As part of my ongoing whole house refresh, we tackled my daughter's bathroom. The house was built in 1997 and everything in it dated from that era and really needs a refresh. This bathroom was an easier one because it needed less major work and more tweaking to update it.
What we did:
1. Painted. The walls are painted with SW Pure White. We decided to bring the ceiling paint down on the walls eight inches and add a bit of moulding between the line of white and blue. This blue is SW Belize. This is, in my opinion, the easiest and least expensive way to transform a room.
2. Cabinets. The cabinets were in great shape but I disliked the dated looking oak and really hated that open area meant to be a vanity but never served as such given the small size of the bathroom. Thus, we added storage to this area by building out shelves there. I used poplar for the shelf itself and oak (to match the existing cabinetry) for the front face frame.
After that, we painted all of the cabinetry. In order to ensure the paint dried very hard, we used acrylic paint. This costs quite a bit more but it's worth it because it doesn't yellow like oil, doesn't have that softness like latex, and can really take a beating. We painted our kitchen cabinets with the same and it has held up beautifully.
3. Counter and faucet. If you have cultured marble and it's beginning to look a bit roughed up, it's very easy to restore it. My husband has done this a couple of times now and wet sands it with a very fine sandpaper followed by automotive polishers. It's more time consuming than anything else but makes a huge difference at the end. We added a more updated faucet as well.
4. Flooring. We had an old sheet vinyl floor in here. After adding cement board and doing any appropriate leveling, we tiled this floor. This is a very inexpensive tile but I like putting the dark gray grout in there to help curb the issue of worrying about staining all of that grout. Plus, I think the dark gray highlights the tile instead of it disappearing into a sea of white.
5. Toilet. We had the old water saver toilets of the 90s that worked terribly. We've taken the opportunity to replace these as we've done each bathroom. I was in luck and found this Kohler on sale and had a coupon. So I got a great deal on it. I do so love great deals. Because I was willing to buy it when it was on sale and store it until I was ready to use it, I was able to save loads of money. This really goes for everything.
6. Lighting. The only lighting in this room is that over the sink. Hate that but oh well. Easy quick update is to replace dated lighting. The hollywood lights that were in here previously were definitely dated.
7. New woodwork. We added the frame around the sheet glass mirror which is an easy update. Just make sure to paint both sides since the mirror will show the underside color to some degree. In addition, we updated the baseboard and just continued it right across the front of the cabinetry. I like this look because it's quite cohesive.
8. Decor. Really, how much can you add to a bathroom? We went with fun and quirky because it perfectly defines my daughter. She's both of those things. Besides it's a bathroom. Have fun with it!
Photos - tried to pick similar before and after angles. Enjoy. Happy to answer any questions as to cost, materials, etc.
Some before photos.
Hello husband!
Some after:
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