Transformation Tales: The Main Bathroom

 

            Ready for another transformation tale from our house? This one is a bathroom renovation, so it may not be the most exciting, but I hope you enjoy!     

            When we lived in Marion, our house had a full bathroom (tub/shower combo, toilet, sink/mirror) that also housed the laundry, and then a ¾ bathroom had been added to the upstairs space. It held a shower, toilet, and sink/mirror. Ryan and I divided and conquered when it came to getting ready there. He used the full bath, and I used the ¾ bath, and it worked great for us. In every house since, we’ve had a master suite with an attached bathroom that was only for the two of us. I confess to being a little nervous about returning to a layout of all bathrooms being open for anyone to use. I am happy to report it hasn’t been an issue at all!

            The only full bathroom in our lake house has a walk-in shower, toilet, large vanity (with a single sink) and mirror. By today’s construction standards, it’s a very small bathroom, but it is completely adequate for all we need.

            When we purchased this house, the bathroom was written up as recently remodeled, and there had been some changes made, for sure. But there were still several things that weren’t so great about this bathroom.

            The flooring was actually the main problem. I liked the color and materials used, but the installation had been done poorly, and the planks ran the opposite direction of the flooring in the rest of this level. (You can't even see it in the pictures above because it was very dark brown.) The walk-in shower was fairly new and was nice. The vanity was pretty old, and the mirror above the sink was a medicine cabinet that was many, many years old. Ryan told me you could tell exactly where everyone always kept their toothbrushes, and I didn’t even bother to look after that story. The walls were cream, and the only light in the bathroom was on the ceiling over the sink – and it threw some weird shadows that made getting ready a little awkward.

            So we made some changes! We painted the walls Snowbound, just to make everything look and feel clean and fresh. We painted all the trim Naval. (this bathroom is just off the nook that we use as a dining room, so the flow of Snowbound and Naval was a natural one into this room.) These changes didn’t take much, since the room is so small, but they made a big change in looks.

            We repaired the faucet in the shower because it wasn’t working quite right. We brought our own shower head from our other house because it has a removable head on it. This will allow us to bathe Lexi a bit more easily. My parents gave us a housewarming gift of a shower caddy that is on a tension pole from floor to ceiling, and we really appreciate having that to hold all our shower supplies.

            The toilet was brand new, so it stayed. And when it came to the flooring, we just brought the same flooring we used in the dining nook right on in here. The flow was uninterrupted and the installation is much cleaner than what was there before.  

            We kept the vanity, but we painted it Naval, and it looks so sharp. It actually ended up being one of our favorite changes. We swapped the hardware for something newer and we did get a new countertop for the vanity.

            My favorite thing about this room is the new mirror. Neither of us  had any idea that plain, standard bathroom mirrors are actually really expensive. Did you know that? We shopped at several stores and couldn’t believe how much a plain old mirror (with no character) could cost!

Happily, I had a couple of gift cards to Hobby Lobby, and that is where I found the mirror we ended up choosing! It was on sale, and then I had the gift cards, and I love all the character this mirror has. Way more fun than a boring, plain mirror! The mirror is the thing we get the most comments about in this bathroom. Perfect fit.

            We used the roll of privacy cling on the window, though it isn’t a window anyone can see inside anyway. This helps mute the sun when it’s shining brightly.

            We did make a couple of lighting changes in here. We switched the overhead light to one that doesn’t cast such strange shadows, and we added a small light over the shower, because it was so dark on that side of the room without it.

            We added a little towel holder to the wall for towel storage during showers, and we painted the door snowbound on both sides, just to make the place brighter!

            The wall art we have is from previous bathroom décor. It all fit right in here perfectly. (Helps that so much of our bathroom décor already had a beachy feel to it.)

            Future plans for this room include:

·         *  Maybe adding a little more wall art on the main wall. I do still have some pieces that don’t have a home, so something may yet fit in here.

·         *  I would like to eventually get a shelf for over the toilet – more for decoration than anything else. I’ll look around at garage sales and thrift stores to see if I can find something that would work well in that space.

            The room is small, but it has worked very well for us. It also worked just fine when my sister and brother-in-law were here to stay, so that was good to learn. I appreciated the ease of sharing the space. (And by sharing the space, I don’t mean all at the same time – ha!)

            There you have it! The upgraded bathroom!