Yes, a cloakroom is just a polite name for a toilet room. When we bought our first home, much of the interior looked like it hadn’t been updated in 30 years. We tackled the bedrooms and main living spaces first, so the cloakroom wasn’t a priority. When I finally got around to it, here’s what I did on a DIY budget.
The room looked tired: floral tiles, pink cloud-patterned wallpaper and exposed pipework that I found irritating. My first attempt was to strip the wallpaper and cover the tiles with stickers, but the dark green I picked made the small room feel heavy, and the tiles were a bit translucent so the old pattern still showed through.
I settled on a pale off-white with a hint of blue—Crown Seldom Seen—and it made the walls feel bright and clean. A fresh coat of paint on the pipes helped them blend in, and we swapped the toilet seat for a nicer grey that matched the scheme. When we had the kitchen and hallway done, we paid a little extra to carry the same flooring into the cloakroom, which made a huge difference.
For the tiles, I found 12″ by 12″ peel-and-stick options on Amazon that look and feel like real tiles. A pack cost £26.99 and I had two sheets left over from around the sink. They come in several colours; I liked the duck-egg shade, but chose white with grey grout. Using stickers saved a lot compared to re-tiling and worked perfectly for this small room.
All told, the makeover cost under £50. I added pictures I already owned and inexpensive shelves I picked up from B&M. One of the prints—a picture of tits from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust—makes me laugh and helps us identify birds we see in the garden; it will move to the garden room when that’s finished. It’s amazing what a difference a little effort and a small budget can make. If you like before-and-after stories, check out Noah’s bedroom reveal where I freshened things up with a bit of paint.
