Fanfare please!
The bathroom. It’s finished.
No more will the boy have to tiptoe (like an elephant) through our room to use our bathroom and finally I can brush my teeth without battling with an eight year old for sink space.
There are a few finishing touches that we need to add, a toilet roll holder and some sort of shelf and a perhaps a plant, but that’s all icing on the cake.
Although this is officially the houses ‘main bathroom’, George has come to think of it as ‘his bathroom’ because we built an en suite in what was our spare bedroom a couple of years ago.
The highlights of the final layout consists of a heated floor with tiles from our local ‘Country Tiles’.
A heated towel rail radiator, a toilet with a soft close seat, to avoid him waking us up in the night. You will be pleased to know I resisted the urge to add the photo I took of it soft-closing on a long exposure.
A deep soaking tub where the water comes from a bath filler and is controlled by external taps.
Plus a quadrant shower cubicle in preparation for when he is a stinky teenager.
George has requested some bits and bobs to go on a shelf to personalise it, including a ‘Tiki Head’ by which I think he means some sort of ‘Easter Island’ type thing. So that’s on the things to find list. Until then he has just put in his collection of shiny stones and shells.
…which gives me chance to show Ed’s lamination technique for the oak to ensure that it won’t be effected by a steamy bathroom environment.
All in all this has been a huge task for Ed. As you may have seen in Part 1 and Part 2 of the bathroom story he really has had to rebuild this room from the ground up. He has done everything himself from adding a new floor and ceiling to plastering, cabinet making, plumbing, electrics and tiling, but we have ended up with something that is perfect for our needs and with a quality and attention to detail that can’t be bought.
Kavey
July 31, 2010
Are you SURE Ed won’t take on commissions?
thingswemake
August 2, 2010
he he! This took 6 years of waiting and several months of doing, and it was only upstairs! Imagine how long it would take if the location was miles away! Glad you like it. I am very lucky to have such a handy man 🙂
Corrie
August 3, 2010
Wow, absolutely gorgeous. What talent Ed has!
maria
August 5, 2010
This not only looks fantastic but might even help me! I didn’t know that Omnitubs exsisted, your post could be the answer to us not building an extension. I have just got to wait for Tom to wake up so I can show him. How deep is the Omnitub? and did you have to do anything to the floor?
thingswemake
August 5, 2010
Hi Maria. We went searching for a deep short bath as Ed had used them in Japan and loved the idea of a soaking bath. The Omnitub seemed to be the only one available in the UK. They are 600mm deep, and we didn’t have to do anything to the floor but check out ‘Bathroom Part 2″ post to see the framework Ed had to build to support it. Find them at http://www.omnitub.co.uk/. Although it has made some extra work to fit, we wouldn’t have been able to have a tub and a shower cubicle in the same bathroom without one. G loves it.
Antonia
September 8, 2010
Ooh! You might like te Easter Island tissue dispenser:
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/kitsch-daft/big-maoi-tissue-dispenser/index.html
I love the shell collection. Also, you share our taste in towels. Cheers!
thingswemake
September 8, 2010
Ha ha! That is hilarious! And how apt? Tissue dispenser and Tikki head in one. Unfortunately the lovely sage towels have partly been replaced by Buzz Lightyear ones. Your blog has really made me chuckle this afternoon, would love to get updates by mail if you ever add subscriptions. Blog on.
Antonia
September 8, 2010
No, wait, they’re out of stock. These people sell them too.
nickisnicki69
November 18, 2010
You are a lucky lady!
anis
March 13, 2011
hi maria,
We are also thinking of getting an omnitub solo as we have a small bathroom.
i really like the support that ed built fo the tub to sit in.
what wood ans sizew diud he use?
thingswemake.co.uk
March 14, 2011
Hi Anis. He used 4″x2″ for the frame and the sides are 18mm MRMDF and the top is the same but with oak added too.
jamie jay
July 12, 2011
Congratulations!!! looks amazing… I’m thinking about buying an omnitub duo too… would you recommend?
best wishes
jamie
Ian Green
May 8, 2012
Looks great. I’m thinking of doing something similar – what are the dimensions of your bathroom?
thingswemake.co.uk
May 8, 2012
Hi Ian
The room is approximately 3m X 2m.
Best of luck with your plans
Ed
Katie
June 25, 2012
What was your taps solution for the omnitub in the end? The pictures show the turning part of the taps, but not the actual spout. I have just ordered an omnitub duo and am still trying to work out what will fit and not look ridiculous.
thingswemake.co.uk
June 25, 2012
Hi Katie. The bath filler is the round silver thing to the right and below the taps on the photo. It serves as a filler and the mechanism to turn and empty the bath, so no spout as such. The water just pours from the bottom of it. Works well. It was from Ideal Standard.
Kirsty Gibbs
January 17, 2013
Thanks so much for putting the great photo’s of your bathroom and omnitub. We are currently having many discussions about if we go down the omnitub route! Our main family bathroom either has to be a shower bath or a separate shower with omnitub (very similar to what you have done) the only other bathroom is an en-suite which will just be a shower. We have 2 kids currently aged 2 and 5. Hope you don’t mind me asking but with you experience of having an omnitub would you consider it with younger children? We obviously don’t leave the 2 year old on his own but currently in our normal bath are happy to leave the 5 year old while we pop in and out doing stuff and I just wonder if this will give us years more of having to be over cautious at bathtime!
Once again thanks for sharing your beautiful bathroom, it’s been so hard to find many images or independent info on the omnitub
Kirsty
thingswemake.co.uk
January 17, 2013
Hi Kirsty. The bath is certainly deeper than a normal bath, so reaching in to scrub little kids might be a bit harder and there is more depth of water for them to ‘submerse’. But the benefit that we find for our son is that he can sit up and he doesn’t slide under the water so easily. In our normal sized bath he was too short to stuff his toes to the end like we do to keep sitting upright and he sometimes used to slide under the water without meaning to, if that makes sense. It’s not quite as shiny as a normal bath so it tends to need a bit more of a clean, but overall we are pretty happy with it. If you do go for it make sure you plan well to support the bath from a decent timber frame!
Kirsty Gibbs
January 17, 2013
Thanks for your really quick response, the more we hear the more it helps make our choice !
apologies for asking but do you still have a “normal” bath elsewhere in your home and if you do which bath do you prefer using?!
Thanks again
Kirsty
thingswemake.co.uk
January 17, 2013
I tend to use our normal bath (it is in our en-suite) which I like as I can lay out flat and it is not surrounded by kids toys! Although I must admit I do use George’s sometimes if I want a quick bath as it is quite quick to fill – you only need to half fill it as your body displaces a lot of water. George prefers his Omnitub as it doesn’t allow him to slide under the water like ours does.
stockwell kevin
January 17, 2013
Thanks that’s good to know…….still thinking! Trying to convince my other half to go with omnitub as a shower tub in ensuite and normal bath in main bathroom. I think that offers us best of all options but he is not so sure Kirsty
Ash
July 26, 2013
This looks wonderful. On the omnitub website there’s a picture of a couple sharing a bath, but I’m guessing they are too small to truly share a bath with another person?