TileCloud Co-Founder Mark - Real Life Reno

Our TileCloud Co-founder Mark and his partner Tara renovated their 1960's Sydney apartment on the back end of 2020. They completely transformed their bathroom top to bottom in the Paddington Grey Terrazzo look tile with the addition of a roman bath and matt black tapware for a stunning contrast!

Paddington Grey Terrazzo look tile

What spaces did you renovate?
I did a complete renovation on a 2 bedroom apartment. The renovation included the bathroom, removing the wall between the kitchen and living area, installing a new kitchen, timber floors, carpet, wardrobes, ceilings, lighting, air conditioning and painting.

What motivated you to renovate?
I would say all of the above. The apartment is in a block built in the 1960’s and the apartment was fully original except for the brown carpet and peach coloured walls. To say it needed a new lease on life is an understatement! The kitchen and living area needed to be opened up to merge the two spaces together while making the kitchen less pokey. The bathroom was functional but the 1960’s tiles had run it’s course and the tiny, almost unusable, inbuilt bath needed to be ripped out because it was an accident waiting to happen.
We’re not planning to sell, but doing a renovation and adding value to the property will hopefully work out well when we outgrow it.

Were you living here at the time of your renovations?
Given how extensive the renovation was, it wasn’t possible to live there while the renovation took place so we moved in with the in-laws.

How would you describe your style?
Modern Contemporary. I like classic styles and finishes that will stand the test of time.

Talk us through the process you took in the planning stages of the renovation!
Instagram was definitely my go to for inspiration. Dot and Pop, the palm co and the local project are all amazing. I also looked through our TileCloud Instagram for ideas, our customers are creating some amazing spaces with our products.

What was involved in the process of this renovation?
There is a lot going on in a bathroom renovation even though it’s a small space. Demolition, plumber rough-in, rendering walls, waterproofing, screeding the floor, building the roman bath, waterproofing, tiling, grouting, silicone, plumber fitting off, electrician fitting off and installing the shower screen.

What is a roman bath? and why did you decide on doing one for your bathroom?
A roman bath is essentially a tiled bath - you make the bath out of bricks and tile all the exposed surfaces. I didn’t want to have a built-in bath because stepping into a curved surface in the small space we had to work with can be a hazard and I also don’t like the look of them. After some research I discovered the roman style bath which solved all my problems. It looks great and is really functional. My partner was also surprised at how much more comfortable it ended being compared to the bath!

Why did you decide on a sticking to the one tile for the whole space?
It’s a small bathroom and I didn’t want to make the area feel too busy. I’m really glad I did because it ended up making the space feel a lot bigger than it actually is.

Were there any delays? How long did the renovation take?
The bathroom took 3 weeks from start to finish. It’s only a small space but there were a lot of different trades which involved lots of planning as we had to allow time for things to dry before the next trade could start. The plumber was delayed a couple of days completing the rough-in, but this type of delay should be expected between each trade.

What was the most challenging part of the renovation? Did anything go wrong? How did you adapt?
Planning all the trades and not letting the duration of the project blow out. Project managing the process is always challenging when you’re juggling work and life commitments, so making sure all the trades were well organised and ordering all the products needed before starting was my focus. I was lucky not to have anything major go wrong, but it did take a little bit longer than planned as renovations always do.

Did you and your partner butt heads over the design at all?
Luckily we have very similar tastes and only a couple of “debates” took place. The roman bath was one, it was either we don’t have a bath at all or take a punt with a roman bath. We are so glad we did, it looks amazing and is functionally great!

Any advice for first time renovators?
If project managing or DIY isn’t your thing then definitely look to get a builder on board. They make the process less stressful and take on the responsibility of making it run as smoothly as possible to deliver within your timeframe. Also, choose and order all your products as soon as possible so that you get everything you want and don’t miss out because something is out of stock.
 

Scroll to watch the bathroom transformation!