The latest dining chairs

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Save money on your bathroom renovation with these tips and advice from industry experts. Includes advice on design, planning and choosing your materials.

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‘Keep your existing layout and consider functionality’

Nick Rowland, product manager at Heritage Bathrooms says: ‘The key to a successful renovation project is planning. As soon as you start repositioning plumbing the job can become very expensive, so stick to the existing layout if possible.

‘Although installers can find great deals, do your own research as well to see what other bargains are out there. Ask yourself whether you need the installer to fit the whole bathroom. What could you do yourself? Picking up the smaller, less technical tasks, such as hanging mirrors, putting up towel rails and painting walls, can lead to considerable savings. Check whether a “good price” really is value for money – does it offer quality? Will the product stand the test of time? Is it guaranteed by the manufacturer?

‘The only area where you may want to consider cutting corners by spending less is on fittings without a working function. For example, static pieces, such as a basin and pedestal, are only required to hold water and allow it to drain away. In contrast, the WC has more moving parts and the pan and cistern need to operate properly for years to come. With this in mind, I recommend only buying a WC from a recognised manufacturer that will understand its functional needs and will carefully manage the manufacturing process to ensure that the cistern and pan do not leak.

‘A bath needs to be robust enough to hold your weight as well as the water. If you are satisfied that this basic requirement has been met then you won’t need to spend money on baths with additional reinforcement, which have little benefit for domestic use.’
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‘Consider what you can do for yourself’

Jamey Seaman, bathroom expert at Ikea says: ‘There are many ways to make your budget go that bit further when it comes to improving your bathroom. It’s surprising just how much work you can do by yourself. Save money by purchasing ready-to-assemble basin and bathroom cabinets, and avoid paying someone else to fix units to the wall.

‘You can also make savings by buying a complete set of bathroom furniture, including a basin, cabinet and mirror, rather than individual pieces, which could cost more. You don’t have to blow your budget on bathroom storage all at once. Start by fitting storage beneath and above the sink and add more at a later date when you have the time and budget.’
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ABOVE (left-right): Venice shower-bath, (H)47x(W)85x(L)170cm, £525; basin and pedestal, (H)85x(W)60x (D)45cm, £273; close-coupled WC, (H)83x (W)36.5x(D)63cm, with cistern and soft-close seat, £432, all from the Zaar collection at Heritage Bathrooms; Godmorgon/Vitviken washstand with two drawers and porcelain basin, (H)66x(W)63x(D)49cm, £170; Dalskar chrome-plated basin mixer tap, (H)18cm, £65; Godmorgon mirror cabinet, (H)96x(W)60x(D)14cm, £180; high cabinets, (H)192x(W)40x(D)30cm, £150 each, all Ikea.

‘Mix inexpensive ceramic tiles with luxury mosaics’

Beth Boulton, head of marketing at Topps Tiles says: ‘Instead of tiling an entire room in expensive mosaics, keep down costs by using them sparingly as a feature wall or to zone a shower area.

‘With the latest advancements in the ceramic printing process, there are now ceramic tiles available featuring highly realistic interpretations of natural stone, marble and wood. By cutting sheets of tiles in half or into strips to create a vertical feature behind a basin, or a horizontal statement around a bath and corner of a shower, you can make a real impact without overspending.’
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‘Spend wisely and look out for bargains’

Rob Whitaker, brand director at Fired Earth says: ‘In general, you will get what you pay for. While cheaper products may look very similar to more expensive equivalents, they’re unlikely to have the same quality of finish or to last as long. For example, the chrome on very inexpensive taps may start to peel, or the surface of a bath may be more likely to crack or stain, so it is worth spending as much as you can afford to save money in the long term.

