Remodel and Reveal—Tips For A Fun Bathroom
Since we moved into our house, we have remodeled the master bath, master closet, complete kitchen, and outside patio areas.
We just completed our last big project for a while last year. The guest (main) bathroom! When we first moved in the walls were covered in wallpaper that had little green and pink flowers. Uh, NO. One of the first things I did was to remove that paper and paint the room.
This was very vanilla but it worked for a while. What were the things I didn’t like?
- The sink was really hard to keep clean with all the design.
- The shower ceiling was very low due to the soffit. We are a very tall family.
- The cabinets were cheap stock cabinets with plastice handles.
- The shower surround was just 70s slab waterproof paneling.
- Florescent lights…argh.
After a while I really wanted to do something to jazz it up a bit but I didn’t have the money at the time to do a whole remodel. Other things took priority. So, as my favorite tv shows are the HGTV house and home shows, I did a $100 redo.
First, I painted the walls. Creamy white with an accent wall of blue/gray. Then I got new handles for the cabinets to make that look better. I took down the cabinet above the toilet and put up a nicer shelf unit. I added a towel rack and some new bath accessories and Shazam! It looked so much better.
However, it still didn’t solve the problems of the low shower ceiling, weird sink, plastic shower paneling, and cheap cabinets.
Speed foward to last year. We finally got the chance to do a complete remake. We gutted the room. The florescent lights came down, the shower soffit demolished and the old tiles removed. We were down to the bare studs. I wanted to raise the ceiling so we had to reroute a couple of pipes but it worked. I was waffling on what design I wanted but then –thanks again HGTV–I saw a show about reusing old stuff for a new purpose. LOVE IT…anyway, my husband and I went to scavenge for stuff at a salvage store.
We found some old rusted gears, chains and pipes. Bingo–steampuck industrial!
My husband didn’t know he was going to make our new lights but he did a great job. He used some saw blades, rusted chains and three regular hanging lamp kits to create our chandelier.
Super cool and industrial.
Then he created the over-the-mirror lights out of plumbing pipes and mason jars.
Then it was my turn to chose the rest of the items (cabinets, flooring, tiles etc.). Again, I went to Ikea for the cabinets. Then have such great cabinets and storage solutions. I choose a hanging style of cabinet with a tall storage unit for beside it. It was the Godmorgan style. We found a really cool mirror in the same finish and a vessel sink and faucet too.
Next I went searching for tiles and countertops. I found a large marble-like porcelin tile with brownish veins and some penny tile that had an industrial look. We ordered a very deep tub from Kohler–again tall people live here with long legs. Ultimately, I couldn’t really change the footprint of the space but I changed everything else. I choose a restful, greenish color for the wall and some amazing tiles for the floor. Okay, I admit I splurged on the floor tiles. It is a wood-look, textured tile that was a bit more money but I justified it by saying it was a small space and I wanted it nice for guests. (wink)
All together it was so pretty and unusual. We get compliments about it all the time. I was very pleased by the final outcome.
The question: Is remodeling of kitchens and bathrooms worth the cost? Yes, we have added about $50,000 of equity to our house by the remodels we have done over the last 6 years. Are we done? Haha, probably not.
Let me know what you think or ask a question and I will try to answer it.