Home bathroom renovations, buying a new couch: how to make sure you get the hard decisions right
Your furniture says a lot about the way you live, so choosing the right pieces despite what the rest of the family (think they) want is paramount.
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As far as pieces of furniture go, the sofa is the one that truly tells the story of who lives in a house. Whether it’s faux Louis XIV style with curved legs, a classic modular lounge or a 1970s sofa that has seen better days, the seating you choose says a lot about the way you live. It also often represents a significant outlay of money, so it’s important to get it right. For families, style choices need to be balanced against practical considerations, like the number of kids or pets it will accommodate and the inevitable wear and tear they bring with them.
Q. We have three kids and have outgrown our old lounge. What’s the best choice of lounge for families?
A. There are few furniture wars more important than picking the right couch, and everyone in the family has an opinion.
Unless you are super confident in your decision, this is not the time to make an online purchase. The only way to really get a feel for whether it’s the right lounge for all of you is to take the whole family to the showroom and try it out together. David Hardwick, global Head of Product at King says it’s important to think through all the duties the lounge might perform, beyond how good it will look in your home.
“You need something flexible that can be reconfigured, perhaps for a larger space or you may want to separate it in later years because your lifestyle and your home has changed over time,” he says. “It has to do a lot more things than what you are focused on in the showroom, which is often to do with aesthetics.”
Given you’re likely to have it for 10 years or more, David says it is worth paying a bit more to get something that will literally stand the test of time. Ask about warranties on the sofa, including the frame. David says the covering is generally the first element to show signs of wear and reupholstering will give your sofa new life.
Q. Three seater or modular? Leather or fabric? My friends keep telling me leather is the way to go but I am not convinced.
A. The three-seater lounge doesn’t always cut it with families, who can often benefit from a bit of extra space.
“I always suggest that you should try to fit as much sofa into the space as you can without overwhelming it,” says David.
“Generally, you’ll want to huddle together in winter and then be as far apart from each other as possible in summer, so it’s great to have that extra space.”
Modular sofas often also allow for different configurations that can change up a space depending on your needs. David says it’s a good idea to ask about the flexibility of the design you’re interested in so that you don’t have to buy a new lounge when you renovate or move house.
He says a lounge designed for families will not only be able to deal with the usual demands, but the unusual ones as well.
“We often have debates in the design phase about how people use their sofas,” says David. “We design not just for what they should do, but what they can do with it, like when you walk into the room to find your child doing a headstand on the sofa.”
In the early 2000s, leather sofas were top of the list, but David says the move towards a grey palette in recent years has made fabric lounges a popular choice.
“The demand for leather reduced as the grey palette took off, but as those warmer colours have started coming in again, demand for leather will increase,” he says.
While you can opt for stain resistant and water repellent upholstery fabrics, you’re still going to be up against it keeping your lounge looking pristine. Leather is not only hard-wearing, any spills can be wiped off without much drama. It will also continue to look good as it ages.
In the end though, it’s a personal choice. “I had fabric dining chairs at home and after six months (with the kids) we switched to leather,” says David.
“It’s a really practical choice and it wears really well, but everyone has their preference.”
MAKING THE RIGHT BATHROOM RENOVATION DECISIONS
There’s a reason why deceased estates are often referred to as ‘renovator’s delights’.
Often, they are a time capsule of period features and original architecture where the elderly owner has not had the means to improve or maintain them for some time.
For the new owners, this offers a rare opportunity to either restore or renovate the house, providing a blank canvas where you can really make your mark.
Here’s a guide to making practical decisions in period homes when your first instinct may be to swap old for new
Q. We’ve bought a deceased estate which needs a lot of work but it has the original cast iron bathtub. Unfortunately, it’s worn back to the cast iron in parts. Is there any way we can bring it back to life?
A. Before you decide which way to go, it helps to understand what you’re working with. Cast iron claw foot baths were traditionally finished in enamel, an incredibly hard-wearing, beautiful surface. Although they’re cold to touch, once hot a cast iron bath will generally hold its heat better than an acrylic bath.
If you’ve tried to move the bath, you’ll already know how heavy it is and just its presence in the house is indicative of how long-lasting and strong these baths are. This is all a long way of saying that if you can afford it, it’s worth getting the bath restored properly the first time. But it may also depend on whether you see this house as your long-term home. Also, think about how often you’ll be using the bath – this may also affect how much you want to spend on it.
Is it worth it to repair? What are our options?
When the whole house is in disrepair, there are often a lot of hard decisions to be made, mostly because it’s unlikely that you’ll have the money to restore every single aspect of the house. Traditional trades and products can cost a premium and you’ll have to decide where it is worth investing the money and where it might be better to replace or remove an original feature.
Original cast iron bathtubs are in short supply these days but they can be expensive to fully restore. Really, you should first ask yourself if it is something you value. If the answer is yes, then you can absolutely breathe new life into it. A cast iron bathtub original to your house could become the centrepiece to your bathroom.
If you’re a bit ambivalent about how much you might use a bath and whether the restoration is worth it, it might work better in the garden as a focal point for water plants. Alternatively, there are plenty of second-hand architectural hardware suppliers who would gladly pay to take it off your hands.
Enamel is a type of powdered glass fired at extremely high temperatures to bond it to the cast iron.
A full restoration service will strip the whole bath back to the cast iron base and then apply the enamel in layers. Expect to pay between $2000 and $3000, and send it off site for a few weeks for a result that, with care, will last a lifetime and become a statement piece in the bathroom.
This is probably the best option if the wear is extensive. If the damage is less severe, or even if you see yourself in the house for five to 10 years, you could opt for resurfacing where the bath surface is treated to create a key for a painted finish.
This process can often be done on site and only takes a day or two before the bath is ready for use. The results are generally guaranteed for five to 10 years. It also costs about a quarter of the price of traditional re-enamelling.
Q. Should I scrap the bath and start again?
A. This is quite a personal decision. If it is original to the house and you intend to leave the bathroom where it is, I’d be thinking carefully about whether to remove it. You can easily pay more than $4000 for a new claw foot cast iron bath.
Freestanding baths have never been more popular in bathroom design and an old bath could be the perfect focal point in the bathroom. However, you might be keen for a completely contemporary overhaul.
In that case, try to find the old bath a good home.
Robyn Willis is The Fixer, here to answer all your home renovation and repair questions. Email us at athome@news.com.au
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