‘Think about installing a shower over the bath rather than building a separate shower area. As well as saving on product and installation costs, this is a good space-saving solution, too. If you would love a classic, freestanding cast-iron bath but it is beyond your budget, a bath made from a resin and stone composite is a great, cost-effective alternative. Factory shops often have fantastic bargains, so it’s well worth paying them a visit. If you can, it’s a good idea to wait for the winter and summer sales as the discounts on large items such as baths, washstands and boxes of tiles can be considerable.’
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ABOVE (left-right): Glossy flat ceramic wall tiles in white, (W)20x(L)25cm, £7.60 per m²; Slate square glass mosaic tiles in silver, £13.99 for a (W)30x(L)30cm sheet; large-format Crystal porcelain floor tiles in white, (W)44x (L)44cm, £49.54 per m², all Topps Tiles; Flow roll-top bath, made from resin and ground stone with chrome feet, painted in Mercury Eggshell, (H)66x (W)80x(L)175cm, £1,650; Avebury bath and shower mixer tap, (H)42x (W)18x(D)20cm, £1,125; Abbey Fountains porcelain floor tiles, (W)19.9x (L)19.9cm, £74.70 per m², all Fired Earth; Athena Black 1700 freestanding bath with chrome feet, (H)56x(W)75x(L)170cm, £349.95; Modena 60 Semi Pedestal bathroom suite with ceramic basin (H)48x(W)58.5x(D)39.5cm, and ceramic WC, (H)83.5x (W)37x(D)65cm, £179.95, all Better Bathrooms.

‘Think about selling your old suite’

Joe Cummings, product advisor at Better Bathrooms says: ‘The rising popularity of auction sites has provided a fantastic platform for selling secondhand items. Any unwanted fixtures in good condition are worth selling, from taps and basins to tiles. This is the perfect way to recoup some of the expense you have lavished on your new bathroom.

‘Labour costs are the greatest outlay in any renovation project, so try doing some of the work yourself. Demolition and debris removal, along with tiling and brassware installation are simple jobs even for the most novice of DIYers. There are installation videos on the Better Bathrooms website (betterbathrooms.com) offering step-by-step guidance on how to install a range of sanitaryware in your home yourself, including shower enclosures, basins and baths. This will help to eliminate high-cost construction bills. However, it’s not always a good idea to undertake all of the work a bathroom renovation entails yourself – this can end up costing you more rather than saving money. Large, technical jobs, including any changes in plumbing, will require experienced tradespeople, so shop around in order to find the right person for the task. You will need someone you trust who will do the job at the right price. Acquiring multiple quotes from different contractors will not only give you an estimate of the cost of the work, but will ensure the price is fair and help with your planning.’
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‘Research affordable options for flooring’

David Snazel, buyer at Carpetright says: ‘Updating your bathroom flooring doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to lay out a huge amount of money. If you like the look of stone or hardwood floors, but want a more practical and affordable option, it’s certainly worth considering vinyl. Functional yet stylish, vinyl is waterproof, remarkably durable and comes in a variety of styles – from natural wood and classic tiles to modern patterned designs – making it the ideal bathroom flooring solution.’
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‘Never cut corners when it comes to brassware’

Leanne Robey, senior designer at Ripples says: ‘There are lots of ways to save on a bathroom project, but you should always invest in quality brassware as this includes the items that are in use every day, in particular concealed valves that regulate the temperature of the water in your home.

‘Always buy a good quality showerhead, especially if you prefer to take a shower than a bath, and look for “rub clean” showerheads with easy-clean nozzles that will prevent the build-up of limescale – great if you live in a hard-water area.

‘For further savings choose an eco-friendly showerhead with a sophisticated flow restrictor, various jet options and air infusion, which all work together to cut your water consumption by up to 60 per cent. This will help keep down water costs and will also cut energy bills, as less water will need to be heated.’
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ABOVE (left-right): Urban Planks vinyl flooring in Eden Walnut 857, £44.99 per m², from the Tegola range at Carpetright; Crema Marfil marble wall tiles, (W)30x (L)60cm, £68 per m²; Fairfield easy-clean showerhead, (dia.)20cm, and arm, (L)41cm, £433; ¾-inch concealed flow control stop valve, £292; thermostat, £675, all Ripples.

All prices and stockists correct at time of publishing

Home Tour: Remodeled Anderson Township barn becomes gorgeous modern dream home

Read article : Home Tour: Remodeled Anderson Township barn becomes gorgeous modern dream home

ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Jerry Whitney wasn’t looking to move, but he was looking for a clear route from his Anderson Township home to the airport on a day when interstate traffic was heavy. So he cut down Five Mile Road toward Kellogg Avenue.

