The Holy Bathtub of Dreams

Vicky has always wanted a beautiful, freestanding bath, and so we embarked on a quest to find the perfect tub.

We quickly discounted copper because we don’t have a spare bazillion pounds, and we weren’t sure about a claw-foot bath because of the gubbins underneath. Then, we discovered Lusso Stone and their stone resin bathtubs at much more reasonable (but definitely not cheap) prices.

A mix of old lime and rustic oak and sleek modern furniture would look great, we thought, so we chose a bathtub that looks a little bit like an egg.

It’s the Lusso Oasis Mini made in white stone resin, matt smooth finish, and the ends are slightly higher than the middles.

It’s 1,550mm long (rather than 1,790mm) because I’m short and feel like I’m going to drown if my feet can’t rest on one end while my head is on the other.

Then we chose two matching Soho countertop basins in the same material to go onto the upcycled sideboard we found in a local junk shop. More on that shortly.

Both the bathtub and the basins have white click-clack push wastes, so no dangly plugs.

Lusso kindly threw in the waste traps for free too.

They look amazing.

Getting the thing upstairs was quite an adventure involving a group of our friends and a lot of swearing and giggling. The bath sat in our living room for a couple of months until we’d finished putting the floor and plumbing in, then we couldn’t put it off any longer.

So Joe, Josh, Dan, Jade, and I manhandled it into the hallway, up the stairs, and into the Wonky Room.

The only casualties were Josh’s trousers, which split up the back, and a tiny chip out of the bath plinth — at the back, luckily, and which I glued back in anyway so it’s invisible.

A few days later, Joe and I shuffled it into the bathroom and popped it onto pieces of timber and towels so we could get underneath and fix all the waste plumbing together.

This was a massive pain because we couldn’t get the waste to stop leaking.

After a lot of messing around and trial and error and an enormous amount of silicone sealant and plumber’s mate, we finally fixed the leak — and settled the bath onto the floor. Where it looks stunning.

What was urgent was Vicky having a bath before Christmas.

The only thing left to do is pop it back up on a timber again so we can stick some silicone sealant on the base, to stop it moving around when it’s empty. But that’s not urgent.What was urgent was Vicky having a bath before Christmas.

Which she did.

Behold the Christmas Eve bath. Hurrrah!