renovate

The bathroom.



ALMOST done...getting there. Thought I would show our progress. No "styling" in these pics. Nothing hanging on walls yet. But, still a big change.

We used to enter our bathroom from the far left of the room, and when you entered, this is what you saw:








Now the {much larger} doorway is centered on the wall, and the view is:





Just a little better, don't ya think??

The tub is now the focal point, and the subway tile shower the backdrop. It still has an open feel, but there is much more privacy in the shower. I am about as modest as you can get, so I am MUCH more comfortable in this shower! :)

For now, we have no door. This is taking a little getting used to, but it is just a temporary situation until we find the perfect doors to mount. It just gets a little cold when bathing, but luckily we have now have a working heater/vent light and so I just crank that up! We plan on mounting old reclaimed doors on a sliding barn track on the walls of our bedroom. I feel like they will not only be a unique way to enter the bathroom, but will also be the "art" for our bedroom. Here are some pictures that I love of what we plan on doing...




The above doors are actually used to cover a window, but I love the doors...the bathroom is quite fancy though!



LOVE these blue ones...

So perfectly pretty (at least to me!)....

So, you get the idea...

Our vanity used to look like this...before David happily took a sledge hammer to it...(you can also see the little doorway to the right)...

Now our two vanities are on either side of the much bigger doorway, which lets in a lot more light...

Our original plan was to continue the hardwood into our bedroom, which we still plan to do at some point, but for now in order to stay somewhat within our budget we had to scrap that plan.

And I just love, love, the buffets we used as vanities....they are a distressed "ocean" (bluish, greenish, grayish) color, with wooden tops. I put three coats of a matte finish heavy duty poly on the top to protect them from occasional splashes. My plumber cut small holes in the top to mount the sinks and a hole in the back for the drain and they work perfectly! I also love the wall mounted faucets. I was worried about wall-mounted looking too contemporary for our house, but {I think} these are a good mix of classic and contemporary...

Not the greatest picture, but you can see I also choose very tall trumeau mirrors which go all of the way to the ceiling mounted right above the white subway tile backsplashes. I love the mirrors, and really (fingers crossed) think that, once the sconces are in place on either side, the scale will seem right. Now I do admit that the mirrors appear a little skinny in relation to the vanities, but I think the sconces I am holding out for will fix all of that...

Meet "percival". I love him so and think he will one day be the perfect addition to our bathroom....



The next pic is of our original linen closet, which took up alot of space, without giving a lot of storage, and just wasn't so pretty to look at. We (ok, David) ripped the whole thing out and replaced it with my friend Leon.

I love Leon. Right now he just has wire in his doors, but I think at some point those will get backed with linen, grasscloth, or antiqued mirrors in order to completely obscure what is inside (at this moment my slightly large shoe collection). Would love to add some baskets, old bottles, etc on top for some texture as well.

Everything in time....

Hard to see in the pic, but to the left of Leon there is now a private room for the toilet, which we love. Before our whole bathroom was off limits if someone needed to "potty", but having those doors has been great.

My vanity area under the window is really non-existent at this point, but as soon as something develops in that area I will update. Still trying to decide what is the most cost effective thing to do in that area that will look the best.

I decided my smoke bell lantern, which I love, would look even better in my bathroom than in it's current home in the breakfast room so David moved it for me. I am really happy with it. I have a pretty detailed chandelier in the bedroom, so I thought its simplicity was nice with that...and it will also go well with the percival sconces. David laughs, because while "saving" by not having to buy a fixture for over the tub, I have now created the need to buy a new fixture for the breakfast room! :)

So, I guess that is about it. Really thankful for all we have been able to do...and I know the room will continue to evolve over time as we add some accessories, rugs, photos, etc...

Overall it has been a relatively painless process. As everyone said it would, it took longer than we thought and cost more than we thought, but we are both still grateful we were able to do the project and are really enjoying the results. There were a few hiccups along the way, but I think we knew those would have to come at some point. For the first time we made changes to a house not because we thought it is what would help it sell in the future, but because it was what we liked. I didn't worry that someone else might not like that I used chrome faucetry but antique bronze lighting; or that wood floors would not be everyone's choice in a bathroom; or that is has a lot of white in it, or that not everyoone likes distressed, old furniture- we do, so we went with it! It has been an absolute blast for me picking out everything, and I am so thankful that David pretty much lets me pick whatever I want and either really likes it or just acts like he does. And we are still talking after being kicked out of our bathroom for 2 1/2 months! I think that is one of the most impressive things!!!

Thanks to all of my friends for listening to me talk about this forever....I am sure that got old, but you never let on.....:)

Now on to the next project......

(That was just for David's benefit as I am sure he is now passed out on the floor of his office.)