ROOM TO IMPROVE: A windowless bathroom
This room is often already small but add, or rather take away, the window and it becomes twice as difficult to design. Here are some cool solutions that will distract from the lack of view.
Our first flat (two bedrooms, small garden) was converted from the ground floor of a Victorian terraced house. It was everything we dreamed of in every way, apart from the tiny, windowless bathroom.
That was the flat where I honed my unshakeable philosophy that you should always renovate the bathroom first, as it will provide a clean refuge from builders and dust and a haven (with a locking door) for a silent scream and a small cry.
Ours had a bath along one side with a basin at the end, and a loo that sat next to the bath, making it probably between 1.5m and 2m wide and about 2.3m long. There was a mirror on the back of the door which meant you watched yourself on the loo (nice) and, in turn, said door was opposite the main door into the flat so if it was left open, the loo was the first thing you saw as you entered (welcoming).
There was no storage and no room for any, but I was 30 and barely in need of moisturiser, let alone make-up. These days I need a full cupboard and 20 minutes just to take the day off - never mind putting it back on again in the morning.
We finally found the money to do it up when I was eight months’ pregnant. Not ideal when it’s your only bathroom and it meant I was going to have to pee in a bucket while the work was being done. As someone who eventually gave birth to a 10lb baby, that was not an easy task.
On the first day a single builder turned up and began laconically chipping tiles off the wall. “When are you due?” he asked conversationally during a tea break.
I looked at him.
I looked at the job.
I thought about the bucket.
“Literally any minute now,” I said.
His eyebrows shot up to his receding hairline. He went out for a cigarette. An hour later two more men turned up and the job was done inside a week.
Back then (2001) we didn’t have any money for fancy tricks and we didn’t really have any fancy ideas. Twenty-five years later I’m bursting with ways to make the most of a tiny windowless space, so if this is you read on, because the first key point to note is that windowless bathrooms are not only common in flat conversions but also in hotels. And that is where you should always look first for ideas. I mean, if you can justify a night away on the grounds of inspiration, then I fully give you permission. For everyone else there’s social media.
This is the Hoxton hotel in Paris. I stayed here many years ago and was so taken with the design that I featured it in my second Mad About The House book. The wall between the bedroom and the bathroom has been replaced with frosted glass. This allows the bathroom to “borrow” natural light from the bedroom window. Now you would only do this for an en suite, but if that’s you then it’s a good start.
Talking of en suites, if you don’t want to do that, you could also build the dividing wall up to two-thirds of the room height and top the rest with glass - it won’t need to be frosted as there will be no privacy issues and it will still allow some natural light to enter the room.
But if that isn’t an option then it’s down to the decoration, and the first thing you are going to do is put away the white paint - and I’ll tell you why that is.
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