It's my first update for the Spring 2020 One Room Challenge in which I'm renovating our downstais loo (powder room). Unfortunately, after joining the challenge late, progress on the room has been slowed even further by the fact that hubby and I have spent the last few days making and re-making decisions we thought we'd already made. And, wouldn't you know it, the project has also snowballed!
WEEK ONE - WEEK TWO - WEEK THREE - WEEK FOUR - BLM - WEEK SIX - WEEK SEVEN - ROOM REVEAL
Inspiration
As a reminder, this is the moodboard I created for the room last week.
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Thankfully, none of that has changed, although the pandemic has meant that supplies are a little harder to come by and slower to arrive than normal. What has changed, however, is that the original scope of the project has been expanded considerably.
Project Scope
The original plan was to leave the floor unchanged because it's not particularly awful and changing it is a lot of extra work. However, it really does nothing for the room and we decided that it would a pity to change everything else and leave that. So we'll be installing a new tiled floor. Of course that also involves the messy job of removing the existing floor and re-levelling the concrete subfloor. We still haven't chosen the new tiles, but with hardware stores set to reopen here in Ireland next week, I'm hoping to have an update on that for you next week.
The other major expansion of the project is the addition of a new false wall. This has nothing to do with the loo itself, but rather setting ourselves up for the next renovation that we have planned in the adjoining utility room. We want to relocate the clothes washer and dryer, taking them out of the utility room and installing them into what is now the hot press (airing cupboard). The hot press is way larger than we need and is a completely wasted space a the moment, so the plan is to convert it into a dedicated laundry room (something that is all too rare in European homes). Doing this will free-up some much-needed space in our undersized utility room, allowing us to add a little mud-room area inside the back door.
Current layout
We already have power and water supply in the hot press for the appliances, but what we don't have is a drainage outlet for the washing machine. Rather than digging up the subfloor, or running pipes outside the house where they will look unsightly, we have decided to add a false wall to our downstairs loo that will enable us to run hidden pipes (shown in red) to the nearest drain at the back of the house. We will only loose about 10cm (4") from one side of the loo, but will gain back much more through using the space in the utility room and hot press much more efficiently.
Planned layout
As you can see, I also plan to reverse the swing of the door into the loo, as I think it will function better that way (currently, the handle of the hot press door sometimes get caught up against the door to the loo, which is a bit annoying).
Progress
I started by gutting the room as much as I could, while still maintaining its function for as long as possible. I also spent ages making and re-making decisions, such as how high the panelling should be and what size each batten should be etc.
The only thing I've managed to actually finish for the room so far is making the new Roman blind. It has a linen-and-lace look that I really love.
Interestingly, I have had quite a few messages recently about my Roman blind tutorial, so it seems that lots of people are sewing while in lockdown! So here's a friendly reminder to all the sewists out there that I do have a post with step-by-step instructions for making a seamless Roman blind (with no visible sewing lines on the front).
That's all the news for this week. Do have a look to see how all the other One Room Challenge participants are getting on, and check back here next Thursday for another progress report.
You may also like:
One Room Challenge: Guest Ensuite Reveal
One Room Challenge: Sun Lounge Reveal
One Room Challenge: Library Reveal
One Room Challenge: Craft Room Reveal
