One of our big projects this winter has been to give our main bathroom a much-needed face lift. I've hated this bathroom since I bought this house nearly 9 years ago, but since it was mainly a cosmetic issue, it ended up pretty low on the priority list.
When I first moved in, the bathroom had 1960's aqua-blue tiles on the lower half of the walls, with hideous pink and blue sponge painting on the upper half of the walls. Really. Ugly. To make it tolerable while we waited to fully renovate, I painted over the tile and sponge painting, which was definitely an improvement. But in my desire to escape the onslaught of pink and blue, I went a little ~too~ neutral, so for 8 years we've lived with this very bland and boring bathroom. We definitely needed to do something with this space. Here are some "Before" pics...
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| Before. ~yawn~ |
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| Before, with the aqua tile painted beige |
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Before. Note the broken drawer in the vanity, and the sink that
is off-center from the mirror. This off-center sink drove
me MAD for almost 9 years. Seriously. Who does that!? |
This project was finally kick-started due to a plumbing problem we had in the fall, which required our plumber to cut a big hole in the wall. We figured since the demolition was already started, we might as well go all the way.
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| So it begins... |
We pried all the old tiles off the walls, and pulled out the old vanity and mirror...
Next, we had a carpenter come in to install bead board, trim and baseboards. We thought about doing this ourselves, but worried it was beyond our skill set, so we decided it was best to call in a professional. We're very glad we did. Nothing in our old home is square, so we'd have probably made a mess of things.
Once the carpenter finished, we painted the walls green and the bead board and trim a creamy white. After years of boring beige, it was fun to get a little color in here.
After we put in new light fixtures and the plumber installed the new sink, we were ready for the final touches on our new bathroom!
(**Drumroll.... **)
Ta-da!
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Shower curtain, from Target,
which inspired our color scheme. |
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Found this fun reproduction antique TP holder
on Ebay... it says "London Paper Co" |
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Old ladder to hold towels, and a cute little
sign I found in a clearance bin. I think
"I will be Grateful for this day" is a great
message for us all to look at as we wash
up each morning and prepare for our day |
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Shelves made from a stack of old crates to
hold necessities like wash cloths, Qtips,
cotton balls, epsom salts, etc. |
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The wood boxes under the sink hold
cleaning supplies, while the big jar
holds assorted handmade soaps. |
I'm really happy with how this room turned out. It suits our casual style, and feels like it "fits" much better in our 1890's house. Since we reused much of what was there already (tub, toilet and tile floor were all left as-is) we were able to get this done pretty cheap.
So here's something... this renovation is a milestone of sorts. It took nearly 9 years, but we've finally redone every room in the house... this bathroom was the last one. But now, some of the rooms we did early on are starting to look a bit ragged again... nothing too major, but definitely needing a little patching and repainting. When I bought my first house, someone told me that your home is never really "done"... there is always something else that comes up. They weren't kidding!
But all that can wait for the time being. We're taking a little breather on home projects, now that the bathroom is finished. We're enjoying a nice "snow day" today, and after the weekend we'll be getting ready for Maple Sugaring Season! I can't wait!
