The Adored Abode

Last I posted a dedicated post on the bathroom, we had gutted everything (except the tub), added cement board to the shower, and patched the walls where the wallpaper removal damaged the walls.

Since then we have done so much – we are finally done!!

Sources are at the bottom of this post for your reference.

What we’ve accomplished since my last update:

• Shower cement board was waterproofed
• Added cement board to the floor
• Installed LOTS of tile on the shower, walls, and floor
• Installed the vanity
• Installed the toilet
• Installed the trim
• Installed the plumbing fixtures on the tub & sink
• De-hazed the tile
• Sealed the grout (shower, walls, and floor)
• Changed the hardware on the vanity
• Installed towels hooks
• Installed mirror
• Installed art
• Installed the shower curtain & curtain

The tile took us so long. We are not professionals. We have only done a few other tile projects before and this was by far the biggest undertaking. We learned A LOT as we went. We made a bunch of mistakes, fixed those mistakes, and finally finished tiling! The tiling took us months (about 3 months) of working on it only one day a weekend, if we were lucky. We stretched the work out and weren’t in a rush. To give you perspective the tile took us months, but we accomplished everything past the 3^rd bullet above in a matter of 2 weeks.

We are fortunate to have 1 full and 1 half bathroom downstairs so we weren’t relying on this bathroom, unless we had guests come – then they just had to use the ones downstairs! One of my best friends has stayed with us at least 2 times while this bathroom (our only full guest bathroom) was gutted. She recently stayed with us again and was so happy to show her the new bathroom she was able to use while she was here!

It feels so good to walk upstairs and see our newly finished bathroom at the end of the hall. Now I just need to prioritize the time to take a nice relaxing bubble bath upstairs!

THE BEFORE

Our bathroom from before was functional, but straight from 1980. It felt dirty – though temporarily painting the linoleum floor, the vanity and the vanity countertop helped those were only short-term fixes. We knew when we bought our home that this bathroom would need to be completely reimagined, just like the rest of the house! During demo we ended up finding second (original?) layer of pixelated flower wallpaper under the larger scale floral wallpaper!

THE AFTER

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VANITY

The vanity (the one we have is out of stock, but this is similar) is a major upgrade from the previous one. The highlight for me? It is now normal height! The previous vanity was so short! Just like the 2 other vanities that were original to our house. I’m not so tall (5’4”), but I even had to bend over far just to wash my face. The vanity top is a pretty marble – like our powder room, and what we plan to use in our master bathroom too. The widespread faucet was something I had purchased for our powder room renovation, but when we had a last-minute change on the vanity that only had a 4-inch center-spread we couldn’t use it, but I loved it so much I saved it for this bathroom. It does not disappoint. The quality is amazing, and my favorite detail are the hot and cold knobs.

FLOOR TILE

I have loved basket weave flooring for a long time and was very excited we found an affordable option to use in this bathroom! The tile was easy to install – once we figured out how to get the lines going straight and level to align with the other fixtures and walls.

WALL TILE & SHOWER NICHE

The subway tile is really the star of the show, in my opinion. Maybe that’s because we spent so much time on it so I can’t help but feel proud. Though we went with simple, white subway tile we did it in a big impact way by adding tile all the way around the room. This is a classic look that I am sure I won’t tire of anytime soon. We added a niche to the shower and I just love the extra detail, it makes the shower feel much more custom. We had originally planned to add tile up the angled wall of the ceiling above the shower, but to be honest once we got started with the tile it felt like way too much for our abilities, so we changed courses and added a half wall of tile all around the room instead. I am happy we made this change because I think this will be super functional for us since this is currently the bathroom we give the dogs baths in and will be the bathroom for our future kids.

 LIGHTING, MIRROR & ACCESSORIES

The accessory details really bring a room to life.

We reused the original lights as a nod to our home’s history. I was hesitant about this decision at first, but they really fit perfectly with the overall design and feel fresh surrounded by all the new elements.

The mirror was a find from a local vintage shop. It’s taller than a typical mirror you see in a bathroom, but it really draws your eye up to the vaulted ceilings.

The cute bum print I found when we first started this renovation and knew it had to be included. Then I shopped my house and knew the smaller green-toned piece by Laurie Ann Art would be perfect above it.

The towel hook rack used to live in our “mud room” until we added the board and batten with these modern wood wall hooks, so I repurposed this metal hook rack for the bathroom since it was the perfect size for the wall.

The shower knobs are a close match to the faucet we used.

The medicine tin is a metal tin I added electrical tape to – inspired by Erin from The Heart and Haven. A super easy Ikea hack!

I chose to change the brushed nickel vanity cabinet hardware that came with the vanity to these knobs and this pull. The top “drawer” of the vanity is really just a façade, not an actual drawer, but since the vanity originally came with a pull there we swapped it out to cover up the existing holes.

The extra tall curtain is one of my favorite details of the entire bathroom. I love that is draws your eye up to the sky light. I was inspired by Sarah from Room for Tuesday and used regular curtains from Ikea instead of a shower curtain to get some extra length. I mounted the brass shower curtain rod at about 90 inches and hemmed the curtains appropriately (using my no sew method). I added a regular shower curtain liner behind the curtains for water spray.

ANY REGRETS?

We did keep the original tub because it is in fine shape, though now I wish we had thought more about replacing it while we had the rest of the room ripped up. The tub is plastic and now it feels like it sticks out a bit to me compared to all of the other new elements. This is not something we will be changing.

The shower head, while really pretty, is actually meant to be a rain shower head mounted from above, which I did not realize until after we installed it. The water doesn’t “shoot outward” like most normal shower heads. We may change the shower head down the road, but for now it’s staying.

WHAT’S LEFT?

I know this is the reveal, but there are two things I did not finalize for the reveal of the bathroom; a rug and a toilet paper holder.

I have bought 3 toilet paper holders and did not love any of them in the space. For now, the toilet paper will live on the back of the toilet (not pictured).

I really want a vintage rug for this space. I have looked for months (seriously) and haven’t found one in my budget than will work well for in front of the vanity.

I know I will eventually find the right toilet paper holder and rug. I didn’t want to rush it for the sake of the reveal.

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Overall, I am beyond happy with how this bathroom turned out, it’s even better than I imagined!! I still pinch myself that this is a bathroom in our house.

SOURCES

floor tile // wall tile // vanity (similar) // cabinet pull // cabinet knobs // faucet // shower knobs // shower head // shower curtain // metal wall hook rack // toilet // bum print (similar) // lady print (similar) // floating frame // medicine tin // hand towel // bath towel // stool // faux planter // wall paint color: Blue Springs by Benjamin More