You may remember I queried some time ago whether we should opt for one very large bathroom or 2 medium sized ones. Well, we have opted (many thanks to all your advice who almost unanimously said to keep the 2 bathrooms) to keep the bathrooms the size they are.  One bathroom just about has enough room for a roll top bath and I’m opting for country style there and the family bathroom will have a huge shower!

I have just found the perfect flooring my my country style bathroom (which will probably take another couple of months by the way). Cath Kidston is now doing lino floor tiles  and I just love the Rose Spring in white.  Here’s the link to the online store in the UK but thanks to Sheila, I’ve discovered it is available in the Dublin store.

It is also available in Rose Sprig Blue, the cowboy design which is so perfect for boys bedrooms and the Spot design in 3 colourways. Great for utilities too.

I’m looking for some advice. One large bathroom or two smaller ones?

We have a relatively small family bathroom and right beside it is an ensuite bathroom to the spare bedroom which is almost the same size.  We intend to replace both bathrooms at some stage this year.  I was initially thinking of knocking down the wall and making the ensuite smaller and the family bathroom bigger but in reality (because of the position of the window) this would only generate about 2 foot extra space (by about 6 feet in length) which isn’t a lot of space for a lot of hassle.  Then I was thinking to leave the walls alone and just replace and redecorate the bathrooms. 

Then, over the weekend, I was considering making the two bathrooms into one. We don’t have people staying that often and the spare bedroom may be becoming our bedroom anyway.  The advantage of this would be that we would have a lovely large bathroom (which I would love) and it would have enough room for a huge shower and a  freestanding bath.

Image: Living Etc

Brian thinks I am mad, that when the children become teenagers we will all be fighting over the bathroom as they will probably spend hours in the shower and what about when friends are coming for sleepovers etc. We do have a downstairs toilet with a small cloakroom leading into it and I guess it could be incorporated into a small bathroom containing a shower if we ever needed to

Now, I won’t have a fireplace or a bathroom as large as that above but I can dream!! Resale value doesn’t really come into this as the house is so close to the farm it would only ever be sold if the farm was being sold.

So, especially from those of you with older children, I would love your opinion on this-

2 small bathrooms or one gloriously large one?

Query:  Do you think a frosted bathroom window needs a window treatment? and if so, what would you suggest for a simple minimal way to dress up the window?

Answer:

Jab's Four Seasons - Volume 7

Elaine from Seefin Coaching asked me if it was possible to wallpaper bathrooms so I decided to look for some nice bathroom pictures as well as suggest some nice wallpaper.

(Apologies if you were expecting a post on window treatments in bathrooms, there was a particular company I have been trying to contact and I’ve also tried one of their stockists but just can’t get a response from either – by phone or email so not sure if they have gone out of business/ being rude / or just too busy so hopefully next week I’ll have that post)

In terms of wallpapering bathrooms, I think they look wonderful. You just have to consider first who is using the bathroom, for example, if young children are going to be splashing away and drowning everywhere, then I’d minimise or delay the wallpaper for a few years.  You need to have good ventilation so a good extractor fan with a timer delay on it (so it stays on for 5 mins or so after you’ve switched it off) is imperative.  Our first house had wallpaper in the bathroom actually (being the only room in the house that was decorated nicely when we moved in) and we kept it.  Wallpaper in downstairs tiny loos can be great too but maybe that’s another post!

This Neisha Crosland wallpaper is wonderfully dramatic and is offset beautifully by the sizable bathroom and white suite. I don’t think I’d have picked the brass Victorian taps to go with it but apart from that – lovely.

Ideal Homes Feb 2008

And the wallpaper above adds a lovely feminine and floral feel to this otherwise rather stark bathroom.

Ideal Homes Feb 2009

And here’s a few suggestions, I’ve picked one from Designers Guild’s last 3 wallpaper collections.

Roquelaire is wonderfully classic, and as it works really well in a single strip too, it would look really well within a panel  if you want to add just a little wallpaper to your bathroom.

Designers Guild - Roquelaire Aqua

Designers Guild - Firle wallcovering in driftwood print

The Firle wallcovering would add a lovely aged, vintage, slightly whimsical touch to a traditional bathroom.

Ariana Ivory Print

I hope you like these suggestions and that you all have a lovely weekend. The weather has been unusually fabulous today. I’d have loved to have gone to Bloom but the children voted for the zoo so that’s where we went and had a lovely day out.  It’s going to be a busy weekend in the garden and I’m looking forward to seeing Ardal O’Hanlon et al at Cat’s Laugh Festival in Kilkenny tomorrow night.  I’ll be back blogging on Tuesday.