Bathroom reno before & after

We bought an old house – 117 years worth of old. Thankfully the big things like the roof, windows, plumbing & electrical are okay. Every room in this house was a different color. The bathroom, which is tiny, was a dark sage green with dark cupboards & a tiny dark sink. All of it made the bathroom closed in & dated so it all had to go. Here is the before & after together & then what we did to the smallest room in our home. 

The first thing we did was paint. The whole inside of the house is painted a light, warm grey called “campfire ash” by Behr paints with white trim & white floors. Every room is the same color now. Thankfully. Because it was a kaleidoscope of horrible colors when we bought the house. 

We switched out the dark mirror with a mirror I’ve had for 22 years – first in Australia, then Canada & now it’s in The US. A very well-traveled mirror indeed. It’s made from reclaimed timber & had been stained a color I didn’t like so I used my electric sander & got rid of the stain. I love the color of the natural wood matched with the with the white, grey & black. 

As much as we needed storage, the dark cupboard hanging above the loo just had to go. It made the bathroom (even more) cramped. I love industrial pieces so when Hobby Lobby had a sale on all their metal decor…well, you’ll see in the coming months as I share our renovations with you. The wire basket with the loo paper, also Hobby Lobby. 

This little shelf also came from Hobby Lobby. The enamel soap dish I bought at a flea market for 50 cents then filled it with my favorite goat milk soap from Canada. 

There were no towel racks so we added nice long ones to accommodate our big, fluffy towels. We ripped up the dark green lino & put down some grey tiles instead then painted the dark brown floor vent white with matt spray paint. We still have to pull the shower stall out & replace it with tiles but that will happen after we add our second bathroom because this girl cannot be without a shower. 

We ripped the small, ugly vanity out & added a real wood & porcelain vanity that filled the space & gave us more storage. We had to buy the top & bottom separately because we couldn’t find a left offset sink mount in the size we needed. Thankfully the pieces all fitted together perfectly. I sprayed some drawer-pulls & knobs black to match the black accents in the bathroom & throughout the whole house. I also spray-painted the taps matt black. There was nothing wrong with them apart from the color so we saved some money just by painting. Loo roll & magazine holder were mounted to the side of the vanity so they didn’t use up any limited floor space. 

There was a large, dated 3-bulb light fixture which we tossed & replaced with a simple, industrial looking light. So much cleaner & simpler. I also replaced the shower curtain with a fresh white one & swapped out the curved curtain rod for a straight one, taking up less space. And I sprayed the stainless curtain rod matt black. All simple fixes.

We added just a small piece of original art by an Australian aborigine. Oh & I love succulents plants & have both real & fake throughout the house. 

I’m still getting used to only having one bathroom but come next spring we’ll be converting the back of the house into a master suite so we’ll have two bathrooms. And then we’ll tile the shower in this one. For now though my hubby & I were happy with the results as it looks brighter & cleaner. Six people lived in this house before us so if they survived with only one little bathroom for years, we can do it until next spring. Until next time, Lovoni xo

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