I get that referring to my en-suite bathroom as a sanctuary is probably taking things a little far. But I do have two small children so time to oneself is limited. Previously our bathroom was a dumping ground for laundry, and was never tidy. Ever. In fact it was so bad I couldn’t even bring myself to take a before picture. The only storage was an old plastic storage unit, towels got thrown over the shower door and the laundry usually ended up on the floor.
Getting ready in the morning with two little ones running around ain’t easy, and it occurred to me that the only time we get to ourselves in the morning is when we’re in the en-suite. So I thought why not pretty it up a little, and make it a place we’d want to be. I absolutely love the result, I hope you agree!
Personally I think that very small rooms like loo’s and en-suites look better when you do something a little different with them. For example, in a previous property I painted a downstairs loo completely black and covered the walls with mirrored picture frames containing photos of loved ones and party times. I know the advice when tackling a small room is not to over-clutter, use pale colours and mirrors to “open it up”. But I think sometimes its nice to just go for it and cover the walls in a dark color or heavily printed wallpaper.
In this case there are a lot more fittings in my en-suite than before, but because they’re all on the walls it doesn’t feel so over-crowed. I also LOVE the lamp in there. My husband and I actually rarely use the shower in our bathroom as the electric shower is in our main bathroom and there is a plug socket just outside our bathroom door, which is how I was able to have one in there. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it, electrical goods in a bathroom pose a danger so exercise caution.
I got this print and mirror in Penneys a while ago and love the “Let’s go on an adventure” slogan.
This beautiful little towel rail (probably intended as a coat hanger) came from Dunnes Stores new Carolyn Donnelly range. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this range in Dunnes, it’s called Eclectic and is full of beautiful, feminine pieces. I could literally buy all of it. I also picked up these little paper lanterns there too.
I also got the beautiful lampshade from Dunnes, on sale for a Tenner The base was a donation from my Aunt.
The little shelf I bought from TK Maxx a couple of years back and my new laundry basket, complete with lid so I don’t have to look at the dirty laundry, was a more recent purchase from there.
