Vintage Bathroom Makeover {Part 4}

 

 

Happy hump day everyone! I hope that you are having a fantastic day so far. Things are fab here! I survived the "Great Disaster Room Cleanout of 2014" and will show you the updates this week. It is amazing what 14 hours of hard labor can do for a massive mess! So that is one step closer to being really moved into the house...and I am so excited! I wanted to stop by today to show you where we are with the guest bathroom. Last time we checked-in, I showed you the floors, wainscoting and subway tile shower surround. So today, I wanted to show you the latest version since all of the "hardscape" is in and we are now just left with accessorizing. Happy days!!! As a reminder, here is the upstairs floor plan before we started the renovation and the guest bathroom is highlighted in yellow: 

 

As I have previously mentioned, one of the main reasons for our renovation was to update and enlarge our tiny bathrooms. Although the bathrooms had a fun vintage look, it was not the look we were going for. Here is what the vanity area looked like before the renovation:

 

 

And here is what the shower/toilet area looked like:

 

 

So as you can see, super dark and super tiny!!! In order to make it so that two people could get ready at the same time, we decided to make a separate vanity area and a separate shower/toilette area. Here is the floor plan for the remodeled second floor and the new bathroom is highlighted in yellow:

 

As I previously mentioned, we were going for a 1920's vintage feel with carrara marble, white subway tiles, and dark cabinets. This is the original mood board that I made for the bathroom:

 

 

And here is how she turned out! This is a view looking into the vanity area from the shower/toilet room:

 

 

We have a double vanity on the right side of the room. And on the left side, we have two floor to ceiling linen cabinets. This is a fairly tight space, but between the vanity and the two linen cabinets, we have a TON of storage!!! We also added the white wainscoting to give the room a tailored look and chose a cool grey to play off of the carrara marble counter tops.  One of my favorite features of the bathroom though is the basket weave tile "floor mat" that we added in the vanity area:

I absolutely LOVE the way that it turned out!!! To me, the floor gives a super retro vibe and is a fun surprise. And please excuse the quality of the following picture, but here is what the bathroom looks like when you enter from the hallway.

You can't tell from that picture (because I was using my IPone), but there is about an 8" space between each side of the vanity and the wall...so the vanity actually looks like a piece of furniture as opposed to a built-in cabinet. Now moving onto the shower/toilet room.  In the shower I chose white subway tile for the shower surround, a large goose neck shower head (because there are many 6'4"+ men in my family that will visit), and a hand shower that I can use to more easily bath children (once they join the picture):

In the middle of the shower, to break up some of monotony of the subway tiles, I added a framed herringbone feature. 

 I am so excited with the way it turned out! I think it is super elegant with a splash of fun. And on the back side of the shower we added a train rack to hang robes and store towels for our guests:

 

 

The train rack is so pretty!!! It makes me not want to hang a shower curtain so that I can see it all the time.  And as you can see from the picture above, I also added a little bench at the end of the tub. I thought this would be a great place to sit when bathing kiddos and also will be a nice place for them to store their bath toys. So there you have it folks! I still have a ton to do with all the accessorizing, but have made huge progress! And speaking of progress, lets check out a couple before and afters shall we?!?!?!

And one more of the shower area! So much better!!!!

 



 

 Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!!!

 

Let There Be Light! - Lighting Design for the Casa (Part 1)

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope that you are having a great week so far. We are trucking along on the house and have finally ordered all of our light fixtures! Woohoo!!! There is something about ordering the lights that makes me feel like we are getting close to completing this beast of a project (please sweet baby Jesus let it be so!!!!). Although it took a year of wading through thousands of options, picking out the light fixtures has been a blast! In my view, light fixtures are just like a good pair of glitzy chandelier earrings...they are a super fun accessory that can add some serious glamor to a room. And bringing some girly glam to the casa was very important to me because the tan/cream/bronze color scheme that we have selected for the first floor could very easily turn the house into a "Super Masculine Mancave" (my husband's ultimate fantasy) if I didn't force down Matt's throat add these pops of bling to each room. However, it took so long to pick the fixtures because of two major restrictions we have at the house. The first restriction is beyond our control...we have 8 foot ceilings. This makes life tricky because Matt and I are both fairly tall (6'1" and 5'9.5"), so there are several places in the house where we need fixtures that sit somewhat close to the ceiling (basically everywhere that a light isn't over a table or in the stairwell) so that we don't knock our cabezas every time we walk through the house. Unfortunately, I have discovered that "flush mount light" actually translates to "ugly as hell" in most languages. Which brings us to my second restriction, which is 100% self-imposed...NO BOOB LIGHTS!!!!!

