FINALLY...our Master Bathroom Update!

First of all....I can't believe that my last blog post was July 8th!  That is almost two months ago and I have lots to share.  I'm going to try and stay on a once or twice a week schedule this fall.

Second....I'm finally ready to share our master bathroom update that we've been working off and on since the end of May.   I was dealing with both a herniated C7 disc and a fractured ankle during the remodel so between those things, a couple problems we encountered and coordinating with both my husband and our plumber for time, it took twice as long as I should have, but we weren't in any hurry other than having a mess on our hands in our master suite for a while.

The bathroom is pretty large, but very poorly designed, lots of wasted space.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the budget to move plumbing around, so since we couldn't do that, there was no sense in spending money on new vanities, we just needed to update the ones we have!  About six months ago we replaced our toilet with a taller model that flushes quietly, yet strong, so we didn't have to worry about replacing that.  I also decided not to replace the vanity tops as there was nothing wrong with them, they are fine and a neutral off-white, so again, no sense in replacing.

I had half assed painted the bathroom in 2005 but I only did two walls and then did a paint effect around the ceiling parameter with small square sponges.

Here's some before pictures -

 

The tall white cabinets at the end of each of the vanities were purchased at IKEA a couple of years ago and the storage they provide comes in handy. 

We were still using the cheap ass light fixtures the contractor put in (I priced them....$13 bucks a piece) and the only nice thing I'll say about them is they give off good light, but their days were numbered.

 

Our vanities, although well built didn't come with hardware, so this update job includes new hardware for both of them.

 

 

and see that ugly sheet vinyl flooring?  It's history.

I'm pretty loyal to Sherwin Williams for paint, we have a store in my small burb, they have an awesome website to check out paint colors and I like it's durability.

 

For the bathroom, I chose SW6547 Silver Peony for the walls and SW6254 Lazy Gray for the cabinets and mirror molding.   The walls were done in SW Duration Home and for the vanities I used SW ProClassic Interior Acrylic Latex Enamel.

 

Here's a list of the things that we did -

 

1.  Painted the ENTIRE bathroom this time rather than just two walls.

2.  Painted both vanities and added hardware.

3.  Painted molding and framed both plate glass mirrors above the vanities.

4.  Replaced the light fixtures.

5.  Replaced the faucets.

6.  Took down the two towels rods and installed a bar of towel hooks instead.

7.  Replaced our shower head with a rain shower head and bought a new corner shower caddy.

8.  Installed new light switch plates.

7.  Installed new flooring.

 

Here's a few progress pictures of the priming, painting, installing, etc. that happened over couple of months.

 

 

I lined all of the drawers and the bottom of the vanities with really cute paper I found at the Dollar General for $2 bucks a roll.

A closer look at the light fixture.  THAT gave us a bunch of issues from me not finding anything I liked to having an electrical issue spring up after we took down the original fixtures that needed to be corrected.  After searching for several weeks on the internet for lighting with no success, I finally went back to Lowe's where I had seen a section in their lighting department that was a "build your own" type thing and I found the right size fixture in the right finish and the perfect glass globes.  I wanted clear and I love that these are seeded.

 

The flooring was a whole another issue.....my husband was dragging his feet for weeks on this, so I compromised and said it could wait until I returned from a girl's retreat in Colorado.  The weekend after I came home, we started and although just a couple spots that were tricky, we were both surprised how easy and quick it went down.  Total time = about six hours which included breaks.

This is fabulous flooring if your not looking to use ceramic tile in a room that gets moisture.  It's vinyl plank flooring and I found it online at Home Depot.  The product is TrafficMASTER Allure and it comes in 6" x 36" planks.  The online reviews were what convinced me to use it, plus it was affordable, especially when DIYing it.

 

There's my handsome husband.  :)  

 

 

Here's the finished product!!! 

 

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out since I couldn't have the 20K luxury gut job I would have liked to have. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The faucets were found at ATG Stores online and the vanity hardware at Menards.  Funny story about the hardware.  I ended up picking the exact same knobs as I did when we added hardware to our kitchen cabinets.

 

 

I'm not completely happy with the shower curtain I found, but it will do for now.  The picture on the left shows the color brighter than it really is, it's definitely more of a muted lavender.  The print above the toilet I found at ArtFest Midwest earlier this summer and framed it using a discounted brushed silver frame from Michaels.

 

I also made the decision to get rid of the two towel bars.  One was over the toilet where the framed print is now and the other was over on the wall where the tower hook bar now hangs.  That space is really completely wasted, so I thought we might as well take advantage of it and just hang our towels.

 

Want know how much we put into our update?  Here's the breakdown (round up or down):

 

1. Paint and Primer = $157.00
2. Light Fixtures = $116.00
3. Bathroom Faucets = $178.00
4. Curved shower rod, shower curtain, showerhead and shower caddy = $122.00
5. Framing the mirrors = $45.00
6. Vanity hardware = $29.00
7. Light Switch plates = $24.00
8. Bath Rugs (IKEA) = $30.00
9. Flooring = $168.00
10. Miscellanous = $40.00
11. New linens (Target) = $85.00

For a grand total of $994.00

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what took quite a bit of my time this summer!