The Big Bathroom Reveal

 

We have been enjoying our mostly completed bathroom for a month or so now, but there are still a few odds and ends that need wrapping up (paint touch ups, mostly), so I wasn't willing to call it "done" yet.  Nevertheless, its time to show you how it turned out.  The project was initiated in January, making its gestation period officially longer than that of our soon-to-arrive offspring.  But we think it is beautiful, and was worth the wait!

 

It's been a while, so let me remind you about what we started with:

 

The bathroom was less than four feet wide, had no storage, and was home to a fiberglass shower stall that still makes me shudder.  There was no tile, no paint on the walls, and very little light.  In my mind, it wasn't a bathroom as much as a small space where someone installed (blue) bathroom fixtures to make it function as one. 

 

The first thing we did (and, when I say "we," I mean Matt and his dad) was tear down the wall and take space out of the bedroom (future nursery) next door.  We built the new wall nearly four feet over, allowing space for a closet on both the bedroom and the bathroom side, and close to two feet of elbow room in the bathroom.

 

And, then, in a bold effort to make things even more spacious, we went up.  The ceiling was bumped out, and we added a skylight. 

 

Drywall was added, beadboard was nailed to the ceiling and walls, a tile shower was installed, and radiant heat was laid underneath a new tile-looks-like-wood floor.  (The bathroom floor tile is Serenissima Woodland in Rovere.)

 

The walls were painted Benjamin Moore's Par Four. The trim color is Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White.  

 

And, here it is:

 

 

My father-in-law built the vanity out of cedar, which was then coated with polyurethane to protect it.  He says it took him about 6 hours to make it, and the materials cost around $100.  Having a father-in-law who knows what he is doing = priceless.  He also built the medicine cabinet to match.

 

 

The marble slab came from a local supplier.  The faucet is by Cifial.  The sconces and towel bars are the Sussex line from Pottery Barn.  I bought the baskets at Home Goods.

 

 

The glass tile on the shower walls is from Glazzio (formerly Mirage).  The color is matte ice mist.  We put carrara hexagons on the floor of the shower.  The niche and bench were custom built.

 

The linen closet is also custom built, and provides plenty of storage, so far.

 

 

One of my favorite touches is the shelf below the skylight, where we've assembled a few plants (African violets and peace lily, because they do well in moist environments), and some other decorations. There's a jar with stones from the beach on the left and a piece of driftwood on the right. The mermaid was a Brimfield find. 

I also picked up the fish prints, by Denton, in Brimfield last fall.  The one across from the toilet is a cod.  The one above the toilet is a crappie, because we are immature. The frames were a great Target find. 

 

A couple of things didn't go exactly as anticipated:

1. The sconces have cedar circles behind them (once again, crafted by my father-in-law) to conceal the electric boxes that were slightly bigger than the base of the light fixtures. 

2. The intention was for the beadboard on the ceiling to be more whitewashed, but the white didn't sink in as well as we hoped.  We decided to leave it as is for a while.  If we want to change it at a later date, we can try again. 

 

All in all, we are thrilled, and still gushing over our new bathroom.  I could continue to overwhelm you with pictures, but maybe enough is enough.  What do you think??