See Stunning Before-and-After Photos of the 'Castle Impossible' Bathing Chamber Renovation

When undertaking a whole-home renovation, updating a bathroom may seem de rigueur to most, but not so much when the whole house you’re renovating happens to be a French chateau built in the 1700s.

As they’ve been proving on their new show, Castle Impossible, not much intimidates Ian and Daphne Fig when they set their minds to something. However, they knew that creating a bathroom that honored the chateau while also providing modern-day amenities would be filled with challenges.

A Room With a View

Daphne and Ian started by deciding which space made the most sense to renovate and quickly chose a generously sized room on the second floor that overlooks the beautiful gardens. Daphne explained that it was not uncommon for toilets and bathtubs to be located in separate spaces in homes of this size, so her goal was to create a serene and luxurious “bathing chamber” here, with the room solely dedicated to taking a bath. In other words, there was no toilet here for a reason. However, since the chateau dates back to the times when chambermaids would hand-carry hot water to the bathroom, there was also no plumbing in this room, so they first needed to ensure that plumbing pipes could be installed here. After Ian located a hot water heater close enough to the new space to be able to make this happen, they were off to the races.

If These Walls Could Talk

Unfortunately, the walls of the bathing chamber were crumbling from decades of neglect, so Daphne called in her artist friend, Chelsea Leigh, for backup. Together, they tackled the not-at-all glamorous job of scraping the paint and restoring the original wall paneling to ready the room for Chelsea’s artistic touch. Daphne explained to Chelsea that she envisioned guests luxuriating in the tub as they looked out over the chateau’s gardens, so she hoped to create a space that complemented this vision. Chelsea came up with a stunning botanical mural that the two friends traced and then painted on the walls, creating a beautiful handmade detail that will also remind Daphne of her friend’s help and talent for years to come.

The Secret Passage

The chateau is filled with twists and turns, and I’m not just referring to the progress of the renovation. There is an actual secret passageway that connects the bathing chamber to a future bedroom suite that was too cool for Ian to pass up the opportunity to play with. Relying on his ever-present can-do attitude, Ian came up with a design for a secret door disguised as a bookcase that opens by pulling on a faux book. After locating a discarded antique bookshelf in a storage shed on the property, Ian customized it to fit the secret passage doorway. Once that was in place, Ian then got to work adding a forest-themed wallpaper to the passageway walls, creating a cohesive path from the garden-inspired bathing chamber to the future bedroom suite.

Soaking It In

Of course, no bathing chamber would be complete without a regal bathtub, but the budget on this renovation was extremely tight, requiring Ian and Daphne to get creative. Luckily, the 100-acre-plus estate is an endless treasure trove, and Daphne recalled seeing an old bathtub stashed in a shed at one point. Sure enough, Ian came across a cast-iron bathtub that, to put it mildly, had seen better days. With some elbow grease and some super high-grade sandpaper, Ian restored the tub to its former glory. With a fresh coat of paint to match the room’s robin’s egg blue walls and custom-mixed champagne gold paint on the claw feet, the bathtub was ready to be the star of the space.

It’s All in the Details

The bathing chamber features several details that speak to the care and thought that Daphne and Ian have placed into every design decision they make in their mission to honor the history of the chateau. In medieval times, ceiling roses were used to keep soot or dirt from accumulating on the ceiling from candle or gas-lit fixtures. While they are no longer needed for practical purposes, Ian and Daphne had a custom ceiling rose made by a British artist to add some texture and interest to the surface.

The floor-length lace curtains were also thoughtfully selected, as lace has a rich French history that dates back to the 17th century. In those times, it was thought that the higher your family’s status, the more ornate the lace would be in your home. So, what could be more fitting here than some very fancy lace?

The Pièce de (Literal) Résistance

Every star needs a spotlight, and the bathtub was no different, so Daphne set her sights on a dramatic chandelier that would anchor the bathing chamber. There was just one problem: The chandelier was too big to fit through the chateau’s doors. Instead, Daphne and Ian devised a plan that involved, as they say at the chateau, “a boat, a moat and a bloke.” In other words, they loaded the chandelier onto a boat that Ian then paddled across the moat. When they got close enough, they hooked the chandelier to a pulley system so they could pull it through the oversized bathroom windows with some help from their friend Tony — you guessed it — the bloke. After several stressful minutes, the chandelier barely made it through the windows and into the bathroom, where it was soon hung. Talk about a fairy-tale ending!