House Mackrill. Before & After

As seen in the April issue of SA Garden and Home, the House Mackrill bathroom renovation is a show stopper! A complete contrast of its former self, you can see the before and after in a minute but first let’s break it down…

For those of you who follow me on instagram, you would have seen this project on the go mid 2016. It was a quick and seemingly easy renovation, but as all projects go, we were faced with a few challenges along the way. I have been itching to share it with you and now that the press feature is out I finally can! YAY!

The Mackrills have two bathrooms which formed part of this renovation, a guest bathroom and their main bathroom which is also the ensuite.

The brief:

“We wanted something modern and fresh, but something that would still be relevant for years to come. In terms of colour, initially we were leaning towards a grey and white colour palette, but otherwise we pretty much left it all to Melissa (with the help of our Pinterest board). From a practical point of view, we were looking to open the space up and create more room to move and ultimately wanted a beautiful bathroom to use every day.” – Mr and Mrs Mackrill

Guest bathroom before

The challenges; in this space included limited natural light, bulky masonry work and a pre-determined layout. We later discovered, during demo, that the bulky masonry was there for a reason… It housed ALL the plumbing, it seemed like this bathroom was built and then they thought “oh wait, we need plumbing”.  

Guest bathroom after

The solution; the bathroom is small and only really offered one layout, maintaining the same layout I aimed to give the illusion of more space by using wall mounted fittings and a frameless glass shower. Also the introduction of  light colours in this space helped in making the space feel more spacious. We got rid of as much bulky masonry as possible, and where we had to keep it, I made it look like a functional addition to the space. Housing the geberit cistern and then lowering into the shower to form a shelf.

Main bathroom before

The challenges; in this space were similar to the guest bathroom. The layout options were limited as the client wanted to keep the shower as well as the bath and the “bulky masonry” was worse in this space with the addition of the bath. Everything was very chunky in this space, from the base of the shower to the built in vanity. There was very little storage space and that basin was so tiny and seriously impractical.

Main bathroom after

The solution; while sticking to the clients brief of creating a fresh modern space, I applied the same concepts as the guest bathroom, wall mounted fittings, frameless glass shower and white metro tiles made the space appear larger than it is, and by knocking out ALL the built in vanity we were able to fit so much storage and TWO basins, a his and hers! We chased the plumbing into walls where we could but had to keep some of the “bulky masonry”, again I made it into a functional feature in the space rather than it looking like an after thought.

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I am thrilled with the completed space! It is a refreshing space that now ties in with the rest of this modern family home.