Great room. The paintwork, bulkhead and black aluminum window look contemporary, so updating the colour scheme will completely renew this bathroom. I would remove the tiles on the wall of the vanity, including the bath area, and actually have a glazier I stall a mirror from the bench top right across the room, thus negating the need for tiling at all, and just lengthening the space and light. Then all you need to worry about are the bath surround tiles. Luckily there are loads of options, from DIY to designer and many in between. I saw a tile product on houzz called xlight that can be applied right over existing tiles, as long as they are level and secure. There is a stunning architectural range including concrete looking tiles and even a marble. Carrara is the most expensive fit out choice but number one of designers, xlite have a tile which would tile tour bath front in one piece as would your side and rear wall, in around two sheets! Contact them, then all you need to do is replace a vanity, or I would have a joiner come out to quote on hand laminating the top onsite. Or consider just replacing or building a base draw vanity beneath this while retaining the bench top, you could tile this also in the marble look for ultimate luxury, and go with a timber veneer looking product for the suspended drawers below. Floor tiling is the only thing to do then.

Michelle, I'm not a builder but am building with hubby, a single storey limestone home. Our daughter built a two storey limestone home just down the road, that hubby also built for her and the extra foundations she had to install would be at least twice more than we have for our single storey, not to mention that there were allot of short walled founds leading off the perimeter of her home to assist in less likelihood of wall roll out and the inspector called it. Cost for you, will depend on whether you have adequate foundations to carry a second storey and usually that is never the case. All the lower walls will need double the support and it usually has to carry on down to the foundations, depending on whether you have a solid concrete slab or concrete stumps that are accessible. This would mean most of the plaster being removed and hoping that you find no nasty surprises as far as the condition of the existing frame in the home, the builder would as I mentioned, have to add structural supports to carry the second storey. Most often, second stories are built with a hardiplank type exterior and certainly not brickwork as you would then difinitely have to have extra foundations in for such a reno and you would have to start asking yourself if it isn't better to demolish as this type of reno can be extremely costly. You might be lucky but probably highly unlikely, to have adequate structional integrity to be able to add a second storey, without everything I have mentioned to be skipped in any way. I hazzard a guess that such a reno would cost you $250,000+ and maybe more. Would love to know what you finally decide to do and your builders estimate. Good luck. Cheers, Barbara

Hi Kylie, If you're happy with the rest of your interiors spend some time figuring out what exactly you want to achieve. To my way of thinking - you only need an architect if you're extending your home or radically changing walls/adding a storey. Designers are great, if you're without confidence - particularly in the kitchen - I'd also suggest that you go with an independent designer as their interests will be in what you want not what they kitchen/bathroom company they're working for wants to sell. Figure out - are you changing the layout? moving plumbing? What's your budget? When you've done that, then do your research into picking your appliances, tiles, etc then pick a builder (Please please please spend your time doing this and researching their contractors licenses - the rule in our homes is no license check, they don't cross the threshold). A good builder when you get him into quote will also give you some ideas of what will work.

you can't go wrong with the basic black white grey and timber and the most cost saving ideas we use is to replace all the fixtures in the same location, check out mid range RAM taps, basic handles eg black steel or brushed chrome D handles are timeless and cheap, research all your local hardware, tile and plumbing suppliers for sale items in vanities and tiles and make that the beginning to match everything to those but first measure the spaces to know the quantities and sizes you need...do you have a plumber, tiler, waterproofer, electrician and carpenter already arranged as tradespeople will often be able to recommned suppliers and/or include their trade discounts but pick one feature lightfitting (we use old faithful paper lanterns!!) eg for an entry foyer or dining area and keep all the other lights very basic although we recently found some great pendants on sale ...best of luck with your reno