Renovating a bathroom without �taking a bath�

Of all the areas in Matt and Rowena�s house, the bathroom and laundry were perhaps the most in need of a makeover.

One of the most important decisions in a bathroom is a lighting scheme. You will probably be doing your beauty routine in there so you need to have a good view of yourself, but you may also want to consider having a low lighting system for enjoying a relaxing bath.

Matt and Rowena consulted with NRG about a lighting system and eventually went for halogens. Halogens operate at a higher colour temperature and can give a smaller, more concentrated beam. However, their extra heat means that they need to be installed with fire safety in mind to get compliance.

Speaking of compliance, Matt and Rowena ran into an unforeseen problem in their bathroom � safety glass, or rather a lack of it. Building regulations stipulate that bathrooms must have safety glass because they are high-traffic and high-risk areas. So they had to replace their window. This is an important point to remember for would-be renovators: even if you don�t plan on touching a particular area in your renovation � you still have to bring it up to scratch.

With their relatively small space, Matt and Rowena needed to be smart about their layout, so they opted for a shower/bath with a folding glass panel from HomePlus. This makes it easy for them to bathe their small children (and hop in the bath themselves), while still keeping the floor nice and dry when showering. They even managed to save themselves some money there because HomePlus do a free measure and quote on every installation.

Freeing up space was the first priority here, so the hot water tank had to be put inside the ceiling. This required a manhole to be cut and an engineer�s report, but this move will pay huge dividends as Matt and Rowena enjoy their free-flowing laundry layout in the years to come. To help the room flow visually, they also went for James Hardie Horizon Lining door panel inserts to achieve a seamless transition.

The couple also wanted to put tiles down on the floor and they found the perfect ones at Tile Warehouse. They toyed with the idea of installing under-floor heating but decided against it because of the initial and ongoing energy costs.

Handy hint: Installing smaller tiles makes the floor less slippery because you have to grout more often, which acts as a non-slip surface.