Light Room

Two showstopping windows rescued from Trade Me are the centrepiece of this elegant bathroom makeover

- Fiona Ralph

BACKGROUND

When did you move in?

Melissa: We bought the house in July 2014, applied for consents, demolished a large and unattractive two-storey add-on and moved the remaining house forward in about October 2014. Builders came in shortly thereafter, and in May 2015 we moved in.

What did you like about it?

The house had had a 1960s makeover but was in many ways original and I knew I could make it over. It was a big house with large, sunny rooms on a reasonably big site (729 square metres) on a road to the sea.

What was the original bathroom like?

It was typical of the house – pink paint and pink wallpaper, old blue lino, exceedingly dated and divided into several smaller areas or rooms.

THE RENO

Tell us about the demo process.

I demolished the walls, had a hand in taking out some internal glass panes and the toilet, gave the old hot water cylinder to my plumber, and ripped weird wallpaper and plasticky stuff off the walls. Bashing out the bath surround revealed an original claw-foot bath, which I thought about having restored, but in the end gave to my brother who has it in his garden for starry baths. I was left with an empty room with ugly windows, but discovered two walls were lined with rimu tongue-and-groove, which was painted yellow.

Where did you find the antique windows?