‘From bed TO DREAM BATH'

Lauren Benincasa transformed a spare room into a stylish sanctuary, perfect for a shower or relaxing bath

- ANNABELLE GRUNDY.

Every room in this house needed work, and our first project was a new kitchen. My husband Andrea and I thought we’d renovate the existing bathroom, which was off the kitchen, next, but after months of walking past the oven and fridge to get to it, I knew the ground floor layout wasn’t working.

We decided to make it a utility room instead, and turn one of the upstairs bedrooms into a brand-new bathroom.

FIRST STEPS

We chose the smallest bedroom, which we never used. It’s above the kitchen, which would make the plumbing simpler. There was nothing to rip out apart from an old carpet, so we had the classic ‘blank canvas’. I knew the elements I wanted to include, and to help us work out where everything should go, I found free online design software. It was useful as we could try different options, and it stopped me placing the radiator next to the basin, where the door would have knocked it!