Mood board featuring a mid-century modern design with a green sofa, patterned rug, white chair, floor lamp, light fixture, white ottoman, striped fabric, and wooden bench seating. Text reads 'mid century colour palette' and 'bench seating.'

JOURNAL | RENOVATION

How to tile your bathroom and save £££

When we started house hunting in 2023, we’d just had our daughter and were by no means anticipating starting a huge renovation project. I think my words were ‘I’ll paint and do flooring but I don’t want to be ripping out a kitchen.’ Little did I know, after months of browsing Rightmove and scrolling straight past our house thinking ‘no way,’ we’d eventually view it and both immediately see it’s potential.

Join us as we learn new skills, rope in family and friends to help, get creative and turn this old house into our family home - on a budget!

Interior view of a dark, unfinished space with exposed brick and cinder block walls, scattered construction materials including a ladder, boxes, and a large wrapped item. The text reads “dark and disused space.”
Construction site with new subfloor installation and exterior scaffold setup. Text says "new sub floor" and "exterior work in progress."
A floor lamp with a tall, bobbin-style mango wood base and a conical fabric shade, standing on a wooden floor. A smartphone screen displays an online shopping page for the same lamp, priced at £65.00, showing customer reviews and additional image thumbnails.

The garage was a space that we quite quickly decided we would convert, after seeing that our next door neighbour had done so and that it was a great use of an otherwise dead space. Some of my family were dubious about the size and how it would work as a living room, as it’s quite a narrow space, but we were sure it could work. (Although halfway through the build I was anxiously thinking - is this a really stupid idea?!)

The garage floor was lower than the rest of the house so we had to create a new sub floor structure, which was then boarded.

The old garage door was boarded up and a new window installed.

We opened up the ceiling (which I was nervous about) as it’s a small room and we wanted to maximise the space where possible. We also installed a skylight as it’s a north facing room, so this added extra light and interest

thought that opening up the ceiling with a skylight would be a great way to add height, make the room feel bigger and add some extra light.

Architectural blueprint showing the original rear elevation and proposed plans for a two-story building. The drawings indicate modifications including the relocation of a front door and window changes. Annotations describe intentions to improve natural light and ease of access while using reclaimed bricks to lower carbon footprint.
Room under renovation with skylight, unfinished plaster walls, various construction tools, and a Farrow & Ball paint can labeled 'Pointing No. 2003' with sample color displayed.