You want a pink WHAT??? The battle for the pink bath

Posted on: Aug 28, 2017

The battle for the pink bath

Let’s face it, I never assumed that the battle for the pink bath would be an easy one, but being more determined than my kids when they want cake, I was quietly confident it was a battle I would eventually win.

Let’s just say that mine and Mr Peach’s idea of a perfect bathroom is somewhat different. Whilst I’d spent months dreaming of brass fittings and roll tops, he would be totally thrilled with an echoey white tiled shower room with perhaps the ‘luxury’ addition of a urinal. You see Mr Peach is no interior risk taker, he’s still stuck in the grey black red combo out of 1980’s boys’ bedrooms and that’s a colour palette that was going nowhere near my bathroom when I had this in mind:

The room that was to be our ensuite, was originally a bedroom, so we had to start from scratch. Whilst redesigning the upstairs we had the option of having a smaller ensuite and letting the twins keep a bigger room. Obviously we didn’t do that! I considered sacrificing my bathroom of dreams for all of 4 seconds and then remembered the last 7 years of sweeping up Cheerios and the lack of size 10 jeans in my floordrobe and immediately decided against it. It was totally worth it.

Our floor plan before…

A long dark corridor upstairs which my mum kindly likened to an institute. A family bathroom to service the Liliputians and a coffin-sized ensuite…all just crying out for a big lump hammer!

New floor plan…

And here is the floor plan now, after we’ve knocked it to pieces. One of the biggest jobs was demolishing that tenacious chimney stack in the corner to make way for a shower cubicle.


Here is a little walk through from the master bedroom and on to dressing room and ensuite.

The bathroom design…

And thus, project bathroom began. Much to my shock, very little resistance was shown by Mr Peach after the initial shock. I showed him the mood board and dare I say it, I think there was a flicker of a smile. Of course I waited until 9pm on a Friday evening when he was already half a bottle of red down but still, I totally took that as a win.

I started with what proved to be the hardest bathroom challenge known to mankind. The hunt for the ever elusive brass fittings. Five minutes on Pinterest and you’re drowning (fnar) in gorgeous brass taps and showers, my hopes were high but my budget was tight and each click lead me over the Atlantic meaning enormous shipping costs and the dreaded customs charges. It’s got to be said, the USA are killing it in that department with a huge range as standard but here in the UK it’s like searching for unicorns.

Taps weren’t an issue, Bert and May do some corkers but I wanted taps, bath mixers and a shower and getting a set to work together proved as rare as getting a full night’s sleep in our house. Then it happened, I stumbled on British company Living House, who sold stylish ranges of brass fittings. Let’s be real, at no point did I feel I’d grabbed a bargain, but neither did I have to sell a kid (or kid-ney) to fund them #win.

My choice of brass bathroom fittings…

I chose the coco range which you can find here. FYI, if I did manage to sell a kid, I would also add the coco antique brass towel rail. Trust me, I tried to sneak it on the dreaded spreadsheet but it got instantly spat back out. I was half expecting the computer program to actually do a little lol.

The tiles…

I covered my tile obsession in my last post but the undisputed winners were the moonrise cement tile in ash from Marrakech Design and a version of the subway tile laid in a herringbone pattern and dark grouted. The latter came from an Italian company called SELF. If you’re wondering they are 5cm x 20cm (I searched for hours for the perfect tile ratio).

How about some panelling?

Now I never saw myself as a panelling kind of gal, but the hallway of the Peach Palace is smothered in it and that’s the room that got me hook line and sinker. Steve our Yes man joiner was totally on board and literally within a day, the panelling was up for less than the cost of fancy pants wallpaper #nonamesmentioned. I wanted a colour that ‘manned up’ the pink bath so went for a dark denim-y blue called Kigali by Paint and Paper Library.

Which brings us to my marmite pink bath…

Love it or hate it, it was the first piece of my bathroom jigsaw and I reckon it’s a keeper. Ok, there was that time during fitting when I walked in and thought it had morphed into a dead pig but that was just a minor blip……….

Once righted, it stood well against the deep tones of the panelling and everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief. The bath in question is the Salcombe from the Cast Iron Bath Company and I’ll admit, there was a slight mistake in the shade of pink that was delivered. I requested the pale pink shade from the previous mood-board, but CIBC delivered this much ‘pinker’ shade. Mistakes are only a problem if not dealt with correctly and thankfully this has been. The company has offered to come and re paint the bath in the perfect pink which I will do once the dust had finally settled. Couldn’t be happier with how it was dealt with. A company that you can recommend even when it hasn’t gone smoothly is a true dynamite!

