It definitely does not fall into the category of out dated. But being the avid "pinner" that I am lately (I blame the whole "stay at home mom" thing) I have become obsessed with doing DIY projects around my home to make it more appealing and with the times.
Our powder room seemed like a good place to set my creative juices free. It isn't too big, it is on the main floor, there were many ideas I had that could make it look more modern in a decent price range. Done. The powder room it is!
First I began with prying the baseboards off the wall. Just one random day during the holiday break. A little due to the fact that I was bored, and a little due to the fact that my husband was home and this way I could force him into helping me. Smart! He, on the other hand, hates when I do this...
Here is a photo of the bathroom BEFORE. Please excuse the training potty and baby pants on the floor. (you can't see it well, but there is a wall to wall mirror above the vanity)
The entire wall was consumed by a large over sized mirror and a set of 80's lighting. Which is funny because our townhouse was built in 2003... go figure. So first off, these two main items needed to go. Luckily my husband is an electrician ::happy dance:: so he is more then qualified to change lights and redo wiring if necessary. Ladies, tradesmen is where to go to find your husband. Trust me!
BYE BYE MIRROR...
Removing that size of a mirror took some studying. First I covered the entire mirror with packing tape, as to avoid any shards of glass cutting us if the mirror were to break. Highly recommend not skipping this step if you intend on removing a glued mirror from your wall. Thankfully our mirror did not crack or break in the process of removal. Perfect, no seven years bad luck. It did however take two people to get it off the wall as it was extremely heavy. After it was all taped up, we inserted wood shims in behind the edge of the mirror to slowly allow the glue to separate from the drywall. After about ten minutes of adding shims and moving them around, the mirror was completely separate from the wall and we were able to take it out of the bathroom. Now, I have this giant 4x6 foot mirror sitting in my living room waiting for another DIY project to become of it. My poor husband. (see end of blog post for what I did with the mirror).
NO MORE OLD VANITY...
The next to go was the wall to wall custom vanity. I wasn't a fan of the counter top, or the fact that it went over the back of the toilet. With some screws removed and my husbands muscle, he basically just ripped the counter and vanity from the wall. Now we were mirror-less, light-less, counter and sink-less.
FLOORS...
Up came the toilet, so we could take out the lino flooring and replace it will a heavy duty vinyl tile. The style where it comes in a strip that interlock together with glue. We had already redone our master bathroom with this flooring and loved how simple it was to install and how great the final product looked. We even decided to use the same color in the powder room a well. A warm beige tone. The original floor was ripped up easily and the new floor was installed within two or three hours. Yep, that's how we roll. Having done this type of flooring once before we new what we were doing and didn't have too much square footage to cover, or it would have taken a lot longer. Thank you small bathroom for that.
ACCENT WALLS...
Recently, I have fallen in love... With board and batten molding (or batten and board, whichever is the correct one) There are many different styles, and I just knew that I had to incorporate it into the powder room. Making a small room feel more modern with simple molding seemed like an easy fix. We purchased over one hundred feet of two and a half inch flat board. This when then cut into smaller pieces to be applied to the walls. You can see in this photo how we were deciding on the the design by laying out strips to see what the overall product would look like. Once we were happy we began attaching them to the wall. Using a small amount of PL and a couple finishing nails the board and batten was up. Nail holes and seams were filled with a putty that goes on pink and dries white so I knew when I could go back and sand it sand prior to painting. The entire wall and boards were painted in white to appear as one solid piece.
FINDING A VANITY AND MIRROR...
After searching for what seemed like forever, I finally found a vanity and mirror combo that would look great and fit well in the space. I had my husband pick up the items from Rona and we installed them the same day. Something wasn't right. The vanity seemed too small for the space. It was wide enough, but its depth was more narrow then I'd like. It was a very modern and clean looking piece but I couldn't get past the overall look of it in the powder room. I continued my search and found a new vanity that was a bit larger and had a warm toned sink/counter top that went with the floors perfectly. Luckily it was about the same price as the original vanity so we returned the first one and installed the new one. Boy am I happy now! It looks much better. The mirror that had been purchased still matched the new vanity well, so we did not need to replace it.
FINISHING TOUCHES...
Once all the big ticket items were in place I was now able to make this bathroom feel a little more alive. Believe it or not, it took me awhile to find a towel bar, toilet paper holder and light fixture that I liked and was the right fit. Luckily, to my surprise, I came across all three items in one combo pack! High five to me. Other than the light fixture, I was able to put up the other two all by myself. Not that either were difficult, but finding the perfect placement took some time. As did everything else I guess. The last touch was the decorative floating shelves that were put up above the toilet. Without them, the wall seemed bare. Now there is a place for extra rolls of toilet paper and some hand towels without looking too busy.
COMPLETION...
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| BEFORE AFTER |
I am completely happy with the finished product and I am proud of my hubby and I for doing it all ourselves. Redoing the entire bathroom (excluding replacing the toilet, but including replacing the plumbing to the toilet) we spent approx. $900. From paint, moulding, vanity, faucet, sink, mirror, floors, light and accessories we got a brand new bathroom for a decent price.
On another note... with all my Pinterest searching, I knew that we had to re-use the GIANT mirror that came off the bathroom wall somewhere else in the house. I had the perfect spot! I spent approx. $60 on supplies to create this oversized (6'x4') mirror that I hung in our living room. This puppy was extremely heavy so I may have required the help of my husband once again, but as soon as it was up I am sure he was happy that it was over....for now!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Mama Johnstone
