Ok, so I’ve been really bad about updating the blog over the past few months.  We brought a new baby girl home from the hospital in September and everything else has kind of taken a back seat since then.  So, yes, it’s been forever, but we figured better late than never!

We left off last fall talking about our decision to remodel our master bathroom.  We started off with 2 goals for the project:  1 – to fix some issues with the bathtub so that it would be usable when we eventually needed it for the baby and also to make it functional as a shower for adults … and 2 – to install an exhaust fan so that showering in the master bathroom is actually a practical option.  You can read more here about how those two goals turned into a complete bathroom remodel, if you’re interested.

First off, here’s a quick reminder of what we started with:

 

One happy side effect of deciding to do a full bathroom remodel rather than just addressing the issues with the tub/shower was that  it gave us the opportunity to completely change the look of the room.  While it was in really good shape, we just weren’t really in love with the green tile, gold fixtures, or oak cabinetry, so I welcomed the opportunity to change it out for something that fit better with our taste and the era of the house.  (And never fear – if we ever miss that green tile, we still have plenty in the matching laundry room bathroom.)

When it came to what we should replace the green tile and gold fixtures with, there really wasn’t much discussion.  We pretty much knew from the beginning that we wanted a white bathroom with chrome fixtures.  After spending way too much time on Pinterest and Google image search (it was a great excuse to plant my pregnant self on the couch!), I put together the following “mood board” with some of our favorite things for the new bathroom:

bathroomInspiration

 

Starting in the upper left corner and moving clock-wise around, we made the following selections for the new bathroom:  1) Chenowith medicine cabinet from Rejuvenation (our “splurge” for the bathroom – love the way it looks, but it was waaay too expensive for what it is),  2) Bertch vanity in white with “Hudson” style doors, 3) Daltile Rittenhouse subway tile in Matte Arctic White for the walls (we also loved the countertop in this photo, but ended up with a quartz remnant instead …), 4) Kohler Fairfax fixtures for the bath and sink, 5) Kohler Devonshire bathtub, and 6) American Olean Satinglo 1″ hex tile in Ice White for the floor.

As far as actually completing the work, we hired a local contractor to complete the remodel before the baby came in September.  So, work started at the beginning of August and progressed at a pretty good pace through the second week in September.  When the contractors left (just 9 days before Haley was born!), everything was done except for paint … it’s a long story – these contractors don’t paint.

So, whirlwind tour of the bathroom remodel – ready?  Here we go!

First up – some pictures with demo (and framing for the new medicine cabinet) completed.  Note the original tile floor that was hiding underneath the lovely green faux marble tile … and the mess of plumbing/framing in the general bathtub area.  You can read more about that here, if you want more details.

 

Next ,we decided to take advantage of the opened bathroom walls to replace the galvanized hot and cold supply lines that come from the basement to the master bathroom on the 2nd floor and then continue to the powder room on the 3rd floor.  We hadn’t planned on this from the beginning, but we figured it made sense to make this upgrade now since we (hopefully!) will never have the tub ripped out of this bathroom in order to have easy access to it again.  So, here are some pictures of the updated plumbing and the new bathtub in place:

 

With the tub installed, the next few work days were spent installing the new tile:  Rittenhouse Matte Arctic White subway tile on the walls and American Olean Satinglo Ice White 1″ hex tile on the floors.  For grout, we opted for light gray (Hydroment Silver Bullet) for a few reasons:  1- we liked that it would be lower maintenance and (hopefully!) not show wear as much as bright white grout, 2- we liked that it mimicked the look of older tile, which would have been set in a bed of concrete and 3- we liked the subtle contrast between the grout and the tile.  I was really nervous about whether we’d picked the right shade of gray … we wanted it dark enough that it was obviously not white, but not so dark that it would create too much contrast and cause all of the grout joints to appear busy.  I think the color we picked works well.  We probably could have gone a little darker, but I like the way it turned out …



With the tile complete, the next days were spent installing the vanity, faucets, counter top, toilet, medicine cabinet, light fixtures, trim, etc. to finish up the room.  By the time the contractors left, the room was basically done … just paint (and a few other minor things) remaining.

 

It might be kind of hard to see without all of the finishing touches in place, but the bathroom sure came a long way in just a few weeks … and then Haley was born and this is how it sat … for months.  We finally picked a paint color, painted, updated some hardware, and changed up the sconces in January (more on that next time!) and we still have a few finishing touches (door hardware, towel bars, decorating, etc.) left, so look for more on that soon!

Filed Under: Home Improvement

Tags: , ,

Leave a Reply