"The bathroom did not need to be larger. It needed to feel lighter." Mia's apartment bathroom measures about four square metres, and the old fit-out fought it the whole way: oversized dark tiles, a bulky framed shower, one small window. Moving plumbing in an apartment costs a fortune, so every fixture stayed put. The tiles did the transforming.
Work with the footprint, not against it
Mia's rule was simple: no layout changes, no relocated drains, no strata drama. Brighter, cleaner and visually larger had to come from the surfaces, which in a room this size means the floor and the walls are the whole renovation.
Two samples, one nervous combination
Terrazzo floor with a small-format wall tile is a busy combination on paper, and Mia was not sure the two would sit together. So she ordered both samples and stood them against the existing vanity: the Lorne White Terrazzo flat on the floor, the gloss grey mini subway held against the wall. Together in the actual light, the pairing calmed right down.
How the room came together
The Lorne White Terrazzo gives the floor detail without noise. The Esperance Gloss Mini Subway Grey runs up the walls, higher than the old tiling did, and its gloss surface bounces the window light into the corners. The framed shower went, replaced by a frameless screen, and a floating white vanity opened up the floor line so more terrazzo shows.
Same footprint, same plumbing, completely different room from the doorway.
How to run the light test is in how to test a tile sample at home, and the quantity maths is in how many tiles you actually need.