Hi friends!

I want to break up the monotony of my cooking posts with an inside look at a recent bathroom remodel my husband Jason and I did in our home.  After all.. I like to do other things besides cooking, baking and gardening!  This is the longest post I’ve ever written.. and I mean LONG, so if you’re just looking for before and after pics, scroll all the way down. 

The remodel I’m about to show you is the bathroom our 10 year old son and 4 year old daughter use.  I hope you gather some inspiration from this! 🙂

 

How would you describe this?

Builder grade?  Just okay?  Scary!?

 

When we saw the house for the first time in 2015 I was pretty discouraged by the state of the bathrooms.  All three of them needed a remodel and so far we’ve tackled two of the three (this being the second one we’ve remodeled).  The final remodel will be the master bath…

which is the biggest project of them all…

and gives me anxiety just thinking about it…

 

No offense to the previous homeowners.

 

Anyway, the guest bath “boasted” laminate floors peeling in various areas, a builder grade vanity and mirror, and weird tiling on the counter top… 😛

Oh, and the toilet was awkwardly placed on a two by four underneath the flooring so it leaned to the left.  For three years we sat on a crooked toilet!

Does it embarrass you when I talk about sitting on the toilet?  I mean, everyone has sat on a toilet…

 

The shower/tub combo wasn’t that bad  … but it still had to go!

 

Everything had to go!  Once we had the remodeling idea and timeline we began the demo.  I wanted to have the bathroom mostly done by Belle’s 4th birthday party which fell at the end of April.

So in late March we hired a guy named Kevin to do the shower/bath demo, re-install the plumbing and install the enamel bathtub we picked out at Lowes.

 

Here’s the work that Kevin did for us.  It was a great head start and gave Jason the opportunity to get the floor tile in right away.

 

Once Kevin did his thing we removed everything else from the bathroom… and by “we” I mean Jason…

I was the “tell me what to do” kind of helper during demo time.  I actually assumed the role of delicate woman so Jason could squeeze in his “manly” efforts.  You know…. man stuff.

 

He began by putting down cement board.  Then he tiled the floor.

The tile we selected came from Lowes.  I wanted a bold look with black and white Mediterranean patterns and was surprised we found such an exotic variety at Lowes.  The price point was nice too!

 

Once the floor was done, he lined the shower wall with waterproof dry wall called ‘DenShield.’  He installed a new toilet and then………..drum-roll please!……….

 

He installed the Ballantyne vanity.  I found it at Lowes and had to have it.  It’s a deep mocha color with golden undertones (not seen here).  It really kicks things up a notch.

 

I went with a white speckled quartz counter top.

And I like antique brass (antique anything, really), so I chose this old-timey sink faucet.  Another favorite. ❤

 

To tie the sink into the vanity I replaced the knobs with antique brass.

 

 

 

At this point, we needed a break (especially my husband).  It’s hard to believe how much work goes into remodeling a small room on top of everything else that you have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Once the toilet and sink were functioning just in time for Belle’s birthday party, we put the bathroom on hold so we could enjoy,

Sweet sweet summertime!

 

 

 

We celebrated Belle’s 4th birthday with a Peppa Pig themed tea party!

 

And endured more hail storms than I’ve ever seen.  We even had a F3 tornado touch down a few miles from our house!

 

We added two Nigerian Dwarf Goats to our herd.

 

And Jason and I took a leisurely vacation to Cozumel, Mexico with a small group of friends.

 

We gardened lots of goodies…

 

And Owen visited my office to practice his typing skills for ‘take your child to work day’ (I work from home, we didn’t go far…)

 

We cooked tons of delicious meals…

 

And went boating at Jackson lake a dozen times or more! (my niece, AnnaBanana)

 

We took two camping trips to Lake McConoughay, Nebraska, one with the kids, and one without.

 

And the kids began the 2018-2019 school year.

 

Towards the end of summer I was brainstorming ideas of how I want to finish our master bedroom.  So far I’ve just updated the decor….

Overall, it was a great summer!  However, the kids bathroom was on the back of my mind the ENTIRE time since they were using our Master bath and shower almost daily.

It was TIME to finish their bathroom!

 

So we got back to it.  According to Jason, tiling the shower was pretty inundating and frustrating at times.

 

But Belle and I were there to help cut the tiles…

 

Providing a tile delivery service for a nominal fee of lollipops and quarters…

 

The tile we decided to use had a “weathered” look.

 

And bronze finishes for the plumbing.

 

We used Delta products and I’m happy with the rainfall effect the shower head has.

 

Jason even tiled the windowsill!

 

One of the neat features are the shower wall insets.  I asked for extra height in case we need to put a glass shelf in the center of the inset for extra storage.

 

I’m really happy with how they turned out.  Great job Jason! 🙂

 

Next came the shower door install.  Surprisingly simple to do!

 

We chose something that had a border all the way around.  This bathroom is pretty compact so we chose a shower door that had a towel rack built in rather than putting a towel rack on the wall.

 

Speaking of compact, we had to buy a toilet paper holder that was set into the vanity so there was more wiggle room.

 

I swapped out all of the chrome for bronze….

 

Including the outlet covers and the heater vent on the floor.

You can see here that we removed the medicine cabinet, and replaced it with stained wood to tie into the vanity and floating shelves.

 

To keep up with the bronze and antique brass theme, I chose this SWEET light fixture from Amazon.com.  The Edison bulbs give a nice warm glow. 🙂

 

And a brass framed mirror I found at Target.

 

Here’s another favorite design piece.

Warm raw wood.  I think it’s a great contrast against the sharp look of black and white.  Our friends that live in the foothills gave my husband a live edge log from their property and he made shelves out of it!  He cut each shelf to size and varnished them.  I LOVE THE WAY IT TURNED OUT!

 

It was fun adding decor to them too. 🙂

Just look at how great the shelves tie everything together.  Love it!

 

I opted for an insect/garden theme.  I used brass insects as part of the wall decor.

 

And floral art because obviously bees need flowers.

 

 

If you scroll past the ‘before and after pics’ there are links to the products we used.  I hope you enjoyed my post and I hope it left you with some inspiration. 🙂

 

drab

 

fab!

 

drab

 

fab!

 

drab

 

fab!

 

 

“A room should never allow the eye to settle in one place.  It should smile at you and create fantasy.”

– Juan Montoya

❤

Guest Bathroom Remodel

Here are the links to the items referenced in my post.  xoxo

• Ballantyne Vanity
• Della Torre Ceramic Tile
• Elida Ceramica Whitewash Wall Planks
• Industrial Bathroom Light Fixture
• Antique Brass Sink Faucet
• Delta Shower Trim Kit