Putting a bathroom on a balcony – a Mediterranean project

Like many Cyprus houses built approximately 15 years ago, ours had a balcony which was rather more decorative than useful.  It was accessed by a door from the landing, with a window from the main bedroom. But it really lent itself to making a great ensuite so we designed and constructed a timber framed, insulated room with a pitched pantiled roof, making the bedroom window into a doorway and retaining the door off the landing as a floor length window.

In hindsight (a wonderful thing) we should have knocked out the pilasters and rail of the balcony and started from scratch, rather than enclosing it as part of the structure – see the photo gallery below. There were some knock-on effects, causing much head-scratching and loud mutterings. However it’s all about finding the best possible solution that will not cause another problem (!) and having years of building and bathroom installation experience definitely helped.

The bathroom also offered another opportunity to showcase Persian Glazes tiles. Of course, there are endless permutations  to choose from, but surprisingly the two of us agreed on this Ripple design quite quickly. Bucephalus the fairground horse seems to be nodding too.

We used Sherwin Williams ‘Retiring Blue’ paint to which we added white to make it more subtle, with ‘Mariner’ for the mirror and to frame the bed head. The antiqued brass lights manage to look classic and contemporary at the same time and were a lucky find, considering they were also in the sale!

Well, it was blood, sweat and tears and a learning curve – but it’s a beautiful room, and makes such a difference when friends and family come to stay. Not to mention having a second bathroom will increase the value of the house by a good deal more than it cost, so a very sound investment all round.