Dave the Builder and I had big, big plans for the renovation of our new house, which also happens to be my childhood home. Plans change, life throws you a curve ball, and you find yourself “the guest” who will now be using the guest bathroom. It’s time for the bathroom remodeling ideas to begin.
The before pictures have been lost in the shuffle, but you don’t need a great imagination to envision what we were working with.
A vast knowledge of outdated ugly will do.
The first question Dave the Builder asked me was are you going to leave the existing tile walls.
I’m not a fan of what’s involved with the removal of ceramic tile, so no, Dave, we will not be removing the majority of the existing ceramic tile.
We will be adding to by taking away from.
The bathroom walls had the original gray and green decorative 4″ square tiles, randomly placed on a background of predominately white 4″ square tiles.
Not exactly atrocious, but leaning more to what was hot in style 40+ years ago.
I decided not to remove the existing white tiles for one simple reason- the exact style of tile is used today.
Dave cut around and extracted the gray and green tiles, replacing them with 4″ glass tiles. The original ceramic floor was left in place and overlaid with 12″ square slate purchased from Lowe’s.
Step three involved the removal of a double flush mount sink vanity.
Dave replaced it with a custom built vanity for the wow factor effect. A decorative single sink and faucet from the Artist Editions collection by Kohler completed the look.
The gorgeous framed mirror was a gift from my equally gorgeous mother-in-law.
Now came the time to select colors and make the decision to paint or paper.
I selected a classic brown Toile pattern with blue background wallpaper by York to enhance the colors of the slate floor and vanity.
Dave wanted to go with a dark brown glass tile, and I wanted to go with Café au lait glass tile.
We compromised with the old half and half trick.
The four light bronze bathroom fixture perfectly matched the mirror frame.
One successful shopping trip to our local Marshall’s for guest towels, and one easy order placed at JCPenney for the shower curtain set put us in home decor business.
I could not be happier with the finished product. It was the logical, practical and most cost efficient choice for us to make.
Our renovation and remodel repertoire grows.
