How to create a country-style bathroom

About the project

Homeowners: Donna & Glenn Mepstead

Location: Gembrook, Victoria

The project: Bathroom and toilet makeover

The budget: Approximately $12,000

Donna’s top tip for renovators: “It makes the job a lot easier when you've got the right tools to do it,” says Donna.

For Donna Mepstead and husband Glenn, renovating their rural home has been a careful, considered process. Working on weekends and after hours, the couple has slowly updated their country cottage room by room over the past nine years.

Donna is the designer, Glenn the tradie, and this striking renovated bathroom is just one of their successful projects. With timber-look tiles, matte black tapware, bath, toilet, and basin, it has managed to blend country style with modern touches for a sophisticated look.

Donna says that she thinks it has been a good policy to take things slowly during the renovation, allowing her to plan carefully and make more considered decisions.

“It took a little while for us to find the vision,” she says. “You start living in it and you learn what you want and what is going to be beneficial.”

Most of the renovation work was done by Glenn, except for some of the specialised trades such as the electricals, plumbing and some of the plastering. However, the couple’s son is an electrician, so that part of the work was kept in the family.

The messmate timber vanity was also outsourced, although the other timberwork (the feature wall in the adjoining toilet and the VJ panels in the bathroom) was constructed by Glenn.

An ornate cornice was installed by a professional plasterer.

“I wasn't brave enough to do the plastering myself,” Glenn explains. “I could do it, but the labour was relatively inexpensive, and we wanted a good base for the tiles.”

Choosing the shower

The shower was redone, and the new shower sits on a pan, which included the fall, which Glenn says made it easier for him to install. The shower has black-framed barn-style doors, sourced from Bunnings, which complements the matte black tapware and uses the space efficiently.

Donna says she wanted a separate shower and felt having a door was important.

“There's so many showers these days that don't have doors,” she says. “I didn't want that, and we played around with a few different ideas of incorporating the bath with the shower area, but it just wasn't going to work for us. So we decided to put that little sliding door in and I like it.”

“It's nice,” adds Glenn. “We've got barn doors everywhere through the house too, so all works well together.”

He also laid the timber-look floor tiles, which he said was a difficult job, but the result is rewarding and ideal for a wet area. Practical, yet stylish, Donna says that the tiles complement the timber detailing throughout the house, including the messmate vanity and VJ panelling, painted in a soft green to complement the view (British Paints Preserved Rainforest).

The same messmate timber is featured throughout the house, including the kitchen, laundry, and some of the window surrounds.

One major change the couple did was to add in a large window over the bath, which allows them to take in the beautiful district views. Previously there was only a small high window in the room, which made it quite dark. The renovated room is now light-filled – and because the couple changed the door to include a glass panel, the light from the window floods through the hallway and the rest of the house.

The perfect lighting plan

Lighting in the bathroom was carefully considered. An LED backlit round mirror is the feature piece of the lighting plan, but strip lighting was added under the vanity and in the toilet.

“The mirror has got three different settings,” says Donna. “I did a bit of research because I'm an ex-beauty therapist/makeup artist and I had to have the right lighting for my makeup.”

A combination heat lamp and ceiling light adds warmth along with even more light, essential for the rural location.

“When you put the mirror on warm and put the strip lighting on, it looks really good,” adds Glenn.

While the couple love the finished room, it wasn’t all plain sailing.

“The hardest part of the reno was knocking down the existing walls because the previous owners concreted on the tiles and it was like an inch thick with chicken wire through it,” says Glenn. “It was horrible. It was a nightmare, and we needed a sledgehammer.

“What I thought would take me a day or two took me nearly three weeks to knock it all down and then reshape the place.”

More from Donna and Workshop

To see more projects like Donna and Glenn’s bathroom and their incredible façade transformation, visit the Bunnings Workshop community.