secret_design_studio

Budget mid-century bathroom renovation, before and after

Dr Retro House Calls
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

Through my client's houses I see so many mid-century homes with 1980's renovations that don't work with the style of the home. This client had a challenging 1980's renovation that looked very dated, and didn't work with the original mid-century architecture. One of the problems was a tiny budget which didn't allow for the existing bathroom to be made any bigger. The solution was to get rid of the tiny bath, which was never used, to allow for a full sized shower and a decent sized bathroom vanity. Like many homes of this era the toilet is in a separate room.

The ceramic wall tiles selected were very cost-effective and were traditionally used in mid-century bathrooms. The bathroom vanity is actually Ikea kitchen cabinetwork, which has a better mid-century feel than Ikea's standard bathroom vanities. The drawer knobs were not sourced from Ikea. The vanity basin and tapware were fairly basic as this is what was commonly used in many mid-century homes, as we are spoilt for choice today with expensive basins and tapware. The extravagance was the beautiful pistachio coloured, hexagon mosaic tiles, which echo the original floor tiles used before the 1980's renovation from one of Secret Design Studio's suppliers.

This project is nearing completion and the client is thrilled with the transformation. Here is the "before" photo:



Here is the "After" photo - same bathroom, same window, but a world of difference:



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