Bathroom now 99%

I was pressing on with my original, admittedly somewhat simplistic, plans for my bathroom until the lovely Chantal suggested to me that I needed to include more storage, for things like towels and stuff like that that we men tend to ignore or overlook. As she’s usually right about such things I thought that I’d better listen to her and decided to do a revamp.

My new plans took into account what she was saying and they finally came to fruition today having started just over a week ago when I fitted a cabinet above the washbasin. I don’t usually like such things because there’s always the danger that someone will be careless and allow something to fall into the washbasin and break it but you’ve got to have things like toothbrushes and toothpaste, shaving stuff and aftershave for men and the exotic creams and unguents that ladies find indispensable close to hand and not over the other side of the room.

I also found to my cost in my old house that if you leave toothbrushes etc in a rack out in the open they get filthy and covered in dust so they’ve got to go inside an enclosed cabinet and this cabinet for the reasons mentioned above needs to be over the washbasin. After a false start when I bought two cabinets at Brico Depot which, fortunately, I was able to return for a full refund, I found just what I needed at the French store But’s web site.

It was delivered a week or so ago and I took great care to measure its position over the washbasin and fix it to the tiles. It has a mirror front and as it’s made from bright stainless steel, it’s highly reflective. I think it fits into the room beautifully.

The final piece of the jigsaw slotted into place to day when I fitted the storage unit that I ordered from Leroy Merlin a week ago and collected yesterday. It’s a wall-mounted column with a mirror front and two drawers below that can be used to store cleaning items, toilet rolls and stuff like that. Behind the mirror are four shelves that provide plenty of storage space for towels and other linen, so much in fact that even Chantal will be over the moon when she sees it 🙂

The over-handbasin wall-mounted cabinet is a masterstroke of design. The reason I’m so impressed with it is that it has two doors but unlike other twin-door cabinets, the divide is not down the middle where it would annoyingly cut your face in half when you’re shaving or a lady is applying face cream or makeup. That’s because the second door on the right is much narrower than the main door and is just the right width, actually, to open and get access to things like tooth cleaning kit and aftershave.

With mirrors now on two opposite walls the bathroom is now highly reflective, which I like immensely.

What is lacking now are a few splashes of bold colour which I intend to deal with in the future. I have a white-framed oval mirror in storage that I brought with me from my old house that I intend to position opposite the shower above the large towel rail and I also have a couple of brightly coloured Edwardian figure wall ornaments that I think I’ll place over the toilet. Then it’ll just be a matter of seeing what comes up that will further enhance the bathroom but right now the priority is to get my heat pump connected so I can have hot water. As the summer draws to a close nightly cold showers are getting a little bit too parky 😕