Christina Biston loves a hot soak in the bath after working all day, but with just a shower in the room, it wasn’t an option. The compact space housed a shower and that’s about it, and even that wasn’t to Christina’s taste. ‘The shower was not the most powerful and the pressure was dreadful. As soon as we moved in, the bathroom was one of my top priorities. Although the room was small, I knew it had potential,’ she explains. Christina wanted to add lots more character into the room. ‘I’m not a fan of glossy white spaces. I grew up with lots of antiques around me and now my taste is quite traditional, but with a modern twist.’
Christina got to work first with her tape measure and started drawing a floor plan. With some careful planning she realised by moving the WC around to another wall, there would be room for a bath under the window, as well as space for a shower. Trawling through magazines for ideas, Christina was struck by a black and white Victorian-style theme and got to work looking for products to fit the look. Not scared to introduce pattern, Christina chose a striped wallpaper to add some glamour to the walls. ‘I wanted the room to feel as characterful as possible and also to accentuate the high ceilings in the room,’ Christina explains. While in Topps Tiles, Christina was inspired by a floor display of black and white chequered tiles. ‘Positioned diagonally, floor tiles really can make a room feel larger,’ she says. Christina then went into Bathstore to look at some roll-top baths and was delighted to find one to fit her measurements. To customise the bath, Christina decided to paint the outside in a jet black to fit in with the scheme. The bath takes centre stage on a raised floor level, which also provides extra space for the plumbers to hide the pipes underneath. A smart new Mira shower in the opposite corner has a large shower head to give a more satisfactory soaking, a far cry from Christina’s old shower. A reclaimed radiator was found on eBay to warm up the room, as well as the new pink towels. ‘My bathroom may be small but it’s now perfectly formed,’ she laughs.