A touch of Edwardian…

Our wash stand was an old Edwardian chest of drawers which came from our last house. It was stripped and painted and topped in a cheap marble off-cut from our local yard. Couldn’t resist a bit of Buster and Punch for some luxe glam in the handle department, which I think totally makes that unit. It was then crowned with a stone basin from Lusso Stone and Fanny was your proverbial Aunt.

The lighting lust list…

I had a mega lighting lust list which which we clearly couldn’t afford. First and foremost my bones ached for a Klay Life chandelier. Obviously that was never going to happen, so an understated bead chandelier from good old M&S was on the subs bench. It stepped in to compliment the Cedar and Moss wall lights that totally gave me all the happy feels every time my weary eyes catch a glimpse of them.

Let’s adorn the walls…

The Brucey Bonuses of the room (God rest his soul) come in the form of an amazing wall hanging from Whisker row, a cracking Silence print from French for Pineapple, and an ibride tray from House of Sloane. The hunt for a hexagonal mirror was nearly as fruitless as the brass fittings but Fern and Grey came up trumps with this saucy little number. The bloomingville brass circular shelf was actually meant for the living room but I think it looks just peachy in here and makes the view of a bog look well, a little less toilet-y.













Victory in the battle of the pink bath…

So there you go, in the battle of the pink bath, Queen Peach totally triumphed and whilst I’m not one to lord it above him, I totally do. Everyday. I’d like to say there went on to be more interior battles that Mr Peach won, but we all know that’s not true right?

Bathroom Inspiration Notes:


Emily from @pinkhouseliving totally winning the brass fittings game. She’s only gone and got the towel rail too. I wonder if she used to have 3 kids…


Beck, AKA @malmo _and _moss and her herringbone tiles gave me all the heart eyes. I’m also going to ask her for a lesson in effortless flannel styling. Moss! Where’s your towel with mascara stains and foundation sludge?

I remember this shot from @rvk_loves stopping me in my tracks. Just perfect and I love how they did it themselves too. Total inspiration right there!

It’s all about the money, it’s all about the dum dum du du du dum…….. and if we had more of it I think I would have totally been led down this shiny path. This image from Pinterest is a boat I’d like to float in.

So, to pink or not to pink bath? What do you think?

Comments...

    15 responses to “You want a pink WHAT??? The battle for the pink bath”

    1. Kate says:

      Over the past month or so I have looked at A LOT of bathrooms, but yours is my absolute favourite by some distance, it’s stunning, you must be so pleased with it! Can I ask what colour you painted the walls above the panelling please? Good luck with the rest of your mammoth project!

    2. Robin says:

      I am so thrilled to have found you…..you are one hell of a great decorator and a wizard at putting pen to paper…..love your writing style!!!!!
      I think we must be related in some strange way…….everything you touch I love!!!!
      Looking forward to more style, entertainment, and encouragement!
      Cheers!!
      Robin

    3. Francesca says:

      This is by far 1. My favourite blog post 2. My Pinterest inspo for my bathroom… Pink bath and navy panelling HERE I COME!!!!!

    4. Yes, it seems that pink is a good choice to decorate the room. Especially the pink bathtub. I really like it.

    5. Hi there! Am just traveling through your blog posts looking for tips (we’ve just got to the stage of planning the interiors on our project) and I must say your house is stunning. So well executed!
      I came here looking for the lights – can I ask, they’re from the US right? So did you get an electrician to convert them?
      Thanks!!

    6. Claire says:

      Hi Katie, I love your bathroom!! I’ve been looking at the Cedar and Moss lights and wondered if you could tell me if yours are the 6 or 8 inch ones? Many thanks!

    7. comedowntothewoods says:

      so sorry for the late reply, these are the 6 inch ones

    8. Nicola says:

      Hi Katie! We are (slowly…) doing our house up and I’ve been using yours a lot for inspo. I wanted to ask you a very boring question about bathroom lights though. I have just spend the last hour trying to learn about IP ratings and bathroom safety and am sending myself into a tizz, all because I want a beautiful pendant light and not a standard bathroom spotlight set. Is this something you were concerned over and did you find a solution? Many thanks in advance for your help!

    9. kerry pajak says:

      Hi. I love your bathroom design! I have literally spent the whole summer trawling wallpaper sites to find something to inspire me but to no avail. I have provisionally chosen the cast iron bath company’s vanity unit and bath etc and had intended on choosing the brass taps but it was suggested to go for chrome as brass is difficult to clean. On reflection, this might not give the same effect as yours. I am not sure now. Thank you for posting your ideas and links to products – very helpful indeed. Kind regards,
      Kerry

    10. kerry pajak says:

      Hi. I love your bathroom design and ideas. I wanted to use the Artemis wallpaper for my hall but a little out of my budget so was pleased to see you chose it for your bathroom. Can you tell me how many rolls you used? Thank you for inspiring me. Kind regards.

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