Before After
When we purchased our home, I knew that renovating the upstairs bathroom needed to be at the top of our “To Do” list. I think the previous owners must’ve designed that bathroom with little kids in mind, because everything was so miniature! The bathroom is shared by our teenage girls, so I wanted to give it a sleek, grown up vibe, without being too boring (because of course, they think 99% of my style is boring)
I fell in love with this Merola tile a few months before the remodel, and knew that I’d want to use this in both the girls’ bathroom, and someday in our downstairs bath, whenever we decide to tackle that project. I also knew that their current vanity had to go – it came up to the girls’ waist, and the storage was essentially useless since the pipes underneath blocked a lot of the space. After some debate, we settled on this vanity, and upgraded it to include the natural cararra marble top.
Helpful tip – we didn’t think we could get away with a larger vanity, but I laid out painter’s tape in the new dimensions of the vanity, both on the wall and floor, which helped us visualize how the new size would look.
bathroom inspiration
Once we had the essentials picked out, it was time to demo. One of the things I really love most about DIY projects is getting the girls involved and teaching them how to do the work. Sometimes they are into it, and sometimes they aren’t, and that’s totally okay with me. If anything, I just like for them to learn how to be handy in a variety of areas, so one day when they are off living on their own they’ll be able to hang a picture, install a light fixture, assemble a piece of furniture, or do whatever project is. I want them to be independent and capable of getting by on their own!
Ok, back to demo….we pulled out the baseboards, spent about 1 1/2 days hammering and pulling up the old tile, and then cleared it all out (buh-bye tiny toilet and tiny sink) Removing tile is seriously a pain – I for sure thought I’d have all the tile up within two hours, and I was very, very, very wrong.
My dad spent the weekend laying out and grouting the pretty tile out for me, and after hovering for the first 20 minutes (helllllloooo OCD), I forced myself to walk away and wait to see the end result. He did an incredible job, and I love that our families are so involved in helping us with these projects – it not only helps cut back on the cost, but it makes us appreciate our home so much more.
When the floors were done, the new baseboards went in (I thought we could keep the old baseboards, I was wrong because they were ugly, so we upgraded the baseboards to match the ones we used in the downstairs) and our friend came to install the new sink and faucet (thanks Mike Gray!) I decided to keep the existing shelves that were already above the toilet, hung the new mirror up, and installed the new light fixture. Since we went with bronze and gold metals, the silver knobs on the vanity didn’t match. I made my 287th trip to Lowe’s and picked up a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, and that small change pulled the whole look together. I also swapped out their shower curtain hardware for a bronze rod and bronze hooks…one day I’d like to change the hardware in the shower, but for now the silver is fine.
We’ve done a few other projects since this bathroom, but this is still one of my favorite rooms in the house!
renovation pictures
Autumn helping love! painted the knobs
all materials used
