Well it has finally come down to it! The ultimate master bathroom finale! 2 months and some change in the making! It's crazy to think I was silly enough to believe I could finish the entire thing in the course of a week before my semester started.
Yeah. Right. But I have learned and find some great solutions!
Let's take a peak at the list from Day 1 back in August
- paint ceiling and trim
- paint trim around doors
- paint towel cabinet white
- paint vanity cabinets dark brown
- paint walls grey
- paint mirror frames
- create new wall art for above tub
- add new towel hooks/bars
- clean up over the potty thing
- remove foreclosure stickers
- new accessories
- DEEP clean and organize
- line all shelves and drawers
- figure out new light fixtures (paint the brass ones? invest in new vanity lights??)
- remove useless doors and replace with luxurious curtains
And here is what the place looked like when I first moved in back in 2008. You can even see my lil 18 year old self in the mirror! Hi me!
The walls were a weird pinkish beige and the old light fixtures made the room HOT. So hot in fact they had burned spots onto the ceiling. Awesome. The towel rack was in a weird spot and the accessories were kinda childish. I spent my entire senior year of high school collecting decorations and when I finally moved in I felt like I had none. Crazy how that works.
Here is also the bathroom shower area. It wasn't very pretty for sure. Crappy towel rack, ugly paint, weird door sticker... I didn't enjoy spending time in the bathroom really.
There were several things that had to be done and I soon found that my list from above was getting longer... and longer... and longer. First step though was to have my Dad help me with the wall repair. Which we thought was only going to take a couple hours when really ended up consuming the whole day.
I was able to mark off everything on my list and get the best bathroom possible. It's classy and comfortable while still maintaining that vintage vibe that I am so in love with. It took a lot longer then I thought it would but it's now a far more attractive and useful space that it makes up for any delay in the time frame. I can't say exactly how much everything cost. I did it over such a span of time that I was able to keep it really budget friendly. Reusing items from around the house, such as picture frames and vases, really helped to keep the costs down also. Probably the most expensive part was the paint which was about $40.00 total.
(The wall color is Dolphin by Martha Stewart in BHG from Walmart. Semi-gloss of course. I can't find the sample that has the name of the cabinets. But I think it's Eucalyptus something or other from WalMart also. It's dark brown.)
The first part of the renovation that I did was to use this storage about the toilet and make it a more useful space. That was a big part of the project or really any project that I do, to create more storage and a way to actually use the space. Manufactured homes aren't well known for storage and great layouts. I did get lucky with my because the bathroom is a rather large open space but there was still some aspects of it that seem unusable.
Decorating this area was a lot of fun. I brought in a bunch of the things I already had so this space was pretty cheap. I used some left over silver spray paint for the TP holder and the over the potty shelving unit was free from an old roommate. You can't see them in this photo but I also added
new towel hooks from Hobby Lobby to give it more character. The blue jars I got for free from my Mom's cabinet and then I
painted them with some Elmer's glue and food coloring.
Painting this tall cabinet white was also a great idea. It looks really good and takes up a lot less visual space. Which is great! Plus I was able to reorganize it so that I could maximize on the space inside. Remember the goal of the entire reno: storage and function.
I dressed up the space with
homemade vintage wall art and a fantastic
gallery wall will vintage images and frames. It really is what makes it seem far more "homey" or personalized without it being too personal. I'm not gonna lie I'm not much for having pictures of my family in the bathroom. I feel like they would be watching me in the bathtub. Weird.
As you can tell the bathroom cabinets went through a total overhaul. That was about a quart of dark brown paint. It was much easier to cover over the formerly western ranch designs with dark brown then with white. I also spray painted all of the hardware. Which really saved a lot of money. I had to soak them in bleach water to get the grim of 30 years off but I think they turned out rather well really.
Oh! And I added my cute little chair that my brother brought home when we were in middle school.I painted the "12" on it to give it some character and my Mom made that great pillow for me.
(Ignore the one dark light, Lucy broke the bulb when we were installing it and I just haven't purchased a new one yet) This is probably one of my most favorite parts of the entire room! There is so much that is different on this side of the room. The light fixtures, the built in shelving/necklace storage, the curtains instead of doors, the trim around the mirror is painted. It just all looks so great.
I decided to take out the doors and replace them with these curtains because the doors were acting as walls more then doors and the space was cramped and blocked off because of the doors. We were constantly moving door stops back and forth.Eliminating the doors eliminated a lot of chaos from our lives. That in itself is a benefit. And don't worry. We still have the doors in the garage in case we sell and someone wants to put them back up. When I redo my bedroom I will probably put curtains on the other side also, just to make it look more finished. No major decisions there though, that would be a totally different post!
And here's another super proud look at the built in shelf that Justin made me. I used tension rods and shower hooks to make a unique and highly functional necklace holder. I am soooo excited by it! I think it looks so awesome! I kept sending pictures of it to my friends. They love me so they understand my love for home products and decorating and the like. Yay for friends!
Before:
Now the after:
Here's another glimpse of all the different angles of the room. From the entry to the bathroom to each vanity I have touched every surface (except the counter tops) with a paint brush or a new look. Top to bottom the space is absolutely nothing like it was when I bought it back in 2008.
And just in case you didn't see the huge difference the first time around. Here's another shot. You can see just how drastically everything has changed. Right down to upgrading the hand soap. I am in love with my bathroom. I think it is the best place ever! And I am so grateful to have blog friends that have really helped me with getting through the entire process and having a good time with it!
Here's the comparison:
Please tell me what you think! After 2 months of anxiously waiting to have the entire room completed do you think it was worth the wait?
