Samuel and Hope - Real Life Reno
Samuel and Hope undertook a bathroom transformation to their new home to make it more functional for their growing family. This newly renovated bathroom features our Stirling grey terrazzo look tile for an elegant, modernist, New York vibe!
What spaces did you renovate?
At the end of 2021 we sold our beautiful character home in Brisbane and decided to move north to Eumundi, Queensland. We found our dream 4 bed 2 bath house and have been undertaking a total re-fresh of inside and out.
What motivated you to renovate?
We love renovating and transforming spaces to make our own. The house had all the qualities of being our dream house just needed some love. When it came to the main bathroom it was outdated, poorly constructed and didn’t meet the needs of growing family so was at the top of the list in things to change.
Were you living here at the time of your renovations?
Yes, thankfully the house has a small second bathroom. Renovating is hard enough with a newborn baby, so we were very grateful that we didn’t have to move out during the process.
How would you describe your style?
Hope and I have always tried to figure out what category our style would fall into and the easiest way to describe it is monochrome modern (if that’s a thing) greyscale colours made interesting with textures, tones and forms. We love using subtle bits of colours or earthy materials as accents.
Talk us through the process you took in the planning stages of the renovation!
There are two sides to decision making in our design process. As a Landscape Architect, I love designing everything down to the fine detail and Hope the school teacher keeps me in check by ensuring it’s practical and within budget.
It all starts with a Pinterest board, looking at what works and various elements which need to go into the bathroom and what the current trends are. The next step is to create a schedule of everything we need that creates the palette for the bathroom. The third step is creating a 3D model of the design in sketchup. This allows us to test layouts and visualise the end product. We tested about 4-5 layouts until we found the one, we were happy with. From there I produced CAD drawings to not only see how things work but get costed properly. Something we love in the whole process is sourcing everything ourselves. We love getting hands on and being able to choose our favourite products and having everything ready to go by the time construction starts.
Then it’s over to the builder to transform our ideas into reality. We ask lots of questions along the way and lean on them for their opinion if there’s any small design changes to improve the function.
Were there any delays? How long did the renovation take?
We are very lucky in that we had the master, David from Creative Bathrooms Noosa in charge, who organised all trades to construct the bathroom. In total it was five weeks build time. Having everything at our house ready to go definitely helped the process, especially in the current situation.
What was the most challenging part of the renovation? Did anything go wrong? How did you adapt?
Like any renovation you never truely understand what your dealing with until you start pulling the layers of previous work, and this bathroom was no exception. During demolition we uncovered multiple layers of tiles on tiles as well as failed waterproofing and rotten flooring. However David being the legend he is was very quick to fix any issues and keep the project motoring on.
Were you juggling a career as well as overlooking the renovations?
I work full time as a Landscape Architect in Brisbane and a few days a week from home so was able to make any on-the-go design decisions. Hope is a High School Teacher, however in January our world changed forever with the birth of our son Henry. So Hope spends her days now being super mum! Always a challenge having a newborn and a house to renovate.
Did you and your partner or family butt heads over the design at all?
Luckily for us, Hope and I like similar styles so if anything it’s my sometimes extravagant designs being brought back down to earth to something we can actually build and afford.
Did you come into the TileCloud showroom to look around at tiles? Did you order samples?
As we are located in Queensland we had only come across TileCloud through social media. Before TileCloud we couldn’t agree on a feature tile, then we saw the Stirling Grey Terrazzo Look Tile and we both knew straight away they were exactly what we needed.
Why did you choose TileCloud / What did you enjoy best about the TileCloud experience?
For us the best thing was availability and how easy it was to navigate their website, find the tiles and order the quantity we needed. Delivery was also super quick!
Any advice for first time renovators?
Give yourself plenty of time to research, plan and decide what it is you really like and want to do with your bathroom because you’ll really only get one shot. Try to pre-plan as much as possible to get a good idea of all your costs so you can keep the project within your budget. Ask your builder or plumber plenty of questions and use their experience to help craft your ideas.
Layla Sawyer
Layla is a creative at heart, with an Advanced Diploma in Interior Design and being the Senior Marketing and Ecommerce Coordinator here at TileCloud she has a passion for staying up to date with the latest trends within the industry. Known for going down a rabbit hole on Pinterest and being a sucker for a good mood board to kick off any project.