Bathroom Revamping

I can't quite call this a bathroom demolition since we didn't really remove anything as far as flooring, hardware or the pink tub! I really wanted to just get this bathroom cleaned up enough so that we could start using it for the first time since moving in almost 9 months ago! Before, we just kept the bathroom door closed at all times and considered it a 'storage' room for bathroom items. Not once have I set foot in there to use it or clean it (except when first moving in). Yuck!

So 2 weeks before our big New Year's Eve Sha-bang (aka party :), I thought to myself, "Hey, what better way to stress myself out but then to give myself a 10-day timeline to get this bathroom completely up-to-date?!" Not to mention we had a ton of other things to prepare for with Christmas only a few days away! So yes, there was a LOT of stress, some tears, lots of effort...but ultimately...JOY!

So off I set to tear down all the old wallpaper, which I started before moving in...only to get distracted by a million other projects. So there our bathroom sat looking distraught and gross. Ross ripped out the old medicine cabinet as well b/c he said it was broken. So we also had a nice hole in the wall above the vanity:

Do you notice the "spotlight" light fixtures they have above the vanity?? There were in fact 8 spotlights all together. EIGHT!!! Count 'em! 3 in the one corner and 5 more above the right side of the cabinet. They had no rhyme or reason to where they were placed, so it annoyed me to the extreme!

Here's the awesome hole I had to stare at for 8 months:

And what's a bathroom makeover story without a pic of the old toilet :)

 Here's where the pink comes in to play. And the retro glass blocks...oi!

 Lastly, here's a view of the vanity. It actually looked pretty new or rarely used b/c the drawers inside were pretty clean except for a few clean Q-tips left behind. So we kept it....the vanity...not the Q-tips :)

I should also mention that almost none of the plumbing in this bathroom worked before moving in! My family of plumbers gave us a new faucet fixture and fixed the shower plumbing (along with a new showerhead) before we moved in. And in the end, during my week of revamping, Ross & I decided to just purchase a new toilet since the old one was quite gross. Also, the sink was clogged once we finally started using the bathroom, so we called the plumbers again to fix that too! Geesh. Plumbers are expensive. Even when you get a family discount!

Since I have no 'during' pics, let me explain what all we did before the big reveal:

1. Once I removed all the wallpaper, I noticed that the wall was in no condition to paint. Not once in this entire house did I come across old wallpaper paste that wouldn't budge. So I knew the only way to fix this bathroom was to cover up the walls again.....bring in the wallpaper!! Ugh. I hate wallpaper too. But then I found something called Beadboard wallpaper. I was intrigued. And it was an 'easy,' 'less expensive' fix, then tearing down all of the walls, which we actually contemplated! (after all, Ross & I are quite the drywalling duo!).

2.  We decided to keep the ceramic flooring, pink tub and tiles, and the vanity. After all, these things were in fine 'cosmetic' condition. Of course, anyone who knows me knows how much I despise the color Pink, but we really didn't want to sink money into this bathroom.

3. We replaced the bathroom lighting, which involved rewiring since I replaced the ceiling lights with 2 wall sconces.  This project alone took 3 days in my timeline after I thought it would be an easy fix. Ross was a champ though in figuring out how to rewire everything...correctly(!) and feed the wires down to where they needed to go :) At one point he sent me off to Lowe's with an old piece of wire to tell them "I need 4 more feet of THIS (show wire)" haha   I also had to patch the old holes from the ceiling fixtures, to which I would say I matched the previous texture quite well :)

4. I also had to patch up the old medicine cabinet hole since we were going to put up just a normal mirror, since the vanity provides TONS of storage. Besides, the old medicine cabinet was not centered over the sink, so it drove us crazy!

5. I also had to paint the beadboard wallpaper, and went ahead and painted the ceiling to clean it up.

6. After we got the sconces on the wall, after I wallpapered and painted, we noticed they weren't positioned correctly. Enter Doomsday.  I had to tear down a strip of wallpaper and move the light fixture box over 2" to the right. Boooo.  Always measure TWICE Kristin, TWICE!!

7. One project Ross has not finished yet? Baseboards. Wa-wa-waaaaa.



So once everything was put back together, I got to buy the proper accessories (tp holder, towel holder, and some cute accessories).

Here is the long awaited reveal (for those of you who haven't seen it in person :)

I love the bronze accessories on top of the white textured wallpaper! The sconces were $15 each from Home Depot. LOVE THEM! And they provide TONS of light.

The mirror was from Target ($40). It was the perfect color too, since I didn't want a bronze mirror (bronze overload!) or white (fear it might clash with the wallpaper) but something different :)

HELLO :) Anyone else notice my 'pinky flick' when I use my camera?! Haha...trying to break that habit asap!

Then I was at Target 2 weeks after I bought the mirror and found matching picture frames in a clearance aisle for $5 each!! Enter "SHRIEK" "gush" in looooove......

I put some wall decals in the frame for some easy and quick wall art! Then again, my party was in 1 day and I needed wall art, PRONTO  :)

 

Another view of the vanity:

My bronze pillar candle holders fit in perfectly! An awesome find at Goodwill 2 years ago! They were $1.99 each and had a Pottery Barn sticker still on the bottom.

 


I painted the beadboard wallpaper the same white as the rest of the trim in our house to keep the bathroom very neutral and calm (after all...our tub is still pink!!). But around the doorway, I used a light beige so that our 'mock' trim would still stand out :) See?! No?! Well amuse me anyway!....

The pink doesn't bother me as much now that everything else is white/beige. I bought a white waffle-weave shower curtain. I also replaced the doorknob. We're slowly converting all the old gold doorknobs in our house to bronze.

Gotta have a new toilet pic!  Ack...ignore the missing baseboards!!

This is the closet in our bathroom.  I repainted the door white to clean it up and match the rest of the white in the house and replaced the doorknob. See the beige wall and white trim again? No?!  I thought it would be too much wallpaper to go around these nooks and crannies and since our 'trim' is not actually trim, but just a curved-in-wall, how would that work with wallpaper?? Where would it end?! Who knows. Painting was the better alternative!
 

And the cost breakdown:
Drywall Patches, Misc. Patching Accessories = $15
Wallpaper, Primer, Paint, Painter's Tarp = $80
New Wallpaper Steamer (after electrocuting the 1st one...oops!) = $80
Mirror = $40
2 Sconces = $30
Accessories (tp holder, towel holder, etc.) = $50
New Doorknobs = $40 ($20 each)
New toilet + labor = $135
Labor for unclogging sink = $120
Total: $590

For an almost purely cosmetic fix-up, I think that total was higher than I was planning. I was hoping to come in near $300, but with those few calls to plumbers, the quote really skyrockets. Lesson learned. But the use Ross & I are getting out the bathroom now, and thoroughly enjoying, is priceless! Especially since I got this done in my 10-day timeline just in time for our party :)

~Kristin