 

 

Please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against ta-tas that are attached to a gals chest...however, I take serious issue to boobs that are attached to my ceiling. Maybe its boob envy, but I just don't like the idea of making our ceilings have a better figure than me! So after several hours of scrolling through multiple website, here are the flush mounts that have made the cut:

 

1. Visual Comfort Small Basil Flush Mount (for the Wrapping Closet) 

2. Pottery Barn Capiz Flushmount (for the Light Blue Bedroom)

3. Cone Shape Matte Silver Flushmount Ceiling Chandelier (for the Guest Bathroom)

4. Maxim Lighting Hi-Bay 2-Light Flush Mount (for the Study)

5. Quoizel Josslyn Flush Mount (for the Laundry Room)

6. Savoy House Alsace 3 Light Semi-Flush in Reclaimed Wood (for the Living Room)

 

The first five lights are either chrome or polished nickle because they go upstairs where we have grey walls and white trim in the Guest Bathroom, Study and Laundry Room, robin egg blue walls and white trim in the Light Blue Room, and bright pink walls, white trim and yellow ceiling in the Wrapping Closet (although Matt thinks that I am nuts, but it's super cute and my one Über girly room in the joint).  The light for the Living Room is wood and oil rubbed bronze, which hopefully will look pretty with the cream/tan walls and dark trim.  I cannot wait to see what these guys look like installed! That's all for now. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!!!

 

Stop by here if you want to see some more funfilled "Non-Boob-Light" fixtures.

 

I am liking up with Love of Family and Home, My Repurposed Life, Design Dining & Diapers

 



Vintage Bathroom Remodel - Part 3

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Things were busy here in Houston, but very productive at the house. As I mentioned last week, not only is painting in in full swing at the casa, but the tile in the upstairs guest bathroom is finally being installed and I am super excited to show you how it is turning out! Back in May, I introduced you to our oh-so-loverly guest bathroom and gave you the low down on my plans to give our tiny little "Ode-to-1960's-Wallpaper-and-Tile" guest bath a cool vintage makeover and bring her into the 21st century via the 1920's.  I also showed you the newly installed cabinets in my Vintage Bathroom Remodel - Part 2 post here. But, just to jog your memory, here is the layout of the original bathroom below highlighted in yellow:
 

As you can see, it was a small three piece bath with a single sink, a toilet and a five foot tub.  And here are some shots of the bathroom in all her 1960's wallpaper and tile glory:

 

The first picture shows the view into the bathroom from the hallway.  And this next picture is a view of the toilet and tub (with my back towards the vanity):
 

Although the bathroom had a fun 1960's vintage feel...it was the wrong era for my vision and just too small.  In order to allow two people to get ready in the bathroom at the same time, we decided to expand the bathroom so that we would have a vanity room and a separate shower room. The floor plan below shows the new bathroom highlighted in yellow (with a pocket door that can separate the shower room from the vanity room).

 

After resolving the space and layout issue, my next task was to create a mood board so that I could see how all the different design elements worked together. This is my original mood board that I created for our "vintage guest bathroom (circa 1920) with a hint of modern flare":

 

 

One of the major design elements that I wanted to incorporate into the vanity room was a "tile floor mat" using a combination of basket weave carrara marble tiles and 12"x12" carrara marble tiles.  The "tile floor mat" in this picture was my original inspiration for the space:

 

 

However, in order to work for our guest bathroom, I had to modify the design of the "tile floor mat" from a rectangle to a large "T" shape. This drawing shows the placement of the vanity and linen cabinets as well as the layout of the "tile floor mat" in the vanity section of the guest bathroom:

 

 

And here is how the floor looks installed:

 

 

I am so excited how it turned out and absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! It is exactly what I envisioned and feels so crisp and clean! Here is another view where you can see how the floor works with the vanity, linen cabinet and wainscoting:
 

 

Happy days, happy days, happy days!!! The shower room section of the guest bathroom was too small for a similar floor mat; so we decided to carry the 12"x12" carrara marble tiles throughout that space. You can see the shower room highlighted in yellow below:

 

To keep with the vintage feel in the shower room, I chose white subway tiles for the shower surround.  However, with the white carrara marble floors and white subway tiles, I was afraid that the space might end-up looking a bit too institutional with all the square lines. So, to break things up, I added a herringbone feature to the back wall of the shower surround, which is illustrated in the drawing below:

 

I also made sure that the herringbone feature was centered on the pocket door between the vanity room and the shower room so that our guests would see it regardless of which part of the bathroom they were in.  This is what she looks like installed (and please note that the herringbone feature is centered on the door, I was just standing at the wrong angle when I took the picture):

 

Again, I am LOVE with how it turned out!!! The white subway tiles are so bright and cheery and the herringbone feature adds just enough interest and spice keep the space from being boring! Here is a close-up of the herringbone feature.  J'adore!!!
 

