What Were We Thinking? - The Reveal

I think it is about time to wrap up the posts on this master bath makeover and finish it up so we can move onto other projects, here we go.

Last I left you the large mirror in the bathroom fell off the wall creating a new design opportunity I was secretly hoping for but did not expect.  It was time for a new backsplash and two mirrors to replace the large one which came down.  Off to Lowe’s to see what they had, the trip was a success when we found some fantastic tile to tie together all the elements I was using to decorate the room.

We decided the best and most cost effective way to use the tile sheets was to cut them in half lengthwise to create the backsplash, that way we would not need very many sheets keeping the cost down. We chose an all in one tile and grout pre-mix since we did not really have any idea what the heck we were doing. We did pretty well putting the tile up and waiting for the 24 hour set time to go by before grouting it, which is where we got into major trouble.  Neither of us bothered to read the directions on the mixture or the tile so we did it wrong and had to wait another 24 hours before re-grouting it a second time to make the grout actually stay put in the spaces between the tiles. Nuts!!!! Lesson learned for next time, it really is not hard if you just read all the directions thoroughly.  Once the tile was done the sinks, faucets, towel bars, new light switches and lights went up pretty easily.  Our biggest dilemma was finding the right size and finish for the mirrors; we needed two with a brushed nickel finish to match the faucets and all the rest of the hardware we put up.  Lowe’s did not have them, the ones we bought at Kirkland’s were to big and the wrong color, no mirrors at Target or Hobby Lobby.  We finally found two of them in a brushed nickel finish just the right size at Home Depot, very expensive but we had no choice at that point, they were just what we needed. Once we hung them we were racing towards the finish line, here are the final photos of our makeover.

Before:

After:

As you can see we have a completely different master bath, one we are very proud of.  It only took us a full eleven days instead of the three we originally planned on but it was well worth the extra time and money we spent.  We actually only went a little over the budget we set for ourselves so it was a win, win situation with a beautiful room we use daily which we will enjoy for years to come.

Thanks for letting me share the good, the bad and the beautiful of our master bath makeover.  I hope you enjoyed a peek into the nuts and bolts of our DIY project and you are inspired to tackle one of your own, if we can do it successfully anyone can. Next up is the makeover of the downstairs guest bath; it came out so wonderful I can not wait to share it with you.

See you soon.

Laurette

Master Bath Makeover

What were we thinking?!?

Two weeks ago my hubby and I had the opportunity to go away on vacation or stay home and spend the time and money doing a master bath and bedroom makeover.  If you are a regular reader you know which one we chose to do, the makeover!!!  I really wanted to do a blog post each day as we went along on our project but found I was totally wiped out at the end of the day with little to no brain power left with which to write a post, alas I am just finally getting to it now.  The only question I have is whether to break this into several smaller posts or just one big one with lots of photos??? Hmm…. There were so many funny stories as we went along with our project, some not to be missed; I think I just answered my own question, a couple of shorter posts first then the reveal.

Before I begin let me set up the intention of our makeover, we were originally only going to paint our bedroom and bathroom to change the color from an ugly builder pink/beige to a spa like blue for the bathroom and a golden/sandy beige color for the bedroom.  I also wanted to frame out the huge 4’x 8’ glass mirror hanging over our vanity and change out the ugly builder grade ten bulb bar light, and replace the cheap faucets.  Quick and easy right….NOT!!! I digress here; let me get back to some before photos of the bathroom so you can get some background for all the future posts.

These are the photos of our master bath before we did any work, pretty basic with some cheap fixtures installed by the investor who did the flip before we purchased it.  The home was move in ready but with NO WOW factor when you walked into the room.  If you know me at all you know I have to have color, bling and some kind of design going on in every room in my home, no builder basic anything. Yikes! I have no idea how I lived with it like that for three years!

Time to strip down the bathroom, scrub the heck out of the walls, baseboards and doors, tape it and begin cutting around everything which was not leaving the room.  At this point everything was nice and simple just a basic cleaning and paint job….right?

Up went the paint, the first coat covered pretty well but there were some bare spots so late in the day we added a second coat for absolutely full coverage which would last a long time and take a ton of moisture from the shower.  In these photos the color looks kind of dark but the color is the same icy blue used in my studio, guestroom and new office, love that color, which is Oak Bay by Ace Hardware.  I would paint the whole house in that color if my husband would let me, hehe!

Here we are no tape, beautiful light blue walls, bright white doors and trim and the awful white Formica counter tops; which almost kept me from buying the house because I hated them so much, they were in two of the three bathrooms, yuck!!!  At this point this is where things got interesting, scary and funny all at the same time.  Can you guess what I was thinking when I saw them with the pretty blue walls?  I bet you can but you will just have to stay tuned to find out where our project took a turn and ran right off the tracks into almost a full renovation.

Thanks for letting me share the beginning of our master bath makeover with you; I hope you will stay with us as we progress through all the unexpected twist and turns of this project.

See you soon.

Laurette