It’s been quite few weeks since we started this project. We’ve had a few issues along the way like the toilet, which took three weeks to arrive. (Bathroom Warehouse in Coorparoo did say it’d take 3 – 4 days for it to be sent up from Sydney) and the toilet lid finally arrived yesterday (four weeks).
We’ve only got a few little details to finish like painting the door frame and attaching a hand towel holder but I really wanted to share these photos of the bathroom. Plus we had a budget of $2000K to do it.
The bargain $195.00 pedestal basin from Paddington Hardware, encaustic floor tiles from Elite Bathware and Tiles, East Brisbane and bevelled vintage mirror from James and Bell Antiques on Logan Road Wooloongabba.
The walls are painted in a Dulux colour called Western Myall
A ‘school house’ pendant light from Victorian Living in Windsor.
I’ve been ‘hanging out’ to use these yellow Country Road towels I brought from the Myer boxing day sales. I also brought two of each in deep orange and light blue.
Old Pearly Jenkins 
Absolutely gorgeous and amazing working within that budget especially getting encaustic tiles.
Thankyou!!! we’re really happy with the results. It’s the tradies that cost the most.
I love that floor! So gorgeous! Great job.
Thank you so much.
That floor is totally gorgeous! Can you share a little more about it, is it ceramic?
Love the tiles!!
We love them too!! I’d really like to use them again. I like the idea of using them in the undercover area that we will have ‘one day’ at the front door. However, they’ve proving to be a little difficult to clean. When the plumber was doing his stuff he wasn’t too careful about his dirty shoes. It took a lot of scrubbing to get the ingrained dirt out of them. If we do use them at the front door, we’d have to pick a tile design with no white in it.
great color choices – congrats on an excellent job!
Thanks Marsha🐨
Wow, I really love this! Décor magazine stuff 🙂
Thankyou so much. I’m blushing! xox
Did your bathroom makeover cost include plumbing and waterproofing and tiling? We desperately need to do our bathroom and would be very grateful for any clues as to cost for these elements. We don’t have $15000 to spend but could certainly pull together $2000 – even more if needed – and I love your bathroom look! It’s gorgeous!
Hi there Jess
When we decided to give the bathroom a makeover we were quite lucky as the subway tiles were in good shape. We actually really like subway tiles and are going to be using them in the other bathrooms in the new part of the house. They just needed a good scrub with some industrial strength tiler cleaner.
The tiler laid the new tiles straight over the old floor tiles. So no it wasn’t waterproofed this time. We went looking for the tradies on Gumtree. In the past we have had a hard time finding a tradie thats not flat out and wouldn’t be available for weeks. We decided to try looking for tradies that were retired/semi retired. Both the tiler and the plumber were happy to do the jobs at times that suited us. We also paid them cash. The plumber was $45 an hour. This is very cheap as far as plumbers go. the tiler charged $300 to lay and grout the tiles.
This bathroom makeover could have been even cheaper if we weren’t being fussy about the look that we were going for. For example we wanted a toilet that was more ‘traditional’ in style and for some reason they are a lot more expensive than a modern one. If it’s the modern look you’re after Highgrove bathrooms have very affordable products.
We’ve also been using the website http://www.serviceseeking.com.au to find tradies. This is where we found the electrician and the builder who did the merbau bench/storage around the pool.
We’ve just got a quote back from a plumber via the building broker who is organising the main build for us, It was over $17000. to do an ensuite. This is probably because he’s paying himself $100 plus!!! a hour to do it. I’m going to contact the broker tomorrow. That price is CRAZY!!!
I hope this helps and please keep in touch.
regards T.F xox
Thanks TF! Brilliant help there. We’re planning our bathroom but we have serious problems with the bathroom tiles – they are desperately old and broken, and were laid by the previous owner about 45 years ago. Hence my question, because we’ll need to gut our entire bathroom and start again. UGH! Still, I love your bathroom look and will be finding ways to do something similar in the next little while. In the meantime, I also write a renovation blog on our Queenslander called The House that Jess built, also on wordpress, so feel free to have a look! Cheers, J
Love your bathroom makeover, very striking (hubby loves the floor tiles) and I love the mirror. Interesting to see someone use a shower curtain, lots of people don’t like them anymore. I love them for cleaning and easy changing. Lovely job.
Thankyou so much.
We’re happy to have a shower curtain! and you’re right, they can be thrown in the washing machine and when they’re totally disgusting you can buy a new one. We will use glass panels in the other showers in the house though. (I HATE cleaning them!!!) I think the white shower curtain works well with the rest of the bathroom and it was less than $20.
Beautiful bathroom, well done!
Thank you Kiwihome. 🐨
Looks great! i love the tiles, the paint colour, the fixture….all of it. And it’s extra amazing that you did it all on such a small budget. Well done. 🙂
Thank you
Nice job on the bathroom!
We were just lucky that the previous owners had laid the subway tiles. We didnt have to do too much really.
It all looks beautiful but the tile floor is fabulous!
I just wish they were easier to keep clean.
Beautiful work! I love the dark wall colour combined with the crisp white fixtures!
Thankyou Bec. 🐭
Wow what a change … Geez where have I been these last few weeks, everyone has blogged so much Reno stuff…
Loving the –
Floor tile
Pendant light and basin
Super great work on a budget !!! Congrats guys 🙂
Thank you so much!
Looks great! Love the floor, and the walls! Great job
Im really glad that we took the time to strip the walls right back. It was a horrible job.
It looks stunning! Wow! I love those floor tiles, too.
Thank you🐨🐨