Bathroom Bliss...& Things That Go Bump in the Night!

Life in lockdown has been a brilliant excuse to spend more time in my favourite room in the house: the bathroom. Not that I feel the need to make excuses. I attach no guilt whatsoever to the pleasure of a luxurious soak in the bath! To be fair, my gorgeously indulgent moments of calm are often invaded by my 7 year old daughter, who is fast becoming a bath addict herself. I don't mind - there's lots of room in my bath, as you will see when I show you how we narrowly avoided disaster, just a few days after our beautiful V&A bath was installed...

When we moved into our house, the bathroom had been recently revamped and I tried to persuade myself that it had a spa-like feel with its bronze mosaic tiles and freestanding bath. I was never truly convinced, no matter how many scented candles I filled the air with! My husband was less than keen to rip out this perfectly functional, brand new bathroom but he was eventually on side (it did take a few years of 'gentle persuasion' and saving up and we did sell the bathroom suite, so it wasn't entirely reckless!). I stand by the decision as one of the best we made in our home as it is such a serene space in which to start and end each day and that is certainly good for the soul.

Imagine our horror then, when less than a week after the bathroom had been fitted, we were awoken at 3am to an almighty crash. It's disorientating to be woken from sleep but the noise was so loud, my husband and I shot out of bed to make sure the kids were ok. Unfathomably, they were sound asleep and missed our amateur detective work. Nope, we hadn't been broken into, no windows were broken, no pictures off the wall. Our sleuthing took us to the bathroom where we were confronted with this....

I can honestly say that in spite of the extravagant amount of money we had invested into our bathroom, all we felt was an instant and overwhelming sense of relief. Just look where the mirror had fallen! I doubt any of us would have survived had we been on the loo at the time of the disaster! What a way to go that would have been! My kids had both taken baths earlier in the evening and I was shaking as I contemplated what might have been. In that moment, nothing else mattered other than the fact we had all miraculously avoided any harm.

Perhaps even more miraculously, it turned out that the bathroom had also survived without any damage at all except the mirror itself and the teeniest of unnoticeable scratches on the side of the vanity unit. Nobody knows it's there but I seek it out most days to look at it, a tiny scar that reminds me how lucky we all were.

We quickly worked out what had happened. A couple of days earlier, an electrician had connected the electrics to our illuminated mirror and he had inadvertently rehung it, not on the purpose-made bracket but on the mirror's frame. I'd commented at the time that it was lower than I'd expected but thought little more of it. Earlier that night, we had all enjoyed long baths and the ensuing heat in the steamy room must have shifted the mirror, even though it had been on the wall for 2 days.

The clean up job took a while - as well as the large shards of glass, you can imagine how many tiny splinters this huge mirror had created when it fell. I'll never forget how, the next morning, our heroic builder carried the remains of the mirror down the stairs with the same ease he'd single-handedly carried out our previous bathtub.

Before too long, our bathroom was restored to its zen-like space. Boldly, we ordered an even bigger replacement mirror - the original had been my only slight regret when we'd had the bathroom installed as it looked a little small for the space so I guess the chance to size up was the silver lining of this little incident.

It's now almost 3 years since we were rudely awakened by that 'bump' in the night. Our bathroom has stood the test of time and I can truly say, with no exaggeration, that it remains a daily reminder of how lucky we all were that night.

Luxurious lockdown baths are better than ever - no need to rush, we're not going anywhere! Spoilt for choice between a book, a podcast or a magazine, with my favourite scented candles burning and a never ending supply of flowing hot water, I have time. Time to slow down, time to appreciate the little things and, of course, time to be grateful that my family and friends are currently safe and well amidst all that is going on in the world.

If you're curious, here are some more of the 'before and after' pictures of my bathroom.

And, if you're considering a bathroom renovation yourself and would like a little bit of guidance, why not get in touch. Just email hello@sointeriordesign.co.uk.

Before / During the Renovation:

After: