The good thing about the houses in our little block is that they all come with a downstairs loo – the bad news is that it’s outside. And not always in the best of condition…
A lot of our friends and neighbours have had the very good idea of incorporating it into the house, by closing up the outside door and knocking through the connecting wall into the kitchen. But that wasn’t going to work for us because we planned to extend the kitchen into the side return, so we needed to carve out some space elsewhere.
We played around for a bit but eventually settled on borrowing around a metre from the kitchen itself for the body of the space, which helped square off the kitchen too. As with our bathrooms we wall-hung everything possible and went for a short projection loo. The narrow door opens outwards into the passageway and it’s actually a surprisingly comfortable space. Little things like having a towel rail integrated into the basin really help save space and a large IKEA facecloth serves as a handtowel.
Decor-wise I was persuaded by interiors gurus like Kate Watson-Smyth of Mad About The House that you can afford to go dark and intense in such a small room, and I’m glad I did. The setting provides a great home for our vintage light from Archive Furniture just down the road in Clapton and for a mirror inherited from my parents which has followed us from house to house. The wallpaper was left over after papering a couple of walls on the way up to the loft but works really well here – helping to bounce the light around. And the ledge created by the concealed cistern is another place to prop a piece of Bathroom Art.
Last House But One 
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