17th Century Cottage Bathroom Makeover | Before & After

When we moved into our house, we knew the bathroom would be one of the first renovations we got our teeth stuck into. It was quite the journey, but 8 months after moving in, we finally have our dream bathroom! You can watch the full cottage bathroom makeover video linked at the bottom of this blog post. I thought I’d also write down the details for each room we renovate. All the items available online are linked at the bottom of this blog post.

Before: what we started with

When we first moved in, the upstairs was made up of four bedrooms, with an en-suite in the master. The en-suite was small, dingy and had a saniflo toilet that wasn’t ideal in the middle of the night. It was a struggle to shower or even clean your teeth in such a small bathroom. So we knew from the start that we had to do something about it. Our plans constantly changed, as they always do with any renovation.

Originally we were going to move the en-suite across, so that there was access to the bathroom from the hallway. But we soon realised that the bathroom would still be very small, and not a great use of space. A lot of my amazing viewers suggested we make one of the bedrooms into a bathroom. The size of our cottage doesn’t need four small bedrooms but it could really benefit from a larger master and a decent sized bathroom.

The bedroom next door to the master struggled to fit a bed, so it was the perfect space for our new bathroom! We begun by ripping out the en-suite from the master bedroom and tearing up the carpets.. We had dreams of cleaning up the floorboards in the bathroom (and the rest of the rooms upstairs) but were only able to salvage two of the rooms. So tiles it was! You can see the removal of our en-suite and the entire floorboard disaster story in the renovation videos linked below.

After: the cottage bathroom makeover

Cottage bathroom inspiration & colour scheme

Once we knew what we were doing, we started looking for the pieces for our bathroom and planning where everything would go. I highly recommend drawing every possible arrangement for a new bathroom, as I think we changed our minds a hundred times before reaching the perfect design.

Pinterest was a great source of inspiration for me, and I really thought long and hard about all the colour schemes, textures and patterns I wanted in the bathroom. I realised I favoured chrome traditional fittings, grey cool tones with natural wood finishes.

Shopping secondhand bathroom

I spent my mornings and evenings scrolling online, and managed to score so many bargain second hand items for our bathroom. We first picked up the free-standing bath from Gumtree (£90) which I was so happy with as they are not cheap new! We then got everything together for our sink basin from Facebook marketplace. This included our sink (£20) and tap (£20) (which were both still new in their boxes) and an old school desk (£12). I love that we thought outside of the box for the sink, from the desk to the kitchen-style tap, because it is one of my favourite parts of the cottage bathroom makeover. For more places to find second hand gems check out 40 Places to Shop Vintage Online for a Sustainable Home.

Shower decisions

The shower unit we were lucky to find on Facebook again for £150. Online I’d seen it for about £300 so we were happy with that bargain. We ended up getting the floor and shower tiles from Walls and Floors. The shower enclosure and tray we got from Plumb world eBay account which also saved us some money! We were so keen on getting a frameless shower so hunted around for a more affordable option than the ones we were seeing everywhere. Turns out that many big brands have eBay accounts for items at a reduced price and we got very lucky with our beautiful glass frameless shower.

The plumber had to fit the bathroom from nothing, so extra costs were needed. This is why we were so keen to save elsewhere and spent the time hunting for things secondhand. On top of that I was so adamant that I would look for as much as I could secondhand or reclaimed when we begun this project, to be more environmentally friendly. Everyone is always doing up their home, so you’d be surprised what gems you can find!

Bathroom tiles

We opted for herringbone subway dark grey tiles in the shower. Althought the herringbone pattern was an extra cost, they ended up looking so beautiful so it was well worth it. Going with dark grey felt like a risk as white was the safe option, but I am so happy we braved it as they add so much dimension to the room. We asked the builder to include a small recess too for storage in the shower which I love and is actually one of my favourite parts of the cottage bathroom makeover (kinda wish I had asked for two of them!).

 

Panelling for a classic cottage bathroom makeover

We also fitted tongue and grove panelling to hide all of the pipes. Our house is so old there wasn’t enough space between the floorboards to fit the pipes under the floors. The panelling ties beautifully in with our cottage and provides an extra shelf around the edge of the room. Our amazing builder also fitted a beautiful cupboard in the corner next to our sink, for extra storage. This has been perfect for storing all of our toiletries, linens, towels and cleaning products.

We painted the panelling in a grey bathroom paint from Crown called Linen Cupboard. The walls were painted a brilliant white bathroom paint from Dulux (which I wouldn’t recommend – very streaky and took many layers). I didn’t want anything to distract from the bathroom fittings so kept with a neutral and cool colour palette.

Sink cabinet

Above the sink we put up a mirrored cabinet for all of our day-to-day toiletries, which fits so perfectly. I love the look of circle mirrors in bathrooms, but knew that I’d value the extra storage a lot more! Behind the door we also put in a very large towel rail (600×1800) which the plumber recommended. I am so happy with as we can hang so many towels on there!

Finishing touches

The finishing touches came in a beautiful reclaimed shelf that I also found locally on Facebook. He makes them to measure, and also provides the brackets which look amazing. We decorated the shelving area behind the toilet with some baskets we got in Morocco and some succulents.

We used industrial finishes to offset the traditional fittings, like the toilet roll holder and towel rail, which we picked up on Etsy. The beautiful bath caddy is from Etsy and is perfect for our freestanding bath to store things such as candles, soap or a glass of wine when soaking in the bath.

We got some wicker storage baskets and a jute rug from Amazon, simply because we had no luck finding these locally or secondhand. The beautiful wooden toilet brush is from a shop called Willow and Stone in Falmouth (the dreamiest of shops) that I am more excited for that I should admit.

Cottage bathroom makeover: final thoughts

I couldn’t be happier with how the bathroom turned out. Although it took a lot longer than expected, the final result is incredible. From start to finish the fitting of the bathroom took a month. There were delays with organising builders and plumbers, as well as going away on holiday. After they finished their job we got on with painting and all of the finishing touches, which really finished everything off beautifully!

I feel so grateful that our first project turned out better than I could have imagined. I just can’t wait for the rest of the upstairs to be finished. This was our first big expense so we learned many lessons that we will take with us when doing the other areas of our cottage renovation. Let me know if you have any questions about the cottage bathroom makeover and renovation in the comments below.

More renovation and home content

• 17th Century English Cottage Living Room Makeover | Before & After
• 17th Century English Cottage Bedroom Makeover | Before & After
• House Tour – Welcome to My Georgian Country Home in Cornwall
• 40 Places to Shop Vintage Online for a Sustainable Home
• The Ultimate List of Sustainable Home Brands in the UK

Resources

Our lovely builder and carpenter Craig

(Everything not listed below we got secondhand or locally to us)

Floor tiles

Shower tiles

Shower enclosure and tray

Rug

Wicker baskets

Mirrored cabinet

Bath caddy

Toilet roll holder

Towel rail

Heated towel rail

Light

 

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