Standing in my cramped bathroom at 7 am, staring at water pooling at the bottom of my toilet due to the fact that my 37-year-old caulk had decided to quit on me, I finally realized that I had officially surrendered. Those avocado-green fixtures from 1987 were NOT “vintage charm” – they were simply ugly. And don’t even get me started on that shower door — it leaked more than it contained.
However, there is an interesting twist when it comes to bathroom renovations: everybody warns you that they will be expensive and a nightmare that will bankrupt you and force you to take a shower at the local gym for months. Well, mostly true. However, during my own bathroom renovation experience I discovered that some changes I made provided me with enormous returns on investment in terms of how happy I felt each day and the value of my home versus other changes that… well, let’s just say I have very strong feelings towards heated towel rails these days.
What changed my experience the most was not what I anticipated. I had budgeted a lot for fancy tile and a rainfall showerhead, but the change that completely changed my mornings? Proper ventilation.
Yeah, I know. Unexciting. I hired a contractor who recommended installing a quiet exhaust fan with a humidity sensor and I almost laughed.
“It’s just a fan,” I thought. Wrong. Oh, so wrong.
That fan cost £180 to install, and it solved the fogging mirror issue that made blow drying my hair feel like working in a sauna. No more wiping condensation off surfaces after showering. No more stinky mildew smell remaining in my bathroom after I showered.
When my friend Sarah came by to visit three months later and she said, “There is something different about your bathroom — it smells fresh!” That’s when I knew I had spent my money wisely. The shower area certainly deserved to be addressed. Of course.
I removed the leaky sliding glass doors and installed a simple glass panel. Much cleaner lines. Easier to keep clean.
And it made my narrow bathroom appear twice its original width. The optical illusion alone made the £400 worthwhile. But I combined it with a thermostatically controlled mixer shower instead of going all out with a luxurious rainfall shower.
Best decision I ever made. Consistent water temperature EVERY TIME. No more running around trying to avoid scalding or freezing water while I adjust the taps with soap dripping down my face. 
I was surprised at the tile choice.
After spending weeks agonizing over subway tile and expensive natural stone, I finally found large format porcelain tiles that looked like marble, but were much less expensive. £18 per sq meter vs £80. They’re basically unbreakable. With the larger size, I’ll need to clean fewer grout lines.
Have I mentioned I hate cleaning grout? Storage. I got a little carried away with this aspect at first.
Pinterest told me I needed floating shelves, hidden cabinets, and enough towel storage for a small hotel. Reality check: I live by myself and have exactly 4 towels. What I really needed was a good medicine cabinet and somewhere to place the hair dryer that wasn’t the bedroom floor.
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The medicine cabinet I purchased has LED lighting built into the edges of the mirrors. Sounds impressive, but it cost £160 and replaced both my old mirror and the harsh overhead light that made everyone look sick. Now I can actually see what I’m doing when I’m applying mascara, which is a fundamental human right but apparently needs to be done under special lighting conditions.
This is where I made a slight mistake. The heated towel rail. I mean, yes, it’s nice to have warm towels in the wintertime.
However, my bathroom is extremely small and the rail takes up wall space I could’ve utilized better. It also created additional complications for the heating system that my plumber had to charge me for. Would I install another one?
Honestly, probably not. A good-quality radiator would’ve been far less expensive and more practical. Replacing the toilet was non-negotiable — the old one was beige (what was it about 80s bathroom fixtures that made them all beige?) and had cracked mysteriously and I didn’t want to risk it.
I replaced it with a close-coupled toilet that looks sleeker and uses less water. Not revolutionary by any means. Modern toilet seats that close softly?
Game changing. No more waking up the entire household at 6 am with a crash. Flooring almost broke the bank until I became reasonable.
Luxury Vinyl Tiles that resemble natural stone saved me literally thousands of dollars compared to using real stone. Additionally, they’re warmer under foot. Installing the flooring was easy enough that I was able to do it myself over a weekend with the help of YouTube tutorials and quite possibly too much caffeine.
As the project progressed, my lighting plan changed as well. Instead of using one central ceiling light that casts dark shadows wherever possible, I installed LED strip lighting under the floating vanity and around the mirror. The entire space feels larger and brighter now.
I can actually see what I’m doing when I’m shaving my legs in the shower. 
The vanity itself is worthy of note. I found a wall mounted vanity that opened up floor space and made cleaning easier. The built-in basin gives the space a modern appearance and eliminates the void where things always seem to fall and get lost in perpetuity.
It was more expensive to purchase the vanity than a standard pedestal sink, however, the storage space below allows me to store all of my bathroom junk properly. Paint made arguably the greatest visual impact for the lowest cost. I picked a pale gray blue color that pairs well with both warm and cool light, and it immediately made the space appear calmer and more upscale.
Painting the entire room cost £45 total including the ceiling and took one weekend. In retrospect, my most valuable expenditures were those that enhanced the functionality of my bathroom daily: proper ventilation, consistent water temperature, sufficient lighting, and surfaces that can be cleaned easily. The Instagram-worthy elements were less impactful than I thought they would be.
My bathroom isn’t published in design magazines, but every morning when I enter that perfectly temperature-controlled shower in a room that doesn’t fog, I’m reminded that the greatest renovations are the ones you forget about because they simply function. Total spend: £3,200. Increase in daily happiness: priceless.
If I were to do anything differently, maybe I wouldn’t have installed the heated towel rail and invested in a better shower storage solution. However, in a space I use twice daily, it has been worth every penny.
