Taking our Bathroom Away From Builder Grade

Hey Everyone!

I know this is the season for Christmas posts and winter home house tours, but honestly, I'm not going there this year.  I am very much into the celebration of Christ's birth, but seem to be having a severe reaction to the commercial, busy, costly side of the holiday season.  I really do enjoy seeing beautiful mantels and centerpieces and such, but this year my Christmas decorations consist of a tree (which we didn't get until last week), some beautiful poinsettias, and a plain boxwood wreath on the front door.  I bought two beautiful, handmade ornaments from Ten Thousand Villages for the tree, and that's it.  And it's working for me.  I have been making an effort to do what matters with my time, and not do what really doesn't, in the hopes of simplifying my schedule.  So anyway, I would like to show you what i was up to this fall instead. :) 

Today I'll walk you through the updates that we have done to our bathroom over the last 4 years.  It's not finished, but like most other things, we're tackling an overhaul one piece at a time.  I'll be explaining the more DIY heavy projects in a separate post, but for now, here's what we have done:


First, where we started (pictures aren't the greatest, it's a narrow room):

The first order of business was to remove the "Hollywood" light, and I think we replaced the mirror at the same time.  The old one was a builder's grade mirror with a small trim frame that didn't hold up to a 4ft wide mirror.

That left us with this:

It's a step in the right direction, but I spent many months trying to figure out how to fix the beadboard trim! See how it stops before the mirror starts?  Plus, it made it painfully obvious that the tan tile backsplash was made of particle board.  Ugh.  It's a common theme in this bathroom - trim that doesn't really work well.  There are still a few places where I would like to remove/replace it...

Anyway, after living with this for a few years, I decided that a new tile backsplash would be better, and one that went all the way to the ceiling would be a great idea.  Great, that is, until you try to install it.  You can read about that process here; it's kind of a long story!  Replacing the tile also lead to replacing the mirror, which you can read about here, complete with my first experience with using spray stain.  Anyway, here's where that landed us:

I landed on this marble herringbone tile because I like the herringbone pattern, and I like the variation in color.  Oh, and the walls aren't really bowed like they look in the picture, that's just what a wide angle lens does... and I'm too lazy to photoshop it out. :)

You can kind of see in the picture above that our bathroom has a lot of white, and so the little variation in color in the tile adds some warmth.  If you are really observant, you'll notice that I still have a little work to do right next to the vanity - the brown spot is unpainted beadboard that was previously covered by trim (see what i mean? It's everywhere!!).  I'll paint it one of these days...  That's what winter is for, right?

Eventually, I would like to make some shelves and stain in the same color as the mirror, put down a darker floor, reglaze the tub, and replace the tile on the walls above the shower (same tan particle board).  All in good time...

~Amy