{Downstairs Bathroom} Makeover
When we built our house our budget was tight so in many spaces we did builder-grade items to cut down costs with the thought that we would upgrade room by room as our budget allowed. Our downstairs bathroom was no exception… it was pretty bland. The downstairs living space is mainly for entertainment and guest bedrooms so the bathroom isn’t used a ton. And to be honest, it really wasn’t something we needed to update right away – but I got the itch to do a project and this room seemed small enough to tackle a simple update – but as my husband can attest to there is nothing “simple” or quick when it comes to our remodels!
Here is a before shot of the space. The vanity is from Lowes (linked below) and I still really liked it (shocker I know… Chris fully expected me to replace it!) but it fit with my design idea, so I decided to keep it! The half-hazard décor was just random things from our old house that got hung up – so don’t judge me 😉
| The Design |
I knew I wanted a round mirror and thankfully those are super “in” right now, so I had no trouble finding exactly what I was looking for from Home Goods. I went with a simple wood framed mirror and planned on coordinating it with open shelves stained the same color.
For the backsplash I wanted to do half of the entire wall in tile. The process of picking tile became quite the struggle…. I originally thought I wanted to do a blue or gray tile to go with the vanity (it had a blue hue to me and I thought it might be fun to accentuate that color throughout the space). So I ordered samples from everywhere but nothing really worked. Then randomly I went to Lowe’s for a clients remodel and saw this awesome beveled gunmetal picket tile! It was a little bolder and more modern than my typically style- but I really loved it! So I bought a sample of it and left it on the bathroom counter for a few weeks just to make sure I continued to love it (aka: I got busy and it just sat there!)
| The Execution |
After procrastinating for weeks (but not really – we were slammed for months on client houses and weekend family events)… but it seemed like an eternity between picking the tile and finally getting to the point of installing! I was super pumped to get to work!
I have never installed tile on a mesh backing and to be honest: it kind of sucked! The individual tiles on the mesh kept moving, the glue squeezed out everywhere, and I quickly became unsure if this was a DIY I was qualified for 😐 . But I got through it! … However in the process of installing I realized my glue was WHITE but my tile was BLACK…this seemed like it might be an issue haha! I thought maybe the glue would just wipe off and figured I’d go back and clean the tiles once I had them all up. HUGE mistake!! The glue dried in record time (or I was incredibly slow getting all the tiles cut and installed… I chose to believe the latter 😛 ) I literally spent HOURS with a tiny chisel, a knife and a scraper picking off every ounce of visible white glue. Such a pain!!
Fun Fact: they actually make BLACK GLUE. I found that out after suffering through this experience! haha, a tough way to learn this lesson!
Once that nightmare was over then came the new obstacle to tackle: the black grout! I thought the glue part was messy… but boy was it overshadowed by this step!! In order to get grout in-between each one of those tiny tiles I really had to cake it on there and push it into the crevasses. I dropped so much on the floor, toilet, counters, and even got some in the tub (don’t ask). Cleaning the excess off was like a 20+ trip up and down the stairs to empty my grout-filled water bucket with clean water! It was a workout to say the least! But oh so worth it when I finally got to step back and see my work:
Once the tile was done, my expert shiplap installer (aka my husband, Chris) went to work installing the primed wood shiplap (from Home Depot). It took him a couple weekends (between our crazy schedules) to get it all installed. He also put up my new light fixture (linked below). Then came time to paint! I decided to spray it rather then roll it because I was using semi-gloss paint and feel like the roller/brush strokes show up more when using this sheen. Also, I never like to roll shiplap after it is installed (I typically pre-paint the boards beforehand because getting into all those grooves is challenging). I talked to the people at Sherwin Williams about getting Mildew Resistant paint (since it is a bathroom and there being moisture issues) and went with a stock white color.
The prep work for using a paint sprayer is a process (to say the least) but spraying goes SO much quicker then the alternative! Taping got a little more complicated when Chris installed the shelf brackets (above the toilet) before I painted – and typically I would not do this beforehand… but Chris had free time to install them before I got around to painting… and I never say “no” when he offers to tackle a project for me!
The freshly painted walls & ceiling brightened up the space SOOO much! Look how amazingly clean it looks:
The last steps were installing the new faucet (to replace the super cheap builder-grade one). I went with black but might eventually prove to be a mistake… we have hard water so I guess time will tell if our water softener is sufficient enough to not stain it!
We made the shelves out of scrap wood. Chris routered the edges and we stained them a red oak color to match the mirror. Then we put a couple coats of sealer on them- to again combat any moister. We got the shelf brackets from Etsy (linked below) but the only bummer was there was no way to screw the shelf boards to the brackets and they moved around a lot (which wasn’t going to work with all the glass/pottery I was planning to accessorize with!). We ended up using a heavy-duty double sided tape to secure them… so again time will tell if this works or not?!
| The Reveal |
And here it is all put together! It took us a few months to get it to this point – but it never gets old walking by this room and seeing our finished product. Love it so much!
Another project completed at the Kottong Homestead! Can not wait to tackle the next one!! Below are links to most everything I used in the space! If you have questions you can find me on Instagram @mkdecorating
Just for fun a quick before and after shot:
