MINI MAKE-OVER: DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM

When we first moved in, both bathrooms were relatively recently renovated, so we didn’t need to do any big changes. However, we had spotlights put in, and we also wanted to get rid of the laminate flooring in the downstairs bathroom and use tiles instead. Well, actually we wanted a marble flooring as I have recently become obsessed with marble! Especially grey marble tiles. They are so timeless and elegant.

Here’s few things we’ve learnt:

1) GOOD TILERS DON’T GROW ON TREES

Try to find someone who is recommended to you rather than picking up a trades guy on www.ratedpeople.com. We have used this website in the past and the tradesmen have been fine but the guy we hired to put in the new floor was no good (even though his ratings were excellent). There are loads of dodgy tilers out there and this became very apparent after a quick search in google for ’tiling job gone bad’.

Our tiler showed up looking hangover and totally ignored what we told him. As a result, the tiles on the floor don’t look straight and are slightly uneven. To be honest, this is not noticeable when you first walk in, but being the perfectionist that I am, of course I noticed this afterwards (although it doesn’t really bother me anymore). If I hadn’t been dealing with a newborn baby I would have probably gotten into an argument with him but we just wanted to get the job done and move on. Next time we are doing up bathrooms it will be by RECOMMENDATION only!

2) MARBLE FLOOR IS VERY HIGH MAINTENANCE

I knew this before we started but we got quite a good deal from Topps

Tiles (www.toppstiles.co.uk) so we decided to go ahead. Perhaps the reason why we came across some of these issues was that the tiler we hired for the job didn’t fit the floor properly in the first place….

The main issue has been hairline cracks and scratches on the tiles. Since marble is a natural stone it is very porous even when sealed. Our marble tiles are polished and we were told they did not need to be sealed (there are some mixed opinions on this). I have been cleaning the floor few times a week with Kilrock Granite & Marble Cleaner but I’m not sure if this has made a difference. Soap residue and water needs to be wiped off very quickly as it will stain the marble. The grey parts still look pretty good but the scratches are more visible on the black tiles.

I still don’t regret getting the marble floor as it does looks beautiful and I feel it brings a certain period look to our downstairs bathroom. The pictures below will show what the floor looks like today and to be honest it really isn’t that bad. If you are looking for imperfections and flaws with a magnifying glass you will find them as marble is a natural product which means it will show life.

If and when, we do up this bathroom properly in the future, I would choose quartz over marble. Quartz is obviously much more expensive but it is the only hard wearing option I can think of that looks very similar to marble. After all, I still love marble and I am very happy how it transformed our bathroom in the end.