Launeden
Interiors Ashford

Before and after – renovating our small cloakroom with Topps Tiles

I am beyond excited to be partnering up with Topps Tiles and share our small cloakroom renovation journey with you. For more inspiration, make sure you follow me on Instagram launeden, and launedenhome.

Whether you’re considering selling your existing house or designing your forever home, a bathroom renovation is a perfect way to increase the overall value of your property.

Ever since we got the keys to our house 3 years ago, I have been contemplating renovating our cloakroom but we kept delaying it for no particular reason.

Ironically, we started looking into hiring tradesmen in February last year, without realizing that one month later we would end up in a national lockdown.

Although it is a small cloakroom, we knew from the start that the costs involved would be relatively high because everything needed to be replaced. Our initial quote was around £2,000 – a lot of money considering the size of the bathroom, but luckily we were recommended a lovely handyman who did all the work for a considerably lower rate.

We wanted a traditional-looking cloakroom – I know it’s not for everyone’s taste, but we really like the classic and timeless look of it.

In the future, I want to add a milking stool (I just haven’t found the right size yet) and a wicker basket to store a few hand towels and any other bathroom essentials that we might need.

I always start with a mood board and have a few inspirational images on hand – it helps me visualize the space better. Having multiple samples around to play with is also something I strongly advise.

Floor and wall tiles play a huge part in the style of a bathroom or cloakroom, so whether you want sleek and neutral or playful and patterned, let your personality shine through.

Topps Tiles is our go-to destination for, you guessed it, tiles! Their customer service is impeccable, they stock a large selection of wall and floor tiles and their prices are ever so affordable (without compromising on the quality or the style).

I ordered several samples when we fit our kitchen 2 years ago. I fell in love with their classic Metro tile in ‘Sage’ (buy here) and decided that I was going to use them in one of our bathrooms.

For the flooring, we opted for Berkeley tile in ‘Charcoal’ (buy here). I find this particular tile stain-resistant and extremely hard-wearing. It can also be used with underfloor heating.

Tip When buying your tiles, make sure you buy 10% more than you think you’ll need to allow for pattern matching, cutting, and spares. When you order from Topps Tiles, they automatically add 10% more.

For the finishing touches, we opted for a simple white border tile (it’s from Topps Tiles as well, but I can’t seem to find it online) and a floor grip strip in gold (sadly out of stock now).

If you are thinking to give your bathroom an update, but don’t know where to begin, I would suggest visiting your local Topps Tiles showroom.

As you would imagine, their shops are currently closed for browsing (because of the national lockdown), but have a chat with their dedicated team and discuss your renovation plans when they re-open their stores.

That being said, you can still place an order online and choose from free home delivery or free store collection.

We opted for a traditional full pedestal basin and close coupled toilet – both from the Victoria Plum ‘Winchester’ collection. I love the classic design and overall vintage feel of the basin.

One thing to note is that the taps sit too close to the back of the basin’s interior wall. Luckily we didn’t have any issues with the taps (we haven’t had any leaks either), but this can feel uncomfortable for some people to wash their hands because of the awkward position of the taps.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is that we went for old-school British hot and cold taps – this might not be everyone’s cup of tea and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it in other bathrooms. It works in the cloakroom because we mainly use cold water to wash our hands.

The vintage gold basin taps were purchased from Victorian Plumbing, and so was the basin waste with plug. The basin overflow cover insert hole trim has a slightly different finish (brushed brass) than the taps, but it’s hardly noticeable.

Now for the finishing touches. I spent so much time browsing the internet for a mirror – I bought and returned 8 mirrors in total. I gave up in the end and purchased a simple, deco-inspired wall mirror from John Lewis (sold out, similar style here).

Because of the small size and the lack of natural light, we knew that we needed 2 wall light fixtures, in addition to the spotlights (we have two in matte black, buy them here).

We got these beautiful mid-century inspired wall light fixtures from West Elm – we always get so many compliments from our guests!

And this is our cloakroom renovation journey, I hope you find this article useful and will potentially inspire your future renovations!

Any questions, please let me know in the comment section down below.

Disclaimer: I received the Topps Tiles Berkeley tiles as a PR product to review and for content purposes. All views and words are my own.
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