Making Our Home: THE HALF BATH

In June John and I decided we were ready to tackle the project of updating our half bath downstairs.  It had blue wall paper, a top wall paper border AND a bottom wall paper border (who does that?!), brass towel and top holders, an outdated faucet, a little toilet, linoleum with some marks on it that would not come off, a damaged mirror, ugly curtains, an oak vanity with white and brass knobs.  The bathroom isn't huge, but when we started making a list of everything we wanted to do in there it seemed HUGE and daunting. 

Here are the before pictures just to give you an idea...

 

 

Wondering why we didn't just leave this bathroom back in 1987?! 

 

First things first, we steamed off the top and bottom wall paper boarders using a wall paper steam we have had on loan from a friend since we bought the house! (We will be done with that thing one day soon!)

Then we sanded alllll the wall paper seams.  If you've read our other room updates you can probably guess what we did next-we used the wonderful Benjamin Moore product-Fresh Start- to paint directly over the wall paper! 

Then we waited a day or two and then painted the walls the Benjamin Moore color Shaker Beige in Behr paint. 

Then we got really disappointed!  In every single other room we have worked on as soon as we have gotten the walls painted it has seemed a million times better, but in this room our fresh coat of paint revealed one hideous part of this bathroom we had overlooked...THE COUNTER TOP WAS A LIGHT PINK!  I know you're probably wondering how we could live here and never notice this, but I guess it was because it so perfectly tied into the pink flowers in the wallpaper that we just thought it was a tan color...until the walls were painted tan then we realized the counter was definitely pink.  We were really discouraged and took a break from the project because we had not been planning to replace the countertop or vanity.

 

We had been keeping our eye out for a counter top to go here, but it was bigger than the "typical" half bath vanity (it's 46 inches long) so it wasn't as common to find a great deal on one.  Then one Saturday morning at Knox Rail we found the perfect countertop at the perfect price!  We bought it and loaded in in the van (actually had people help us load it in the van--it was so heavy!) and we had a new excitement for this project!

With our new energy for this, we started back to painting...we painted the baseboards and bathroom door and trim around the window.  Speaking of the window, I failed to mention that we took down that horrible curtain the day we closed on the house and had white blinds installed the following week-so that updated happened quickly! 

John ripped off the old counter top and we tossed that pink counter down by the curb for the city to pick up!  Then I got to work painting the cabinets! I have wanted to try this for a while.  So we bought the oil based primer that helps the paint not just peel right off the cabinets.  I coated them good with this and let it dry really really well.

The two pictures above were after the primer was on.  It made me just a little nervous at this point because there was no turning back!

Then I did 2 good coats of paint.

These pictures were all at various stages of the painting process.

They were looking good so I couldn't resist taking pictures!

Then we bought 6 oil rubbed bronze colored knobs for the 4 cabinet doors and two drawers.  Ah! I was coming together!

 

Then it was time to put the doors back on!

At this point we had just sat the countertop down on the vanity to see how it looked but it wasn't attached yet.

we were SO pleased with the change!

In this picture you can also tell that we had started prepping to tile the floor.  John removed the toilet the quarter round.

We watched many videos online to learn how to lay tile, and we decided to give it a try.  A friend was very kind and let us borrow his wet saw. 

 

We bought the above tile, but once we got home with it and looked at it in our bathroom we were not loving it.  So we returned it and found some time we were happier with.

We decided to lay all the tile out first and make all our cuts before we started actually laying anything.  This is NOT what the professionals in every.single.video we watch recommend, but we are VERY slow at this and measuring then thin setting and laying one piece of tile at a time just seemed like it was going to take forever.  Especially because we were working only after 8pm when the kids went to bed and we would try to stop by 10/10:30 because I know our neighbors don't want to hear a wet saw late at night!

So it's what we did and it worked great for us in this little space! I can see how it wouldn't be the best plan if you were tiling a big kitchen or larger room though.  Here we were just laying things out to measure and get an idea.

Then we started making cuts.  I would measure and John would cut!  (I wasn't a fan of the wet saw, but he was good at it!)

See that green piece of construction paper?  For some weird cuts (like around the hole for the toilet pipe that was round) I made a pattern and then drew it on the tile in pencil.  I'm sure the pros would laugh at this but it worked perfectly!

