Mini Bathroom Update
We quickly knocked out a mini bathroom update last week, and I have to say, it was a very satisfying transformation. We planned on waiting to renovate both bathrooms in our house until later (much later because I am tired of living in a construction zone), but I had the sudden urge to do a little bathroom make over in the meantime. I acted quickly on the thought, and working mostly during naps and after bedtime, I was finished the mini makeover in 5 days.
So I’d say it was pretty easy!
Bathroom Mood Board
Paint
Our whole house had heavily textured walls- it was such a thing in the 70s. We retextured all of the walls smooth in our house when we painted, but we left both bathrooms as is. The bathroom had a beige paint color with a satin finish that just highlighted the texture; I knew that we needed to do a dark color with a flat/matte finish to help mask the texture.
I decided on a whim to do Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams. I am truly not sure how I chose it, I wanted dark but not black, and this is what I landed on.
There is something about doing a project without permanence behind it that takes the pressure off of perfection.
The paint in this bathroom was the biggest transformation by far, and it cost $45 for the gallon of paint. The texture went from looking dated to cozy when it was paired with this dark color. It was the perfect choice.
Sherwin Williams Iron Ore
the perfect dark charcoal with a touch of blue.
Vanity
I will start by saying this vanity was disgusting. There was evidence of old water damage, and the sink base was sunken as a result. I truly wanted to rip it out, but I came to my senses that we cannot do a full bathroom remodel right now. We decided to doctor up the vanity and cut new plywood to size for a new sink base. I painted the whole vanity, inside and out with Sherwin Williams Iron Ore in a satin finish. I painted the vanity after bedtime, and threw a second coat on the next morning. Once again, it was so refreshing taking the pressure off of perfection knowing that this was not a permanent solution. Painting the inside of the vanity helped to cover the musty smell, and then I threw a box of baking soda in the back of the vanity with some drops of citrus fresh essential oil as a deodorizer. It felt good as new (ish).
The vanity has a single sink even though it has more than enough room to be a double sink. I decided to visually play on the single sink, and added a single mirror above the sink with a pendant light instead of the large, dated mirror that was there before. I have to say that the large countertop space is very useful!
The vanity actually had a granite top that was in great shape, but looked dated as is. Simply changing the colors from beige surrounding it transformed the look of the granite entirely. Paint truly can transform a space in itself.
Paneling
Adding paneling to this bathroom was the second biggest transformative factor. While Lily and I were waiting for the paint to be ready at Home Depot, I walked over the wood section. There was one piece of paneling left, and it had a bit of damage. I had them cut the 8 foot panel in half so that I could fit it in my car. They noticed the damage, and gave it to me for $5, even better.
The beige shower tile extended below the window on the back wall of the bathroom, and it was the first thing you saw walking into the bathroom. We cut the paneling to size and directly adhered it to the tile using liquid nails. Since we had more paneling left over, we added a sheet behind the toilet, simply because I did not feel like removing the toilet to try to paint behind it. We were able to slide the pre painted sheet of paneling behind the toilet, and it was done. Genius.
We added a few trim pieces to make it look more finished, and it turned out beautifully. It makes such a difference in this space.
Details
I based this bathroom update on a lot of items that we already had like our shower curtain. We bought this shower curtain from Pottery Barn for the first house that we bought together in 2014; a good ticking stripe is always in style. I had a white shower curtain in here before, but I loved how the ticking stripe played off of the dark walls.
I was drawn to a floral print from Juniper Print Shop because I loved how the dark and moody colors played off of the Iron Ore paint color. I bought it printed on canvas because I wanted that added texture in a glassless frame. A statement piece of artwork was the perfect thing to take up the space next to the mirror.
We bought a custom size bamboo roman shade to help cover up the dated window, and I was very impressed for the quality with a price tag under $70! It fits the window perfectly, and the subtle color variation is beautiful in the space.
I bought a mirror that I thought would work perfectly in the space, but simultaneously found an antique mirror for $40 on Facebook Marketplace that I decided to jump on instead.
We added the cutest little green pendant light over the sink that adds the perfect touch, and it was only $36!
I bought a new rug that was a bit bigger to help cover some more of the tile, and I loved how to the subtle color played off of the ticking stripe shower curtain, and it was also very affordable under $40.
I dug through some of our boxes and found some other goodies like a little framed print from Brittany Smith Studio, a vase with some dried flowers, my mini aria diffuser, a trash can, an antique little stool for a plant, and an antique full length mirror to hang on the opposite wall was the perfect finishing touch.
Moral of the story: do not underestimate the power of shopping your own home.
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This little bathroom update came to under $300 after it was all said and done, and we are thrilled with how it turned out. We were planning to wait until we were able to fully gut the bathroom, but we did not realize how satisfying a few easy and inexpensive updates would be in the mean time.
