Don’t you just love a room makeover story?
Having a third private double room has been part of the plan since we moved into the lodge. It just wasn’t at the top of the renovation priorities, and if I’m being totally honest, achievable with our budget at the time. Thankfully Surfiberia has been going from strength to strength, which means we can happily announce the addition of “Thurso”. A cosy double room with calming, duck egg blue walls and our most exquisite en-suite yet.
It was the very opposite of that appealing description to begin with however. The room needed a lot of work, the walls had to be chipped back, just like the renovation of our other double room “Fistral”, and freshly cemented. A new window needed to be fitted as there was a gap around the edges exposing the room to the elements, a new floor had to be laid and the en-suite bathroom needed gutting. The hallway leading to the room also needed chipping back and re-cementing and the hallway floor was due a facelift.
Without further ado, here are the before photos of our new room makeover:
Stage Two
Freshly cemented walls:
Stage Three
Plastering the walls.
Firstly I just want to say, thank God for Youtube. It’s a DIY room makeover saviour. You can literally learn how to do anything on Youtube. It’s amazing. You may not be left with a perfectly polished finished project, but who doesn’t like a bit of character?
With that being said, I will never attempt to plaster a wall that isn’t straight again. After spending hours trying to smooth the plaster over bumps and indents, and countless moments of wanting to throw the masonry trowel (yes check me out with my technical terms) across the room in a pure rage, I can safely say my plastering career firmly ended when the job was done. Huge respect for all of the plasterers out there.
Here is video evidence of my short and not sweet plastering experience:
Stage Four
New Ceilings for the bedroom and bathroom and new tiles for the bathroom walls too.
This bit we couldn’t do ourselves so for this part of the room makeover we got a professional in. The first part of fitting a false ceiling is installing the metal frame work and then plaster board is screwed into it. Also you’ll notice in the progress photos that there is a lot of clutter in the room, it was the only place we had any storage at the time so it was also acting as a room to put stuff.
The bathroom used to have a bathtub with a shower fixed to the wall. We ripped the bathtub out, made the wall even again with a layer of cement and re-tiled the walls.
Stage Five
Laying the bedroom floor, bathroom and hallway tiles.
We were now on the home run of this renovation project. Luis had laid a wooden floor once before for the dining room so he was fully prepared for the task. First the floor had to be covered with a sheet of plastic, batons were then screwed into the floor spaced 50cm apart and in the spaces we put sheets of polystyrene for insulation. On top of that went the floor boards which were screwed into the batons. Once the floor was down it was just a case of giving it a few coats of varnish and fitting skirting boards.
The tiles we chose have quite an intricate pattern on them so again we got someone qualified in tile cutting and laying to do the job. We didn’t want wonky tiles after all.
Stage Six
Painting.
The end was in sight and we loved the way it was looking.
Final Stage!
Now for the fun part.
My favourite stage of all our room makeovers is the pretty stuff. Choosing the pieces for the room, deciding the layout and adding those final touches. So without further ado, here is the finished product!
To book your stay in this delectable double check HERE for availability.
