More pandemic home improvements today—this time, our main bathroom. We have three bathrooms in our house, all of which desperately need to be renovated—like, completely gutted. The bathroom off our bedroom is the largest and will be the most expensive to renovate, so we started with a smaller project—our main guest bathroom and the one that gets used the most because it’s centrally located.
Here’s what we were working with.
BEFORE:
Everything was old and outdated. We knew the floor would be temporary when we put it in with the rest of the floors in the house, and indeed it got wet and started separating. The walls had this awful texture, the tub was old and sported a brass door track from a shower door that was ripped out, the weird angular vanity was falling apart—basically, everything needed to be ripped out and rebuilt. Walls and ceiling needed to be skimmed, lights and fan replaced, etc. My goal was clean and modernized from the 80’s finishes but not too modern—more like an old Chicago hotel bathroom vibe. Since we have a big tub in the bathroom off our bedroom and know we’ll always keep a tub there, we decided to transform this tub into a big open shower. We painted and put the wallpaper up ourselves, but everything else we hired out because we don’t know what we are doing when it comes to building showers and tiling floors. I absolutely love how this bathroom turned out. It feels like a completely different room.
AFTER:
Instead of linking things randomly throughout the post, there’s a list of everything linked at the bottom of this post so it’s all in one place. I found so many of the products we used for such great prices (the pendant lights are only $55, and the mirror was $35!) and saved a lot of money by shopping around and scouring the Internet. The shower is my happy place now. I put a little bowl of lava rocks on the floor, pour a few drops of lavender and eucalyptus oil and peace out in the bathroom with some music and a candle.
I wanted a lot of plants in the bathroom since I’ve been having a torrid love affair with them over the pandemic and plan to continue. So my dad built me a little plant shelf from a $7 piece of wood we had cut and stained, and it’s the perfect break-up between the wallpaper and tile.
Also—a little touch of Michigan with that summer lake dive print (from a Michigan artist too :o). With all the tile and blues, the room needed a little warmth; so I went with a wooden shade. It ties the wood plant shelf in and lets good light filter through to keep the room clean and bright. I added privacy film to the bottom of the window so we can leave the shade up to let light in and display additional plants.
I wasn’t planning on wallpapering the bathroom but found this stripe print from Chasing Paper after we finished and fell in love with it. It pulls everything together perfectly.
We started this bathroom project in the beginning of October and only finished it this week, so I’m SO happy to have it finished.
Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend.
Bathroom Sources:
Navy Blue Vanity, Wayfair
Faucet, Amazon
Globe Pendant Lights, Amazon
Hexagon Floor Tile, Lowe’s (white grout)
Subway Tile on walls and shower grouted with warm gray
Stripes Away Wallpaper, Chasing Paper
Mirror, $35 from Marshall’s
Shower Fixures, Amazon
Gold Shower Squeegee, Amazon
Rug, World Market (I love this rug—it’s also in Nella’s room)
Pink Polka Dot Towels, Homegoods
Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash Bottles, Etsy
Summer Lake Jump Art, Minted (from a Michigan artist)
Cordless Wooden Shade, Blinds.com
Privacy Window Film, Wayfair
Cindy says
What a beautiful transformation. I love it!
Kim Bedzyk says
Gorgeous! Is the wallpaper you chose in the color “light blue” or “ink”?
Kelle says
It’s ink
Seana Turner says
Wow – the after is amazing. That Aztec wallpaper is such a hoot! Very inspiring. Love that color is coming back in design. It’s cheery:)
Lisa M. says
So nice! I love how you tiled to the ceiling on the vanity wall.
Do you have a link for the mirror?
Kelle says
It was from Marshall’s so there’s no link. Sorry!
Reenie says
WOW! Beautiful.
KD says
Love the transformation! Will you by chance be doing a list of activities for kids for road trips? I’m taking a 24+ hour road trip this summer with 5 kids ages 3-8 and I could use some inspiration and ideas to pass the time for them.
Kelle says
Yes! It’s coming next week! :o)