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I’ve finally recovered enough emotionally from this bathroom renovation to write about it; which sounds dramatic, until you read the rest of this post.

I love the house where I grew up. It’s a traditional, two-story Southern style home with a big front porch that welcomes you the moment you pull into the driveway. However, as fondly as I feel towards my childhood home (and the memories it holds), it hasn’t changed much since it was built in the late ’80s. There’s wallpaper and old brass light fixtures in nearly every room. And it’s no one’s fault; it would take a LOT of manpower and money to bring the house completely up-to-date, and my parents have had more important things to focus on over the last few decades.

Now that they’re getting close to retirement age and thinking of downsizing, it’s time to start tackling these updates one at a time, as frugally as possible. (Frugally…is that a word? I say yes.)

My mom always focuses on making other people happy and working with what she has, but it’s time to focus on her. She’s got great style – the house just needs a little facelift. So, on my most recent visit to SC, we decided to tackle her powder bathroom. Simple enough, right? WRONG.

Demo

Taking out the vanity wasn’t very difficult. My dad and brother were able to remove it in about 15 minutes – which then revealed our first obstacle.

The vanity was original to the house, and when it was installed, the builder didn’t see the need to tile the bathroom floor beneath the vanity, or wallpaper the walls the vanity was against. Because of this, we had to patch the floor so the new vanity (which is larger than the original) would sit level, and secure and sand the wallpaper so it would be ready to paint at the seam.

Painting Over Wallpaper

The first thing we did after patching the floor was pick out a paint color. We chose a subtle light grey, and I could not wait to paint over the wallpaper (which turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be). Two coats of Kilz oil-based primer, and we were good to go ( it took two coats for the wallpaper to not bleed through the primer).

Side note: I love wallpaper as much as the next girl, but choosing a print that works in your space can be tricky. This powder bath is pretty small, and the busy blue and white print made it seem smaller. By choosing a light, neutral color, we opened the space and made it look bigger. A wallpaper with a larger, more subtle print would have done the same thing if we had wanted to go that route.

Choosing & Installing the Vanity

My favorite part of the design process is picking out all of the pieces that create personality in a room. For the powder bath, the vanity is the focal point, so we wanted to select a piece that would really “wow”.

We chose this charcoal grey vanity by the Scott Brothers from Lowe’s. It has a gorgeous marble top with matching backsplash, brushed nickel hardware, and is super functional with lots of storage.

We had to be mindful of the design of the front of the vanity. Because the tile is missing on the floor, we needed a vanity that sits flat on the floor to hide the change in flooring, with a toe kick for some character. This was harder to find that I thought it would be, but ended up working out perfectly to conceal the patched floor.

The incomplete tile job also created an issue with the vanity fitting flush against the wall, because there’s no baseboard where the old vanity sat. To fix this issue, I used a coping saw and mimicked the curve of the baseboard so the vanity could sit flush against the wall. (Thanks, dad for teaching me how to do this!)

Another issue we ran into was the placement of the plumbing versus the structure of the vanity. The old vanity had an open back and doors on the front, so there was no issue with lining the plumbing up to any structures. With the new vanity, the plumbing interferes with the partition that separates the open storage section from the drawers.

I used the handy coping saw to cut out a section of the partition so the plumbing fitting would have room to operate. There were other issues with the plumbing not lining up, but my dad was able to use things he already had in the garage to create a solution. (Who needs a plumber when you have a daddy who grew up on a farm?)

Lighting & Accessories

Since the hardware on the vanity is brushed nickel, we decided to stick with that finish for the light fixture and other bathroom accessories. The new vanity is two inches wider than the old vanity, so we had to be sure the plate on the new light fixture could accommodate the one inch we needed to move it for it to be centered over the vanity.

The light fixture we chose has a plate that covered the hole from the electrical work and gave us the flexibility we needed to center it over the new vanity. We had an issue with the bolts being too long (it’s probably intended to be mounted on a stud instead of drywall), but dad saved the day yet again, and we used bolts he had on hand.

We chose a sleek brushed nickel Moen faucet that we found on a random shelf at Lowe’s. Shopping for a faucet was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be; my mom had a very specific vision for what she wanted (no gaps or nooks and crannies to get dusty) but she didn’t want to spend a fortune, and rightfully so. After about thirty minutes in Lowe’s, we were on the verge of ordering a very basic faucet from Amazon, when I found the one we ultimately went with. It wasn’t crazy expensive, it was the right finish, and it was sleek and simple without looking cheap and boring. Winning!

We ordered a towel ring and toilet paper holder from Wayfair in the same finish, and they worked out perfectly. Target had the perfect rug, hand towel, and canvas, and Hobby Lobby saved the day with a rustic shelf for above the toilet.

The Final Result

Our hard work paid off, and the blood, sweat and tears were all worth it. What we thought would take a weekend turned out taking nearly a week, and would have required a carpenter, plumber, and electrician if it hadn’t been for my dad.

I’m so glad to have this project under my belt, and can’t wait to tackle mom and dad’s kitchen next! (Although I’ll stick to designing and let the professionals handle installation on that one!)