Bathroom before and after: Modern take on a Victorian bathroom

Here’s the latest before and after of our recent Erskineville project and it’s my favourite zone of the home — the main bathroom makeover!

Bathroom before

The main bathroom was a fairly blah space with no features that inspired. It had been reno’d in the 90s so all of the original features had been taken out and replaced with basic bathware…

We wanted to reimagine the space and create a modern Victorian bathroom. We also needed to rework this floor plan to allow for a larger vanity and to make it possible to open the window without hopping into the bath!

Upstairs bath before — Bathroom before, the bath dominated the space and only allowed for a small vanity

Upstairs toilet before — As you walked in the nib wall and small vanity was the first thing you saw

Design inspiration

I loved the concept of running the floor tile up the wall to a half height and a feature tile above. It’s a look I’d seen done before and knew it would play to the Victorian design style. By using subways in a vertical straight stack, we’d give the bathroom that modern twist.

Because this is quite a bold look, we simplified all the other elements in the space. A simple back-to-wall bath is smart on space and allowed us to flip the bath to the back wall, making way for a much larger vanity and access to the window.

The large wall hung vanity offers plenty of storage space and the marble-look top ties into the rest of the space. Round mirrors introduce curves and soften all the angular lines.

Shop the modern Victorian look

Perfume

White and grey textured towel

Rose gold shower

Marble tray

Glass vase

Two set white pots

Brass light

Perfume

White and grey textured towel

Rose gold shower

Marble tray

Glass vase

Two set white pots

Brass light

Bathroom after

We couldn’t be happier with how this bathroom turned out! The tiling combo exceeded our expectations and all the other bathware ties in beautifully.

The client also had decorative cornices installed to bring back period features that were removed by the previous owner.

This space feels luxe but inviting and balanced. I hope our take on a modern Victorian bathroom has gives you some inspo for your next bathroom!

Erskineville main bathroom Victorian bathroom — The half height tiling scheme plays to the Victorian bathroom design style

Erskineville main bathroom_toilet and shower

Bathroom renovation lessons

Bathrooms are one of the trickiest zones of the home to renovate and this project presented more than a few challenges — especially as it was interstate and I couldn’t be on site. This meant we missed some things or things didn’t quite go according to plan. In the interest of helping you achieve the best bathroom renovation possible, let me share some of the key learnings.

Check your niches

Early planning is essential for bathroom niches. You may need to move wall studs to position the niches exactly where you want. And they certainly have to be cut out before the bathroom is waterproofed!

I received bathroom update pictures after sheeting, and I noticed that the wall niches for the mirrored cabinets hadn’t been cut out. The client also took it upon themselves to add an extra wall niche above the toilet to hold toilet paper. You’ve never seen me text so fast, ha ha! Let’s just say, I’m not a fan of having toilet paper on display.

Having to change niches about will delay your project and cost more so triple check this at every step of the reno: at framing, at sheeting, and at waterproofing.

Consider your vanity plumbing

My client was changing from a floor-standing vanity to a floating wall-mounted vanity. To change these types of vanities, you must move the pipes behind the wall, or you will have a visible pipe running from below the vanity into the ground.

When I project manage a bathroom, I always opt to pay a little extra to move the pipe as it creates a cleaner, more luxurious look. Unfortunately the pipes weren’t moved so we came up with a workaround by building a box frame below the vanity.

If you want to avoid this issue, talk with your plumber early about what type of vanity you’ve selected so they can work to those specifications.

Similarly, if you want to change from a vanity mixer to wall taps, your plumber will also need to move pipes.

Stick to your guns

Finally, a positive lesson that was reinforced from this project is that a little risk pays off! Using a bold materials palette and unconventional tiling scheme was outside of my clients’ comfort zone. Thankfully they had faith in this modern Victorian bathroom design vision and saw it through.

Too often I see people backtrace and get talked out of making bold design choices… selecting the ‘safe’ option and that often becomes their biggest regret.

If you have any questions about this project, or just want to leave a comment, please pop it in the comments section below.