“I didn’t want to miss my flight,” he said. “And then I saw this place and said, ‘Oh, my god, look at that barn.’ And then I saw a ‘for sale’ sign and Five Mile Creek behind it.”

He fell in love. When his wife of 14 years, Karen, saw it, she fell in love, too.

On Dec. 31, 2012, seven days after that first sighting, the Whitneys bought the 30-year-old horse barn and its seven acres at a 30 percent discount from a motivated seller. It cost them $300,000.

Fast forward 18 months and the Whitneys – who had no previous home construction experience – moved out of a 300-square-foot trailer on the property into a home like no other, a dream house they played a big role in designing and decorating.

The shock of the unexpected experience has worn off, but not the excitement and contentment they feel for their fully modern, energy-efficient barn house. Also still strong is their appreciation for their project partners – among them architect Marc McConnell, builder Paul Kapitula, Keidel Supply, A&S Lighting, Tate Builders Supply, Cooknee Cabinets, KBR Countertop Specialists, Home Depot, IKEA, The Container Store and Peoples First Savings Bank.

All these forces came together to produce a four-bedroom, three-bathroom showcase of modern architecture and engineering that surprisingly fits inside a big, old, round-top home originally built for horses.

Not only does the place run on a geothermal energy system that held down last summer’s utility bills to $90 per month, it is designed to be the Whitneys’ "forever home." The couple asked for and got what architects call “living in place” features that will allow the Whitneys, who are in their 60s, to stay in their home permanently.

The house’s hallways and doors are extra-wide. There’s a 4-foot-wide shaft just behind a door off the entry hall where an elevator to the second floor and its master bedroom can be installed if and when it is needed. Next to the shaft is a laundry room with a chute from the second floor. The master bathroom’s shower door is wide and wheelchair-accessible. Even the landscaping is designed to require minimal maintenance and no chemicals.

There are picture windows in every main room through which the Whitneys, for the rest of their lives, can watch the water rush down Five Mile Creek, lots of wildlife – deer, cardinals, doves, woodpeckers, nut hatches, tufted titmice and blue jays – and the moon and stars.

Take the Tour

The Whitneys – she’s from Bridgetown and is a University of Cincinnati graduate, he is from Lima, Ohio, and is a Xavier University graduate – wanted to retain the bones of the barn. And there’s no mistaking what it used to be when you turn off Five Mile Road onto their curved driveway. The house’s Quonset hut shape is enhanced by two second-floor dormers, a glassy grand entrance and the original cupola poking out at the roof’s center.

The barn’s industrial-strength foundation passed inspection with flying colors and was retained, but most of the interior – the stables, tack room and hayloft – was gutted to the arched laminated beams that support the rounded roof. To keep it water-tight during a 100-year flood, the entire house had to be raised 14½ inches.

Architect McConnell was so inspired by the place, Jerry Whitney said, that he sketched the floor plan in eight hours and then started marking off the layout with blue tape.

What strikes visitors upon entering the Whitneys’ home is its whiteness, its angular walls and windows, and its uncluttered, modern décor. Yet hints of the barn are there in the entry in the form of a frosted two-paneled sliding door that leads into the living room and a long, floating ledge made of chocolate walnut Jerry Whitney picked up on a one-day drive to Kansas City, Missouri, and back.

The Whitneys had hoped to repurpose two sliding wood doors in the old stable, but their condition was too poor.

“So we were in IKEA one day, and we saw those panels on some cabinets and said, ‘There’s our barn doors,’” said Jerry Whitney, a sales executive with a logistics software company.

The doors might leak a little heat, but the gas fireplace and heated, polished concrete floors keep the living room warm.

“My parents came here for two weeks in October, and they were so warm. My mother learned how to work the thermostat and kept it at 70 degrees. We practically had to kick them out,” joked Karen Whitney, a longtime physician’s assistant.

To the left of the entry hall and beyond the elevator shaft, laundry room and mechanicals closet are two bedrooms that share what the Whitneys call their “spa room.” The bathroom features sparkly, speckled gray quartz countertops, a dual-sink vanity with matching mirrors, a standalone soaking tub and a glassed-in shower with grass-like textured tile. Chrome is the metal of choice for the hardware and fixtures.

To be added to the “spa” features later this year is a fenced-in outdoor shower.