I am so giddy-like-a-school-girl with how everything is coming together!!! It totally makes all the heart-ache and stress of this year-long remodel fade into the background when I get to see my visions come to life!  Here's to hoping that I am going to be as in love with the rest of the remodel as things continue to progress!!! I hope that you are enjoying the progress and updates as much as I am. But before we go, let's have one more look at the the before and after (well, progress) pictures!

 



 

SO much better!!! Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

 

UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO SEE AN THE FINAL BATHROOM!

 

 

 

I have linked this post to Our Delightful Home, It's So Very Cheri, The Blackberry Vine, Him & Her, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, A Stroll Thru Life, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, A Diamond in the Stuff, Ladybug Blessing, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Elizabeth & Co., Hope Studios, Sugarbee Crafts, Nap-Time Creations, Salt Tree, The Winthrop Chronicles, My Repurposed Life, For the Love of Family and Home; Design, Dining and Diapers

 

Vintage Bathroom Remodel - Part Two

 

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and were able to enjoy a lot of QT with your mama's and babies!  Matt and had a great weekend and had fun on our "Tour O Mom's" yesterday.  It was wonderful to spend time with everyone...and in honor of Mother's Day, here is one of my all time favorite pictures of my Mama and me from our last pilgrimage to the mother land - AKA Disney World - enjoying hot cocoa and cookies at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

 

 

We are both HUGE Disney nuts and this picture pretty much sums us up perfectly when we are there...100% kids 100% of the time.  I mean, what's better than sporting your ears, stepping back into childhood and leaving the real world behind at the Happiest Place On Earth?  Not too much in my book!

 

 

After looking at these pics, I am geared up for another trip to Disney World!  It doesn't take much I tell ya! So now, let's venture from the Happy Place on Earth, to "Jennifer's-Soon-To-Be-Happiest-Place-On-Earth-At-Some-Point-In-The-Near-Future-Please-Dear-Lord".  Today we are heading back upstairs to the Guest Bathroom.  So much progress has been happening over the past few weeks, it's amazing!  I get super giddy just thinking about it!  Last week I showed you where the Guest Bathroom started before the remodel kicked off and the beginning of demoing the old gal.  And here is what she looked liked once demo was complete, all the 1960's wall paper, tile and drywall was removed and she was down to her bare bones.   

 

 

Don't worry, she's not modest! Once we got her down to the studs, we repositioned a few walls to create the new and improved Guest Bathroom with a Shower Room and a Vanity/Storage Room, which you can see highlighted in yellow in the blueprint below.

 

 

Here is the Vanity/Storage Room after the plumbing was relocated, the new window installed, the dry wall was up and fully taped and floated.

 

In this room, we are going for a retro 1920's feel with white subway tiles, basket weave carrara marble floors, medicine cabinets, dark vanities and hotel style linens.  Here is my inspiration board for the room.

 

 

The first things that have arrived are the vanity and linen cabinets.  My plan was to install a double vanity against the outside wall under the window so that two people could get ready simultaneously and there would be plenty of natural light in the space.  However, my goal was to make it look like an old piece of furniture that had been converted into a vanity, like the Restoration Hardware vanity above on my inspiration board...however, without the Restoration Hardware price.  Here is the design drawing that I put together for the cabinet makers.

 

 

 

The vanity is two 36" sink bases connected with three 12" wide drawers in-between.  I chose this layout because I think it will provide lots of storage space under the sinks, along with drawers for items like tooth brushes, hair brush and hair dryers, etc.  And here is the vanity after it was installed (minus the feet and counter tops).

 

 

We picked dark java cabinets for the vanity...but unlike the Master Bathroom cabinets which are Rustic Cherry, these cabinets have a classic smooth finish.  We felt that this would help contribute to the retro feel that we are trying to create.  We also chose the java stain instead of black paint because we wanted to see the pretty grain in the wood.  Also, although the vanity will provide lots of storage, I wanted to add additional storage in the room for linens and other bathroom necessities (because one of my big goals with this remodel is to become organized, and for me to be organized, I need lots of storage so that there can be a place for everything and everything can be in it's place).  To create the additional storage, I decided to put two large floor to ceiling linen cabinets on the wall opposite of the vanity.  Here is my design for the vanity cabinets:

 



Because the bathroom is somewhat narrow (it's 8 feet deep), I needed to conserve space with the linen cabinets so that the room didn't feel cramped once they were installed (especially since the linen cabinets are also stained java).  To make this happen, the linen cabinets are only 12" deep.  However, as you can see in the picture below, 12" is plenty of space and will provide lots of storage - WOOHOO!

 

 And here is her twin on the opposite side of the door.  They still need their doors and crown molding, but this at least this lets you see how the cabinets will fit in the space.

