Making a rather manky loo look nicer

[GrendelsMum]

I'm trying to work out how much we really need to do to our rather manky loo.

It currently looks somewhat grubby and unpleasant, as follows:

• It is small, with a slopey attic type ceiling.
• It has a stained pink carpet.
• It has various rawlplugs etc showing in the walls where the previous owner removed her net curtains and cabinets
• It is painted custard yellow
• The sink is difficult to clean (corner sink and you can't get in to clean behind the taps properly), and the taps are covered in lime scale that I haven't managed to remove
• The splashback looks like it has the cheapest white tiles that were on offer in B&Q that day
• The loo itself is elderly. The cistern is absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned but I'm starting to dispair at getting the bowl clean of limescale. Even when I do get the limescale off, it seems to reappear immediately.
• The soil pipe is just vast. It looks like the Victorian original, and is huge. The previous owner tried to hide it with equally vast boxing in, which they then extended all along one wall of the tiny toilet, so DH has to pee pressed up against the boxing.
• The lightshade is not very nice (bobbly bathroom globe type), but hey, that's nothing in comparison to the rest of it.

Now, we could rip out the whole thing and start again, but because of the soil pipe, this will be suprrisingly complicated, and may involve replacing and making good the whole soil pipe, which is incredibly ugly on the back of the house, but will also cost about £1200 ALONE.

How much do you think we could get away with, if we leave the loo and the vast soil pipe in place?

Rip out the carpet and its bathroom smells. Replace with a few packs of those lino tiles.

Ignore the soil pipe. Remove rawplugs then fill holes. Paint the walls and the boxed in pipes in white to freshen it all up.

Get some heavy duty rubber gloves, some old toothbrushes, scourers, and a bottle of the strongest toilet cleaner you can get. Scrub away at all the limescale relentlessly. Don't stop til it's gone.

That should make it look less manky.

What wellies said
Get tough with your limescale and get rid, then you want to buy some cheap denture cleaning tablets (about 60p a tube) and put a couple in every couple of days and brush around. We live in such a hard water area, within a week we have badly stained toilets if we dont do this. They work a treat.
I like harpic limescale remover to clean the loo with as well, biut you need to leave it for at least an hour too kill the germs and eat through the limescale.

I can spell honestly I've just been at the harpic too much!

I think you should go for a more subtle look, get some of those mosaic type tiles for above the washbasin, paint it a nice farrow and ball type colour, get a bit of laminate look lino for the floor. Oh and for the limescale, I think H&S do a magical cure, at least I think that's what it's called. Hth.

Go industrial chic - remove the boxing paint the soil pipe gun metal grey, rip out the carpet, replace with slate effect Lino
Paint the Walls chalky White
New cool light
Clean and minimal as far as possible
Don't fight what you've got, minimise where possible

Google traditional limescale removers and try them,
Fill and sand the Walls before painting.
Pull off the splashback and add something a bit cool and clean m.diy.com/mt/www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=10247502&fh_location=catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C%7B9372013%7D/categories%3C%7B9372031%7D/categories%3C%7B9372101%7D/specificationsProductType=border_tiles/specificationsSpecificProductType=plain&un_jtt_redirect

Oooh, thank you evryone.

You mean to say I actually just have to scrub the bloody thing . OK, I shall get some marigolds and clean like mad. And then I shall go back to the denture tablets - I have tried them before but they've never really done the job.

I love the idea of industrial chic with the soil pipe, and having an emphasis on clean and minimal. I think I might rip out the boxing this weekend and see what it looks like.

Do you think industrial chic goes with mosaic tiles? We do actually have some purple mosaic tiles left over from another job... rather like these ones: www.toppstiles.co.uk/tprod4581/section1249/Amethyst-Jewel-20x20mm-Mosaic.html

Using Ecovert toilet cleaner will clear old stains over a few days without needing scrubbers and Marigolds, and it might work to replace or cover the boxing with light-reflecting wallpaper.
I appreciate you're thinking of industrial chic, but a very small bathroom can feel cosy rather than cramped by putting down a new fitted carpet.

