Master Bath Renovation

Our early Spring/Summer project...............it seemed to take forever, but we got it done finally and I really love it!!!!

After

Time just marches on doesn't it?  I'm still kicking..........have had to rather curtail a few things in the last year and a half, due to two knee replacements, but doing well now and I am sooooo glad to have that all behind me!!  Now, I can get back to doing the things I love, creating, designing, making our home a haven in this world.  I know God is in control and we are not to worry, but oh my, our world is changing in so many ways.  These things and illness in our family plot to bring spirits down, but we still must get up every morning full of hope and God's presence and provision in our lives.

I guess maybe that is the allure of redesigning a room...........I feel maybe like I have some control...........just a wee bit...........well, somewhat,......... the "budget" is also in control, but you get the drift.

Our master bath has needed attention for some time, and so in the Spring, we started the task of putting down floor tile, changing the color of our vanity cabinets, new tile for the tub surround, beefing up the trim, and painting it out white, as opposed to the stained oak. 

This is how it looked when we started:

Before

I was never happy with the way this turned out........the tile was too high on the wall for what I wanted.  The contractor did not listen to me at all.  Also, the window is set into a box on the outside of the house and it creates the shelf you see under it.  However, whoever framed this in did not allow for the window to have trim on all four sides......consequently the side trim had to "deadend" into the tile.  As an added insult, the person doing the caulking simply filled the gap with silicone, which bled up into the grain of the oak.  It looked terrible.  In addition, horizontal tile is nothing but a dust catcher, and the grout holds on to a good deal of the dirt, no matter how much you clean.  So, I decided, we needed some kind of small counter material on top of the shelf and also on the front side of the tub.  So, we ordered onyx slabs for this.

Before

In addition to these corrections and changes, there was carpet in this area.......yes, I know........the most terrible decision you can make, according to HGTV.  HA!  When we built, tile had been planned, but there was a snafu at the last minute and simply no time to correct it and keep on schedule, so we decided to put down the same carpet as the bedroom, tile the toilet room only, and change out the carpet at a later date.    Well, 10 YEARS later IS a later date!!  Actually, the carpet did much better than I thought it would, but it had paid its rent and it was time to tile the whole thing.  By this time, the little tile we had installed in the toilet area, was not to our liking anymore, so it had to be removed also.  We chose to put down 12 x 24 plank wood-grained tile in a soft silver gray.

Ready to see??

We got the marble subway tile at Home Depot and it went on pretty well, but was a bit of a challenge as the coloring was all over the place!!  I originally wanted more just grays and whites, but so much of the tile had some golds and browns, that we just ended up distributing it as evenly as we could as we went.  We used the border tile to finish it off at the top.

Would you believe these cabinets were the BIGGEST challenge of the reno?  I tried stripping them first........also used industrial sandpaper to get off the commercial finish.......worked fine in some places, but the paneled doors were a bear!!  I had planned to just use a dark penetrating stain.  When I realized I was not going to be able to get off all the finish, I decided to try the gel stain by General Finishes in the dark walnut color.  I felt the Java would be too dark and I did want the grain of the oak coming through.  Our cabinets were very well built and custom, so to replace them would be out of the question.........and I really didn't want to paint them either. (My husband seemed happy about that)  It took me so long it seemed, but we did have quite a few interruptions.  I tried to make sure that with each coat, I let it try a few days before doing another.  I did all the doors in the garage as it got warmer.  After they got two coats, I applied then two (or three) coats of Minwax satin polyurethane.  Before I brushed on the poly, I sprayed them with a coat of poly, so I wouldn't disrupt the gelstain by brushing over it.  I really do like the finished product, but it is very hard to get it to look professional, definitely not for the faint of heart, and there is NO way I would attempt a kitchen!!  For small projects, tabletops, etc it is great, especially if you can't remove the finish.

The toilet area.............

I love having enough room here to add the little wicker stand and a lamp! 

I changed out some of my pictures in the toilet area too.

This is one of "best" changes in the bathroom!!  We had a small chandelier here, but saw this light fan at Lowes on clearance and thought it would be perfect and maybe help the lady of the house keep her "cool" a little better when trying to get ready in the mornings................I just love it!!!  It moves a surprising amount of air, but does not move the hair, if you know what I mean.
They don't carry them anymore,.........not sure why.  I have seen them on Amazon, but they are WAY more than we paid!!  It was an Allen and Roth.  Everyone seems to love it!!

Thank you for checking in.  I hope your Fall is going great.  I can't believe how quickly this year has gone and that we are already into November!!!  Christmas will be here before we know it.  

Singing His Praises,

Linda