Our master bathroom remodel was a huge undertaking, and I cannot wait to show you the reveal! You’re going to flip when you see these gorgeous photos!
I was talking to a friend of mine recently about our bathroom remodel dramas, and she said she didn’t know what was worse: a bathroom or a kitchen remodel. Albeit both certainly have their challenges, but I guess the answer would be whatever project you’re working on at the time. For me, I’m totally going with a bathroom remodel.
With a lot of measuring, shopping and a ton of tinkering, here is how I was able to design and remodel our now fabulous master bathroom on a lower budget. Here is my inspiration photo:
In typical Farmhouse 1820 fashion, we go into each project fulling knowing that a can of worms (or two) could be opened. Unknown and unwanted dilemmas arise and have to be dealt with, inevitably resulting in slight temper tantrums and several unpleasantries spewed out of our mouths. We incurred a few of these occurrences, I’m not going to lie. Our bathroom remodel project turned into a true dog and pony show. Cue the circus music.
This is our master bathroom, and we lived with it like this for 11 years. Yes, this is horrific at best, but other projects came up and took priority. Sean and I decided to turn a blind eye to our bathroom and its utter nastiness, though I always kept it as clean as I could, scrubbing the tub, toilet and sink on a weekly basis. Our bathroom remodel just kept getting pushed behind.
We lived with bathroom parts, like the sink, faucet, shower head, tiles, pretty much everything but the toilet, in our bedroom for months. We had to walk across the house, or down the stairs to use the bathroom, which, in the middle of the night, was not ideal. Although the first guy we hired came recommended, he started out with issues right at the door. Giving you the Cliff Notes version, he had a poor work ethic, did shotty work, with most days either working shy of an hour, or not even showing up at all. That alone was frustrating; we fired him, and we were left in a bit of a lurch. We were two months in to the bathroom remodel with very little accomplished and no end in sight.
We should have called in Rob (aka RTB) in the first place. After all, this guy helped build the garden house, installed all of the drywall in our den remodel, and lots of other projects around here. I left him a sad and pretty close to pathetic voicemail, and thankfully the guy took pity on us and came to the rescue the very next day. And, luckily, he spared us the I-told-you-so’s.
I designed this bathroom years ago. I found an inspiration photo on Instagram that I fell in love with and knew I could incorporate much of the design in our own bathroom. Keeping the costs down, we kept the same footprint and pipes in their original spot. I needed to work with what I had, yet wanted all the fancy bells and whistles in my design.
Using ReStore finds and things I’ve bought and saved for our bathroom remodel, I was determined to follow the inspiration photo and incorporate some of that design with our own bathroom, and staying within budget.
Sean was a Saint, too. He made all of my lighting designs happen with three new sconce placements, recessed lighting in the shower area; wired up the radiant heat flooring and added additional electric to power the towel warmer.
RTB arrived early, and stayed late. He worked quickly, yet precisely. He made friends with Alexa, saying to her “Hey Alexa, play something” rather than specifying a genre. Singing while he worked, the dude got it done.
So, here is what we started with. Ugly blue tile with moldy, peeling wallpaper.
And this is where we are now!
White subway tile from floor to ceiling. Black granite floors with radiant heat underneath.
Goodbye to the sad blue tile and peeling wallpaper.
Hello clean, crisp and shiny.
A shower panel of my dreams, with a built in niche behind. Black penny tiles underfoot in the shower offering a good grip and foot massage. And, a rain shower head that is just downright heavenly.
No more of this:
Now we have medicine cabinets flanked with chic shaded sconces; the pedestal sink below bringing in a total classic look.
For the curtain, I wanted something completely untraditional. Fringe. Yes, fringe was my answer. You know me and whimsy, I love it. And the fringe panel provides privacy and a fabulous flow all at the same time. The uneven cut hem fits perfectly with the design. You can find the fringe panel here.
It’s funny. Whenever I think of a master bathroom, I imagine large in scale with a lot of room to move around. Maybe even two sinks, and a free standing tub, too. That would be divine.
However, although our master bathroom is small, I was able to make the most with the space I have, and keep within a tight budget. It’s wicked Fab and is absolutely my favorite room reveal ever!
Shop Our Bathroom!
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