 

 

I am telling you, these bad boys are going to send me to storage heaven! I absolutely cannot wait until I get to start filling them up the linens for the upstairs bedrooms and all sorts of fun bathroom goodies for our guests.  One things for sure, I will be spending lots of time over at I Heart Organizing to get plenty of ideas and inspiration on how I can organize this space and make it pretty! So here's to visions of loverly baskets and Martha Stewart Labels dancing in my head!!!  So how about y'all...do you have any good bathroom organization ideas or tips that you can share with me, because I need all the help I can get and would love to hear them!  Thanks you so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!!



 

I am linking this project to The Blackberry Vine, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Crafty Confessions, Home Stories A to Z, Today's Creative Blog, Elizabeth and Co., Coastal Charm, Hope Studios

Vintage Bathroom Remodel - Part 1

Hi guys! Well it's Thursday and I hope that you are ready for Mother's Day this Sunday! The weather has been amazingly beautiful here in Houston this past week and I am hoping that it stays that way throughout the weekend.  We are enjoying that last bit of cool before the sweltering summer heat that Houston is famous for hits.  So fingers crossed that it continues in honor of all the awesome mamas out there!  And speaking of enjoyment, we are also continuing to enjoy progress at the house.  Things are starting to move at a fast pace and our new move-in date is set for June 27th.  Considering our original move-in date was December 15th, I'm not holding my breath...but hopefully everything will continue smoothly and we will be back home in time for July 4th!  One of the areas of the house that has seen a lot of progress is the upstairs guest bathroom.  We have the cabinets installed and they are getting ready to start on the tile.  However, before jumping in on those pics, I wanted to first show you the state that this poor little room started when the demo began.  In one of my first posts, I told you that two of the driving motivators behind this renovation were the dangerous stairs and the tiny bathrooms.  Both bathrooms (we had one upstairs and one downstairs) were mirror images of each other and had a toilet, sink and tub.  However, they were only about five feet wide (I could seriously touch both walls when standing in the middle of the room) and were only functional for one person at a time.  In this floor plan, you can see the bathroom highlighted in yellow and can also see the general layout of the room. 

Not only did the layout of the room need help, but it's design was born in 1967 and apparently had a serious case of "failure to launch"...so all the finishes were in desperate need of updating!  Seriously, the bathroom had mustard yellow tiles with maroon accents, red and mustard yellow wallpaper, linoleum floors, and dark wood cabinets and wood shutters.  I am sure she was all the rage back in the 60's, but it was high time this little gal got a makeover and was brought into the 21st century.  So without further ado, here is what our little guest bathroom looked like when you first entered the door.

 

You had a small linen closet to your left and an angled sink on your right.  Then, once you turned the corner, you had the shower on your left and the toilet on your right. 

You can see in the pictures that we had added crown molding.  We did this when we first moved in when we thought that we would just freshen the room up a bit by removing the wallpaper and giving it a new coat of paint.  However, that wallpaper was applied with 1967 wallpaper glue, which will not be removed without a major fight.  So we never painted the crown and it went to the large dumpster in the sky along with the rest of the carnage once demo was complete. But I digress, so back to the tour. Here is the view of the sink from inside the shower.

And this is a view looking around the shower wall back towards the entrance of the guest bathroom.

And finally, here is a close-up of the wallpaper.  Like I said, it must have been FAB-U-LOUS back in 1967, but fast-forward 45 years...and it was TIRED and needed to go.

Just outside of the guest bathroom, there was an entrance into unfinished attic space.  This is where the A/C unit lived and where we stored our luggage and other items that were not heat/cold sensitive.  You can see the attic space highlighted in yellow along with the guest bathroom in the floor plan below.

And in this photo, you can see the entrance into the guest bathroom on your left and the entrance into the attic space straight ahead.

Here we have a view of the inside of the attic space.  This area is about five foot wide and, since it butts right up to the bathroom, I thought it gave us the perfect opportunity to expand the bathroom.

 

Since this is currently the only upstairs bathroom, I wanted to create two separate rooms in the space: (1) a room with the shower and toilet, and (2) a room with the vanities and linen closets.  By putting the shower and toilet in their own space, it allows for two people to get ready in the bathroom simultaneously - one in the shower while the other finishes up in the vanity room.  You can see the bathroom highlighted in yellow below and the general layout of the space.

So now that you had the tour, I thought I would leave you with some fun demo pictures...here we go!

Ba-bye vanity and miniature linen closet!

Adios mustard yellow tiles!

And may you rest in peace sweet wallpaper.  You had a good run...but it's time to dim the lights and say goodnight!

 

So that's all for now.  I will follow-up with the post-demo pics and the new cabinets soon! In the mean time, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!!!