). We're just building our own, as part of the re-fit (we have to gut our entire room do to water damage and rot). Love to see some before and after pics when you get them Re: First time bathroom renovation 5May 24, 2009 12:09 am kaorihana Hi first time poster, first time renovation and need a little advice. We are doing everything except the plumbing ourselves because we have an extremely limited budget and figure, why pay thousands when we can do it ourselves with a little time patience and help from dad lol I should mention our bathroom is extremely small measuring 4m2 of total floor space with a 900 x 900 corner shower, a pedistal vanity and a 1525 x 800 standard bath so we want to jazz it up abit to get away from boring Our colour scheme is white wall tiles with three blue feature glass tiles and dark blue edging tiles for the floor and white floor tiles in the centre So my questions: 1. We want to put in a couple of niches, one in the shower and one at the tap end of the bath. But I'm a little concerned where to begin. Are there recesses that you can fit into the walls and tile directly over or will we need to build the niche ourselves? Which begs the question- how do we waterproof to prevent leakage? I believe you tile it like all wet areas, that's all. 2. Heated towel rails, to have or not to have? power usage? We have ours on constantly in winter, no big power bill. Def get one if it fits. 3. Feature tiles- we've picked out glass tiles called Four Seasons Summer which are stunningly beautiful lol but of course extremely expensive. I wish to minimise the cost by using the feature tiles in the niches rather than do full strips down the wall. As they are charged per linear metre I figure this will possibly be more cost effective. IMO only using the feature tiles in the niches may cheapen them, try it out first. I think it may be best to stick to tradition strips down the wall. I would have thought that using them in the niches would cover them up when you place something in the niche anyway, and would probably use a very similar amount of tiles too. so there's not really any point to save $$$. Have a look at seconds stores etc to save a few $$$ if you like. OR ring around with the tile you have selected until someone gives you a better price. 4. What kind of storage do you have in your bathrooms? Recessed vanity? Shelves for towels? We only have normal vanity unit. The shelf next the bath is great. Also, small shelf behind mirror. 5. Am I allowed to post photos of my before and after? OH YES, you must!!! All advice is welcome as is how to guides if there are any out there There are heaps of how to guides on the net. Search your project names etc. Also check out Mitre-10's website and bunnings, they do heaps of DIY sheets which you can print out at home. Cheers, Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: First time bathroom renovation 6May 24, 2009 9:53 pm kaorihana 1. We want to put in a couple of niches, one in the shower and one at the tap end of the bath. But I'm a little concerned where to begin. Are there recesses that you can fit into the walls and tile directly over or will we need to build the niche ourselves? Which begs the question- how do we waterproof to prevent leakage? There are some threads here about waterproofing. The niche in the shower should be waterproofed the same way you do the rest of the shower recess. The bath one will depend what you're going to use it for. We have a niche that isn't tiled above our bath - it's just for display of decorative stuff, and won't ever get wet, so no waterproofing required. kaorihana 2. Heated towel rails, to have or not to have? power usage? Love our heated towel rails now that the cold weather has arrived! They are a big user of power, comparitively speaking, so I've put cheap electronic timers on them, the sort you can get from Bunnings, K Mart etc. They switch on at 6:00am and off at 8:00am - long enough to warm the towels before we use them and to help dry the wet towels after. kaorihana 3. Feature tiles- we've picked out glass tiles called Four Seasons Summer which are stunningly beautiful lol but of course extremely expensive. I wish to minimise the cost by using the feature tiles in the niches rather than do full strips down the wall. As they are charged per linear metre I figure this will possibly be more cost effective. Tiled niches can look stunning! Cost will depend on how big your niches are overall, of course...a strip might work out about the same if it's a big niche. kaorihana 4. What kind of storage do you have in your bathrooms? Recessed vanity? Shelves for towels? Just cupboards and drawers in the vanities.... we do have a wall niche in our ensuite, with glass shelves, but that's more for display of decorative stuff than for anything practical. Look forward to some photos! Re: First time bathroom renovation 7May 27, 2009 12:21 pm 2. Heated towel rails - personally I don't see the point. You get out of a hot shower and your body temp will warm up a cold towel pretty much instantly. You rub it on your body and the cold sensation is gone. <climate change preaching warning > In this era of climate change I think we all have a responsibility to reduce our energy consumption too. Even if its only a little amount of energy, it all adds up... Oh, and before the climate change deniers come on here saying its all a government plot to introduce a new carbon tax system, please go and read the latest IPCC report first and then get back to me on what they've got wrong: http://www.ipcc.ch/ <climate change preaching over > Re: First time bathroom renovation 8May 28, 2009 10:00 am I see you are in Brisbane... does it get cold enough to use a heated towel rail there?? You might like to skip the towel rail adn put that money into a stip of your feature tiles, then get regular towel rails?? Just a suggestion. Re: First time bathroom renovation 9May 29, 2009 9:34 pm lol thanks for the warning we are slowly saving to change our house into solar power, starting with the water heater hehe so I'm climate aware heh but I do like hot towels even in the summer heh Re: First time bathroom renovation 10May 30, 2009 9:54 am Couple of quick pics to show how I built my niche in the shower. Might give you the idea. Wall design Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Waterproofed Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Tiled Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ You can't see it but the tiles in the base of the niche actually have a slight slope to drain properly. I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 9884 This is a very tight fit, I'm not sure if you'll be able to achieve what you've described. Would you consider accessing the separate toilet from the laundry? If so maybe… 1 11229 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 8933 |