Ok, so I have something to confess to you. The bathroom…. Nearly cost me my marriage, and certainly my sanity, but has ended up being my favourite room in the whole house.
Let me explain. About two years ago, before I knew anything about home design I decided I wanted to create a ‘rustic bathroom’. Spoiler alert….
Version 1 was EPIC fail. Phil came home from work one day after I’d spent three weekends and way too much money at Very and B&Q, looked around and said “It looks like a garden centre exploded in here.” He wasn’t exaggerating either.
I’d bought every item with the word “farmhouse” or “rustic” in the description.
Wooden wall signs with things like “SOAK” and “RELAX” written on them (because heaven forbid someone doesn’t know what to do in a bathroom), an industrial style ladder towel rail (I’d rubbed down with sandpaper so it had that ‘distressed wood’ look), and some mason jar light fixtures which I thought were the bees knees at the time. Overall it looked like I’d gone into B&M Homestore and raided their ‘country chic’ section, not that I’d created a stylish bathroom with personality. My mum came round for a cuppa the following week, used the bathroom and when she came downstairs she just said “Well, it’s very…..theme Wedding anniversaries aren’t they?” From someone who still has woodchip wallpaper down her hallway….
It was actually her very polite way of telling me it looked horrendous. Which it did. I’d confused rustic charm with ‘things that look like they’ve been rescued from an antique shop’.
Rustic isn’t buying everything from Zakas then distressing it with sandpaper. Real rustic means using things that really are old, or at least have some character and have stood the test of time. Enter my lightbulb moment.
Phil was out one day doing some work at this farm down near Otley, spoke to the owner who mentioned I was into “all that old-fashioned decorating malarkey”. It turned out they were knocking down an old barn and had tons of reclaimed wood they didn’t know what to do with, and were basically giving away for free. I ended up driving out there on a Saturday morning thinking I’d nip in and grab myself a few bits of wood, only to spend four hours rummaging through years and years of reclaimed wood with this lovely farmer called Tom who could tell you the history behind every single beam.
Some had been part of animal stalls, others had been part of the hay loft. One piece had an old horseshoe nail embedded so deep into the wood we couldn’t even prise it out. That wood became shelving above my toilet, and they’re honestly the first thing everyone comments on when they see the bathroom.
Not because they’re shiny and new, with smooth edges and no markings. But because they actually look real. Like they’ve been there for years and have stories to tell through their marks and imperfections.
Because they actually ARE old. And from there my bathroom took a turn for the better. With the wooden shelves up, everything else suddenly looked worse in comparison.
That fake-distressed ladder towel rail literally looked like what it was; something made in a factory to look old. Those wooden signs…. They looked like something that should be hung up in a pub.
Phil normally couldn’t care less about DIY projects but when he saw my reclaimed shelves everything else suddenly looked “daft”. So out everything came. Back to Very it went (thank god their returns policy is amazing), and I donated everything else to charity.
Sorry if I drove whoever was working at the charity shop that day mad attempting to return brand new bathroom accessories but whatever. Time to go back to square one. Except this time with some knowledge under my belt.
I had shelves that were actually old. Now it was time to find some materials that had actually stood the test of time. I became obsessed with finding stone.
Not polished sleek kitchen counter tops. I wanted real stone that had weathered the years. Started collecting stones down by the river when Phil and I went on walks.
Found Slate offcuts in a reclaimed yard in Bradford. Got given old Yorkshire stone from a friend who was demolishing part of a mill wall (I checked with them before I took anything, don’t worry I’m not nicking bits of random buildings!). River Stones became a shower border which took me AGES to get right.
YouTube tutorials make everything look SO easy. Took me about three attempts before I got the hang of positioning them so they actually looked natural and not like I’d randomly thrown rocks against my wall. Slate became a window sill, which changes colour throughout the day as the sunlight hits it at different angles.
