Bathroom transformation.... project DIY

Anyone who knows Seth knows that he loves a bit of a DIY project! He isn't trained in any aspect of DIY, (he's an actuary and works all day in an office at a desk so the complete opposite really!) he just really enjoys doing it and learning as he goes along. A couple of years ago he laid some wood laminate in our hallway and in part of the lounge after the fireplace had been taken out (which you can read about here if you're interested). His project a couple of months ago was to lay some wood laminate in the bathroom as the lineoleum in there was looking pretty nasty and old!

Our bathroom is pretty small and most of it is okay, I don't have any complaints really. If this was going to be our forever home then maybe I would want it all ripped out and a new bathroom put in but it isn't and because of that we didn't really want to spend a lot of money redoing it. The original plan was just for Seth to lay the wood laminate but as parts of the sink unit were falling apart, he said that he would replace that too. Then he said that as the corner of the bathroom always looks cluttered with the washing basket and a couple of other things, wouldn't it be a good idea to put a bathroom cupboard there? I thought it was a great idea so I started looking on the internet for one. Of course, what he meant was that he wanted to BUILD a bathroom cupboard from scratch! When I said okay, he looked like an excited child at Christmas, bless him!

Here are a few before (and one during) pictures:

Obviously I had to put a picture of Seth hard at work building the cupboard :).

We went to all of the DIY stores to try and find replacement panels for the sink unit but nowhere stocked the ones we were looking for to match it so in the end, Seth bought a white gloss kitchen unit door panel and cut it down to size to replace the panel under the sink. He also replaced the one by the toilet flush so it would match and did the same for the skirting along the bottom as it had started to come away (I don't even know if it is called skirting, ha! I literally have no idea about anything when it comes to home improvement, I just take the photos to document it all!). It doesn't completely match but it is so close that unless you actually knew to look out for it, you probably wouldn't even notice.

He then laid the wood laminate and managed to line it up exactly so that the strips match perfectly with the line of the wood laminate in the hallway as well. I think it makes the bathroom look so much brighter and way nicer than that nasty old lino.

Building the bathroom cupboard was fun, We were glad to find that B and Q actually cut the strips of contiboard to size so Seth went there armed with the measurements that he had worked out and they did all the cutting (thank goodness! It meant that we didn't have to go and buy loads more tools. And Seth is a typical guy, he likes to have tools!!). He fixed it to the wall and it's so solid that it actually takes his weight when he sat on the supporting shelf. Not a bad effort :). 

We wanted the front of the cupboard to be mirrored to reflect light back into the room but we didn't know if the weight of mirrors would be too heavy for the doors so we ordered perspex mirrors. Seth put them onto the doors last week and he wasn't really thrilled with how it looked, as there is a tiny bit of flex in the mirror. I on the other hand love it because it makes me look like I have the body I have always wanted, ha! Plus unless you're actually using the mirror to look at yourself in, it doesn't really matter too much to me that the reflection is a tiny bit warped (because of course, I am in reality so close to having my dream body ;)), the main reason for having them on there was to hide the conti board and to make the bathroom look brighter. 

We also got a new bath panel as the old one was, well, looking old! All in all, I am rather pleased with the finished result, I think Seth did a fantastic job. The corner of the bathroom looks so much more uncluttered now we have the cupboard there and the extra storage space for towels and toiletries is ideal. It comes in rather handy having a husband who likes DIY!