Ooh yes, loving industrial chic! But don't try and match/theme it toooo much or it could look dated fast. Just an understated and interesting colour on the walls, forget the mosaic if the pipe is your eye-catcher.

I think you should embrace the fact its old fashioned and once its all clean and prepped (and tiles removed), get some wild, OTT wallpaper up on the walls, perhaps will glass over it above the sink.
Dont box in the soil pipe but perhaps hide it with a bin or basket of loo roll?
And yes new flooring, as always I would suggest Marmoleum, perhaps in tile format?

Perhaps something like this for the walls?

[http://www.katyelliott.com/blog/2009/07/lotus-papers-by-farrow-ball.html]]

And perhaps consider replacing the loo, not the cistern just the bowl if this one is beyond help...

Also if the basin is a nightmare to clean you could change it, shouldnt cost too much, and replace with a nice fresh new basin which is easier to clean, perhaps with intergral hand rail.
www.astonmatthews.co.uk/cloakroom/range.asp?0,0,0,91,10

wallplugs and paint is extremely easy.

Dont try to pull them out. Put a long scew in them and tap it with a hammer. The screw will sink into the plug and the plug will sink into the wall. When it is a quarter-inch or so below the surface, withdraw the screw using a screwdriver (btw this is also the best way to fit a plug in the first place as it reduces risk of cracking the plaster)

wash down the walls with sugar soap, then rinse off several times. If the old paint is silk or gloss take the shine off with extra fine sandpaper; use filler on all the holes and cracks, smooth flat and remove all dust (dry). Patch-prime all bare plaster or new filler with diluted emulsion; when dry give a couple of coats of your new preferred colour.

cover all sanitary ware to prevent drips or splashes of paint. You can take off the cistern lid to paint behind it (it will be dirty there) and remember to cover the WC pan, you don't want paint drips inside it.

p.s. you can paint plastic waste-pipes and soil-pipes with non-drip gloss (no undercoat but clean them very thoroughly with a kitchen scourer). If you remove boxing-in you will create a path for draughts, but you can stuff soft loft insulation into the duct or hole round the pipes.

Similar situation here. This is what we did:
Re-grouted floor tiles (you could rip up carpet and use laminate tiles/wood/sand boards and paint floor)
Wallpapered the Walls with 2 rolls of fancy Laura Ashley bird print paper.
New light
Scrubbed loo and fitted new cistern handle & walnut loo seat.
New taps & waste on corner basin, new bottle trap underneath.
Nice new loo roll holder & towel ring
1 30x30cm tile cut in half and used as splashback behind corner sink, half each side of the corner if you know what I mean
New light switch
Painted woodwork & ceiling

Looks 1000% better and only took one weekend :)

If you don't fancy the cleaning could you hire a specialist cleaning company for a couple of hours?

Cilit bang the limescale- no scrubbing required...

Why nor do as the previous owners here did: cover enormous soil pipe in brown paper and add palm tree leaves at top. Paint walls yellow/ blue and stencil on fish. Then fill the scrotty area behind toilet with gravel. TA DA a beach.

small- Its still there- its the downstairs loo so I am just ignoring ip. To be fair, DS loves it!

I like both the loos in the photos on this link, both a bit over done but quite glam
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/interiors/soak-up-the-style-how-to-make-the-most-of-your-bathroom-2231712.html

Oh, thank you everyone! Some of those in Pannacotta's link are just gorgeous! I think that Aftereight has made some very good points about there being lots of small changes that all together add up to a big difference.

And I have to say I've been laughing throughout the day at GlitterKitty's suggestion.

Especial thanks to PigletJohn for explaining how to deal with the rawlplugs.

I think the room is actually so small that it can't take a lovely bold wallpaper, as your nose would be about 10cm from it (the room is slotted in under the narrow stairs, so it really is poky). I liked the idea in one of Pannacotta's pictures of having a wonderful Venetian mirror behind the cistern, if I can find one narrow enough.

I'm going to attack the boxing in this weekend and see how bad it really looks without it. And will attack the limescale while I'm at it.