Anyone who says a tiny space is a tiny remodel has likely not done a full tiny bathroom gut, or they have and they are just way better at it then I am. Let’s start from the beginning with this project that I went into thinking it should take a couple of weeks which turned into a couple of months.
When we were getting ready to refinance our house into a VA loan we had the mandatory home inspection which resulted in a few things that needed to be done for the VA loan (its an amazing program, but they are definitely pickier on home condition than other loans.) One of those things happened to be our guest bathroom, I knew it was a hideous room but it was also pretty far down our list of todos in the house, but the inspector noticed a bit of water damage around the shower that we had to have fixed. NOW, I will admit that the water damage there could have probably been fixed in a way that would allow us to move forward, but in my head, I figure if I am working in a space 1. I want to do it right and 2. it would help to raise the value of the house as we did the refi.
So approx 45 minutes after the inspector left the house, I had multiple holes in the wall and had Glenn torn out the shower and vanity. We had that thing gutted and ready to go by the end of the day. Great idea Nicole!
I wanted to move quickly on the space and had a design plan put together the next day so I could start sourcing the materials needed. I will say the first sprint of the bathroom went pretty quick and smooth. But silly me, when it comes to a bathroom there are a few things I could not do on my own, which most projects I don’t have that limitation.
I knew I wanted to make a couple of changes to the plumbing so that I could do a different shower set up and I really wanted my sink faucet to be plumbed directly from the wall. So I was able to find a plumber, but it did take a few weeks of him coming out on the weekend between his larger jobs so that was hold up #1
Once he has everything moved I was able to get all the hardibacker up and redo the areas of sheetrock. I found the perfect penny tiles for the floor from Home Depot and a beautiful ceramic tile for the shower and walls from Floor and Decor. I actually tile the floor in a weekend by myself, but when it came to the shower and walls I did not fully trust myself and I was having a really hard time finding time in my work and travel schedule to get it done, so I reluctantly hired it out. While it did up the budget of the project I don’t regret it one bit because it looks sooooo good.
Anytime I am making a decision to do something I am not an expert at I have to way my options. If I am ok with there being some imperfections then I am fine with using it as a learning experience, but something like tile that’s semi-permanent and has a lot of straight lines, I would rather bring in the expert.
Once the tile was finished I felt like I was at the finish line, and honestly if I were not working on multiple projects and would have just made it a priority the last parts of the bathroom could have been finished relatively quickly, but I found myself stuck in a rut and not in the mood to do it. So after a month of knowing what the plan was and talking myself into it, I finally went into “get shit done” mode.
I painted the walls in this amazing terra cotta color. I knew it needed a pop but I wanted it to feel natural and help all the black and white stand out. The color is a True Value called ** color but if you do not have True Value then here is the color recipe:
Once I had the walls painted it was time to make the vanity. At one point in time, I was at estate and yard sales every single weekend buying furniture for my business at the time. When I sold that business I had A LOT of vintage furniture, but there were a few pieces I had to keep because I knew that someday they would be apart of my home. One of those was this vintage table.
Now I knew I wanted it to be my vanity but the wall space id pretty small and it did not quite fit the space, but that was ok. I took the table completely apart piece by piece, cut it down a bit, and put it back together with a few new supports to hold the sink. I then gave it a few coats of my favorite Verathane to protect the wood for years to come.
Not only did it has that perfect vintage touch but it fit the wall like a glove. I then drilled a hole and set the vessel sink. I finished the vanity area by installing the faucet from Wayfair and floating shelves that I made from scrap wood and installed using shelf brackets.
The last thing to do was install the shower, which was one of the first things I received when I started this bathroom. I will be honest though, I took one look at the directions and all the pieces and I put it off until the very end. I don’t know why I did that thought because it really was not that bad to put together, and that shower head was glorious with having the rain shower and hand shower.
I topped the room off with a few vintage finds including a vintage mirror I found on Facebook marketplace for $20. I stripped the stain off of it and gave it a wax coat. I was thinking I wanted something a bit more modern, but this mirror really does fit the space perfectly. I could not be happier with how the space turned out, and honestly, I think I use the guest bathroom now more than I do our own, which is a whole other story. Our bathroom is due for a SERIOUS makeover here soon.
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