While family photographs in the bedroom at the front of the house stir memories, the bedroom in the back is filled with a mix of family-made art and heirlooms and images from vacations the couple and their four adult daughters have taken.

A glass door from the back bedroom leads to a covered concrete deck that stretches almost the entire length of the house. The deck faces Five Mile Creek and the woods of Withrow Nature Preserve and is accessible from the living and great rooms as well as the 2½-car garage.

Walking back to the entry hall, visitors pass a colorful Campari liqueur poster and a large portrait of an 11-year-old Jerry painted by the late College of Mount St. Joseph art instructor John Nartker.

Across the hall is a stairwell that reaches to the roof. It features a light oak staircase with stainless steel chords and rail and leads up to two more bedrooms, the kitchen and a beamed great room. The vaulted room includes a sectional couch and two stuffed chairs, a glassed-in wine closet, recessed lighting and one floor lamp, a 9-by-6 picture window, a gas fireplace, a big-screen television and a separate dining area with chandelier that faces the front yard.

The great room is where they wind down on weekends with wine and the Wall Street Journal or watch birds – on sunny or gray days.

“Even if it’s raining, we don’t care. With all these windows, it doesn’t matter,” Karen Whitney said.

Three bird feeders hang off the fully plumbed, second-story deck where the couple grills out with friends and watches the ever-running creek and forest.

The 30-foot-long deck is party central when the weather is nice, but the kitchen fills the bill in the winter. Stainless steel appliances, a long, two-tiered white quartz cooking and eating island and glossy white and textured gray European-style cabinets give the kitchen the modern feel Karen Whitney prefers.

“It’s a fun, fun, fun kitchen to cook in,” she said. “We hosted Thanksgiving last year, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to cook the meal. There’s so much space and convenience.”

To the side of the kitchen and overlooking the stairwell’s cathedral-shaped window is a quartz-topped desk that the couple uses as command central, to pay bills and handle other household business. 

Two bedrooms are situated down a hall behind the kitchen, but before them is an inviting, steel-railed spiral staircase. Karen Whitney uses the slanted-wall and naturally lighted bonus room – which has two large cubbyholes behind doors for storage –for yoga, Pilates and TRX workouts. The third floor’s balcony hovers over the kitchen and great room and provides an up-close view of a special light fixture suspended inside the windowed cupola.

“My parents gave us that,” she said of the brass and crystal chandelier. “It came out of the old Shubert Theatre in Cincinnati.” It lights up the great room like a stationary disco ball, her husband said.

A guest room with full bath and the master with bath and massive walk-in closet are back down the spiral staircase and below the bonus room. The couple outfitted their closet with a system purchased at the Container Store that holds all their clothes and accessories. There is no dresser or wardrobe in their room, just open space and a clear view from the bed of the backyard and the rising moon.

“It’s the most wonderful bed to sleep in, until you have to get up,” Karen Whitney said.

'We Took a Gamble on it'

The Whitneys had just remodeled their contemporary house on Little Dry Run Road, which sat on a half-acre and was what they thought they always wanted. Leaving it was far from their minds – until they spotted the old horse barn on Five Mile.

“We took a gamble on it,” said Jerry Whitney, whose experience rebuilding vintage cars equipped him with mechanical skills and gave him confidence they could build their own home.

“Our financial adviser said, ‘You guys are crazy if you don’t do it,’” he said. So they did, but not without sacrifice. Living in a trailer during the treacherous winter of 2013-14 and storing their belongings in a nearby 20-by-30-foot shipping container for 18 months weren’t the only challenges they faced.

“We’d never built a house before or made all the decisions we had to make, sometimes instantaneous ones like when your builder asks, ‘What do I do now?’ and you’ve got to have a decision right then,” he said.

“We turned it into an adventure that we could write a book about,” Jerry Whitney said. “Karen’s quote is, ‘We never thought we would live in a dream house, and now we own one.’ To go from a normal house to this is just amazing. I swear we were meant to be here.”

Chance to See the Whitneys’ House

The 2016 green living tours by the Cincinnati chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council includes the Whitney house on Sept. 17 ($15 for non-members). To join the Green Living Member Circle, click here. The group will tour a modern house in Northside on Jan. 16.