Every colour variation and piece of worn away stone tells it’s own story. Fixtures were harder than I’d expected. Everyone and their nan seem to be selling reproduction vintage style taps that are about £££££ expensive and still look fake.
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Avoided them all like the plague and instead spent months trawling through Architectural salvage yards until I eventually found my perfect basin and tap set. Complete 1950s set from an old school that was being demolished in Huddersfield. Tiny chips around the edge of the basin give it character, and the taps are solid brass so have a weight to them you don’t get with modern styles.
Cost me a whopping £80 instead of the £400+ I would’ve spent on repros. But the one thing I did that nearly drove us both insane? Copper piping.
Looks amazing on Pinterest when it’s curated perfect. Less amazing when you live with it every day. Everytime someone ran the tap upstairs or flushed the toilet it sounded like we were living in a coffee shop.
Piping expands and contracts with temperature changes meaning you get these weird clicking and groaning sounds at random times of the day. Phil lasted about 6 weeks before he told me he was going to physically box them all up and staple-gun them back into the walls if I didn’t do something about it. Moral of the story is… Hide the bloody things!
We now have about a third of ours exposed for effect, but it’s cut down on the noises by about 90%. Something else that completely transformed the space? Lighting.
Before I had these awful branded bathroom spotlights that make you look yellow. Edison bulb pendants dangling down from iron pipe fittings I found in an arcade in Leeds. Changes the entire mood of the room.
Makes getting ready in the mornings feel a lot less clinical, and baths at night actually feel relaxing. Plus dimmer switches now mean we have full lighting when we need it, and the option to turn it down when we don’t. Flooring was an interesting one.
Wanted to go for one of those fake wood effect vinyls as they’re waterproof and look after themselves. But figured since I’d learnt my lesson about authentic versus Pinterest cheats, I went full reclaimed wood floorboards. Yep.
They need sealing properly so they’re moisture proof (you don’t seal normal floorboards for moisture protection, it’s only wood filling you use on normal floors) and yes they will get marks and dents over time. But actualies…. I kind of like it.
My youngest managed to drop a bottle of bubble bath a few months back and left me with a lovely little dent in the wood. Instead of getting mad about it, I actually love that it’s happened. It’s part of our families story now in that bathroom.
Speaking of the drill… Oh…. The mirror. Nearly broke my back AND my DIY skills.
Went for a walk down Filey beach about 6 months before and spotted this amazing piece of driftwood half buried in the sand. It was literally shaped like a mirror already so convinced myself it was fate. Three months,YouTube tutorials and many failed attempts later….
I actually managed to create a ‘rustic’ mirror that didn’t look like I’d carelessly stuck a mirror onto a piece of wood I found whilst on holiday. Natural uneven edges really help frame your reflection in a quirky way. Then there was storage.
Everyone has them…. Wicker baskets that look adorable until they’re sat in a bathroom and start smelling of wet dog. Open shelving looks great until it collects steam from your shower and dust from everywhere.
Mix of both was our go to. Closed storage disguised as a reclaimed wood cabinet with open shelves where practical (eg things that need airing), and sealed waterproof containers that don’t scream ‘IKEA kitchen cupboard’.
Lastly paint colour.
Goes without saying I didn’t go pure white everywhere. Far too sterile and inauthentic for a relaxing bathroom. Opted for this colour called ‘Natural Hessian’ by Dulux.
A gorgeous warm grey with hints of brown that also changes colour as the day goes on due to the way the light hits it. Goes with everything, and doesn’t show up every little mark. Two years on and I STILL smile every time I walk into that bathroom.
Sure it’s not finished perfectly. Wood shelves have warped ever so slightly with the steam, stone will need resealing next year and that driftwood mirror randomly sheds teeny weeny pieces of bark into my sink every now and then. But who cares?
Living in a space and allowing it to evolve and age naturally is what built character is all about. Instead of fighting against time, my bathroom is welcoming it with open arms.
