Bathroom Renovation in Islington

The Islington bathroom problem is nearly always the same. A small, awkward room shoved onto the back of the first floor landing, or squeezed in under the stairs. We've done dozens of these now, and the aim every time is the same: find more space, more light and a bit of luxury even when the room fights you on all three.

Plenty of houses around Canonbury Road, Highbury Fields and the streets off Upper Street run one bathroom between three or four bedrooms. So we reconfigure the first floor to add an en suite, turn a box room into a walk in shower room, or put a bathroom up in the loft as part of a bigger conversion. What we suggest depends on your dimensions and where the existing pipework runs.

The look tends to mix modern sanitaryware with period touches. Encaustic floor tiles that pick up the ones in your hallway, tongue and groove panelling, brass or brushed gold taps that sit well with a Victorian house. We buy from British and European makers who build things to last.

Waterproofing gets done properly, not bodged at the end. Tanked wet room membranes, falls graded the right way, decent drainage. In a Victorian terrace with timber floors below, that's what keeps the room dry for the next twenty or thirty years.

Islington's houses went up mostly between 1850 and 1900, and most still have a single bathroom on the first or second floor. Those timber joist floors need thinking about before you drop in a freestanding bath or a load of large format porcelain, both on the waterproofing and on the weight.

Of all the jobs you can do to one of these houses, a bathroom is one of the best returns. Add an en suite to the main bedroom, or bring a tired family bathroom up to scratch, and you feel it every day as well as at resale in a market this competitive.