Our (Budget) Bathroom Renovation Plans
Hey hey! Coming at you hot this Wednesday morning with our big plans for renovating our downstairs bathroom. It’s one of the only rooms in the house that we haven’t touched since moving in. I’ve been itching to get my hands on it since day one, but honestly I didn’t really know what to do with it.
Flash back to this May, when Chris Loves Julia dropped their flooring line with WallPops. They turned our kitchen into a masterpiece (peep that post here) and we planned on using the tiles in both our mudroom and downstairs bathroom as well. They are currently covered in this weird, but not completely hideous, linoleum that I believe has been there since the 1950’s.
It’s these cute little leaves in different shades of blue… if this was a wallpaper I think I’d be all over it, but unfortunately it just does not belong on the floor. It’s also got all of these strange yellow stains on it - part of me wants to take a blacklight to it and make sure we’re not living in a murder house. Not that I wouldn’t secretly love that.
Our plan for this little ~renovation~ is to replace everything except for the shower. As always, our budget is small and my dreams are big. I want to replace the shower eventually with a 54” clawfoot tub. Considering it will cost well over $1,000 for the tub alone (never mind the changes to the plumbing), it’s going to have to wait a bit.
This is probably the one, from Vintage Tub & Bath.
Doing projects in phases is always a little tricky, because you need to consider your future plans in everything you do. We need to make sure we have enough extra flooring to cover any changes, along with extra wall mouldings (more on that in a minute). I have to consider how we’ll be using the room differently when we install the tub. We currently don’t use this shower at all, because it’s weird and small and it’s a long walk from the bedrooms. Because of this, the bathroom itself hasn’t seen the level of use that it might get in the future. Steam is a real destroyer of dreams in bathrooms, especially when you want to use wood.
So let’s get into the design! We ordered a vanity already (pictured in the design board below) and the flooring is in our basement right now.
I’m a little obsessed. I whipped this up last night when I was really, really tired, so I didn’t overthink it like I typically do. My New England coastal roots definitely came out to play. I adore the curvature in the vanity, faucet, mirror, and lights… to be frank I didn’t do this deliberately but applaud my tired self for putting them together.
Mixing metals is one of my favorite games lately, and I think the polished nickel, light aged bronze, and aged brass will create a really interesting scene. This little trash can is so expensive there isn’t even an advertised price online, so I’ll likely be recreating it with a vase and Rub n’ Buff.
If you saw my stories yesterday/this morning, you saw me investigating a black paint vs. blue paint. I was originally inspired by this Blanc Marine design:
But the black wasn’t feeling right in the space. I could have tried to find the right black, but when I was painting the blue sample on the walls, I felt tempted to paint the entire room right there in that moment. It felt really good. So I’m going with my gut and we’ll see what happens!
As for the mouldings, I want dark stained oak covering the bottom of the wall, all the way around the room. This was a little tricky to figure out on our tiny budget, as something like this done correctly would be hella expensive. So we’ve reinterpreted it and if it works I’ll share it with you! But here’s the plan for those:
I tried out some other layouts to see more options… like a thinner moulding, or more rectangles, or something that went even higher up the wall, but this one (my first one) stood the test of time. At the end of the day, it’s a strange, small room. Sure, I could dive back into my grad school books and use Classical proportions or the Golden Mean to try and determine the best solution, but it just doesn’t really feel necessary here.
We’re planning on getting started pretty much ASAP, and I’ll keep you updated on stories as we work through it! Send good vibes our way. We’ll need ‘em.
Until next time,
Nicki