So here's a picture when we finally got to where we just had two more tiles left to cut!!  Whew! We were making progress!  After this I numbered each tile in the top left corner 1 being at the top left corner of the room.  Then we layed them in order in the kitchen floor and slept soundly that night! This was exhausting and I wasn't even doing the sawing part!! I was really impressed with John's sawing skills!

The next day we got out the thin set to start actually laying the tile! No turning back now!  The first row took me FOREVER! I was laying the tile and John was cleaning up our messy wet saw and garage from cutting all the tile!  After the first row, I got in a groove and really enjoyed it surprisingly!  It was making such a difference it was instant gratification!  Once we got all the tile down we closed and locked the door so no kids accidental walked on it an messed up the hard work!!

 

We were relieved when it was still looking good the next morning.

We waited a couple of days before walking on it and gave our backs a rest from all the tile work before we began grouting!

 

I like dark grout. We found this color called Cajun Coffee that we thought would be perfect!

John and I took turns grouting the tile.  It really was a two person job the way we were doing it.  It was easiest to get A LOT on there to fill the lines then clean it up.  So one person constantly had to be getting clean buckets of water for the sponges while the other grouted!

 

 

This was as we were finishing up grouting! You can tell the tile is still wet as we were trying to wipe down some of the grout on the tile.

Again, we closed the bathroom door and locked it so no one messed up the grout.  This also forced us to take a break and rest-tile work is hard on your back!

 

 

Next up we attached the new countertop which turned out to be WAY easier than we expected! That was a win! Next John used the nail gun to put all the quarter round back down and I painted and caulked over the nail holes.And then John installed our new toilet!

Then we installed the wood transition piece from the tile to the carpet.

 

We now had a bathroom with a toilet and sink bowl but no faucet.  We found this American Standard faucet at Home Depot in oil rubbed bronze and were pleased.  I was really impressed with John installing it so quickly!

Progress was feeling great we now had a working bathroom!!

Time to add an oil rubbed bronze towel ring...

and toilet paper holder!

 

Then the last thing that was bothering me was the mirror. 

I wasn't a fan of the flower screws attaching it to the wall, but what really bothered me was how the bottom was all messed up...

 

I kept seeing all the wonderful pinterest projects where people seemingly easily framed out their builder grade mirrors and was determined we could do this!

We headed to buy some trim.  I painted it to match the vanity...

We borrowed a friends miter saw.  I was really worried about getting the 4 corners cut at perfect 45degree angles so they would meet up, but with this saw it wasn't hard at all!!  We thought we were doing great until we were ready to attach the frame to the wall/mirror.  That's when we realized that none of the Pinterest tutorials had screws on the front of the mirrors.  All the tutorials were for builder grade mirrors that were clipped or just glued to the walls.  The screws presented a challenge.  John and I spent a couple of hours trying to get one of the four pieces on the mirror.  We were tired and frustrated so we went to bed.  The next day while John was at work I worked and was able to finish the mirror out.  The hardest piece was the first piece, then you could use that piece to help balance the rest while you got them in place.  Then I caulked along the four seams in the corners and painted over the caulk. 

 

All the tutorials we read showed people using painters tape to hold it in place while the liquid nails dried.  Every time we did this...no matter how much tape, it slid right down the wall.

So then we had to resort to stronger tape!

Things are going much better at this point...almost done!

and ta-da! the mirror!

 

 

Now for the easiest and most fun part...decorating the half bath.  John helped me hang this Southern Living at Home shelf on the wall which I then decorated.  then some candles on a Southern Living pedestal stand for the counter top and we were done!

 

This was the primer I used on the vanity.

I'm not sure why this picture will not let me rotate it! UGH!

BUT this was the paint I used for the vanity and the mirror frame. I got it in color "White Dove."  I really like the finish it gives the things!  (I used this paint for repainting my desk earlier this summer too!)

 

 

Drumroll please.....time for the finished product!  Remember those "before" pictures?!  Here are the "after."

 

 

 This is the smallest room in the house, yet it was the room that took us the most time to renovate!  John and I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of new things working on this bathroom.  We are so, so glad to have it finished.  BUT doing the half bath gave us the confidence to think we could do something similar to renovate our master bath.  SO that's a project coming soon!