Centsational Style

One of the projects I finished during my stay in Florida was the final touches on this small bathroom refresh. When we bought this house we talked about extending this bathroom into the rear yard to make it larger since it is the primary bathroom, but decided instead to simply give it an update so it felt more modern. (We decided against expansion since this isn’t our forever home when we eventually make the full time jump to Florida next year.)

I didn’t want to spend a ton of money giving it an update so this bathroom refresh was completed on a budget. I shopped for less expensive materials to challenge myself. The largest expense was labor, we needed to remove a hideous florescent light and install new wires for a sconce above the mirror and also a vent to the outside for moisture/odor. We also had to pay for a plumber to come and move the vanity pipes from the right to the left for better flow. The labor costs were several hundred dollars, but so worth it.

Here’s the space I started with. Notice the old laminate cabinet, the pink formica countertop (wow!), the dated and dingy gray porcelain flooring, and the horrific florescent light fixture that ate up the ceiling. I changed all of that.

Here is the space today! It has a new mid century style walnut vanity on the left instead of the right to allow for more sensible entry and exit into the walk in shower. New lighting, mirror, storage, and tile give the space a much fresher look!

Moving the vanity to the left was essential to me, it allows one person to brush their teeth if another is in the shower. Before the faucet was directly in front of the shower door which made absolutely no sense, and there was a lot of wasted space in this bathroom before.

The new vanity is 6” more shallow than the previous countertop, allowing for extra space to move around. I love the legs, it allows for easy sweeping and mopping underneath.

We lost countertop space but I created more horizontal surfaces with a metal and wood storage shelf and a little glass shelf above it. Above the toilet (not shown) I’m adding a tall IKEA Godmorgan medicine cabinet for even more storage.

I repurposed the white towel bar, it was perfectly good so it stayed, same for the white toilet paper holder next to the toilet.

The new floor and backsplash is a super affordable white porcelain grid mosaic that we installed on both the floor and wall. It’s simple, classic, and very inexpensive. It runs up the wall behind the vanity to add protection against splashing water.

The bathroom shelf is from IKEA I simply spray painted it a brushed brass finish to coordinate with the golden tones in the mirror and picture frame. It provides a little ledge for smaller toiletries and display.

The art is my own sketch that I colorized in a muted pastel desert palette, I’ll be adding it to my print shop next week.

What didn’t change at all was the tile in the shower. It’s your basic 4×4” ubiquitous white tile and it was perfectly good so it stayed. That grid design I repeated on the floor so they complement each other. You can see a glimpse of the shower tile in this image. The shower door is chrome and eventually I may replace it but maybe not since it works perfectly fine and as we all know, new shower doors can be costly.

There are 6 additional inches of space between the shower and the shelf since removing the old vanity and faucet. A bit more room to move around when exiting the shower makes a big difference!

The wall color is White Sand by Benjamin Moore, it’s a pale beige which I’ll definitely use again, it’s a perfect neutral.

We installed a new comfort height toilet (not shown) in the 3×4’ toilet nook to the right and above it I’m hanging an IKEA tall Godmorgon bathroom vanity cabinet for additional storage. Overall I’m very pleased with how the space turned out and it’s far more pleasant to shower and prep in here than it was a year ago!

bathroom sources:

midcentury style vanity in light walnut /  black & walnut shelf / grid mosaic flooring & backsplash

sculptural milk glass brass sconce / rounded rectangle mirror /  glass shelf  /  towel ring

godmorgon bathroom cabinet (above toilet, not shown)  /  bamboo lid storage

clay pink woven rug / clay pink stripe towels /  bamboo trays / paint color: BM ‘White Sand’