Bathroom Gets Fancy Pants

May 2013

While we were working on the backyard we had a few days of rain that made me take one last look at our bathroom.  The space was missing many of the finishing touchs that would make it feel more like a bathroom we would have designed.

Disco bathroom gets updates

The first step was the decision to paint the sink cabinet.  I am pro wood. I would never paint wood unless I absolutely had too.  This one was a long internal debate.  Two things finally turned the tide. The current cabinet was starting to get water damage from all the bathroom steam. I believed painting it will help seal the wood and avoid further damage.  Also, the cabinet was Maple which is fine but really not in keeping with anything in the house or even the feel of the house.  Before I could change my mind I sanded the cabinet on a Friday and primed it.  Three coats of semi-gloss white paint and it was looking much more smart. At Lowes I bought two black knobs to tie into the black countertop. Mini-Project Complete!



Many people have asked about the small sign on the tile.  It reads 'Please!  Mind the faucet water is hot and flows like crazy!  Thanks the Mangement.'  Don't all of you wish you lived in an old house that requires disclaimers?

The next step was what to do about a hamper.  We had been using a rolling metal basket that was mine from college.  It worked great, but the round shape meant we hit it alot and banged up the wall.  We had many requirements for a new hamper.  It must be narrow (no wider than 14")  it must have a cover on it (no one wants to see your dirty underwear), and it had to match the style of the bathroom.  This is actually a tough nut.  There are not many hampers that are that narrow or attractive or have covers.



I love this John Muir quote and sign

We finally found a small tilt-out unit from Home Decorators that was about the size we wanted and had the bonus of being a small cabinet that would allow us to store stuff on top. It was expensive and on principle alone I would never spend 100 bucks on a hamper.  I searched the internet and got several coupons and decided to bite the bullet.  There were two things wrong with the hamper. First, it is a little more ornate then we wanted (it has silly little feet and this curved trim moulding), second, it was cream not white. But since it fit so well we decided to overlook it's fancy pants and took the plunge.  And, for the second time, I was sanding, priming and painting a cabinet for our bathroom.



            

             Mr. Whale looks really high in this photo, probably because I am sitting down. 

Once these changes were made, all we had to do was update the accessories.  After searching all over the internet it turns out I like products from Target best. I bought some Nate Berkus towels and a floor mat. I decided to go with a gold color to compliment the gray wall color.  I also picked up a blue glass toothbrush cup and soap dispenser.  The last addition was a new metal sign with a John Muir quote in gold.  The room is finally starting to feel a lot more our style.



This really gives you an idea of how small the space truly is.

A Grout & Paint Bathroom Weekend

February 2013

Since Josh was on board to keep working on the bathroom I started by calling in a steam cleaner to try and clean our dirty grout.  I figured that was the best way to start.  They come out and were super friendly, they explained that our grout was bad and had probably not been sealed or at least so poorly maintained that there wasn't much they could do.  I told them to give it a shot since they came.  They did.  The two guys worked for about 1.5 hour.  Honestly, not a huge difference was made.  They did seal the grout in the hope it would not get any worse. I think our solution is going to have to be a regrout- or maybe, if we stay in the house long term, to replace the tile.  But for now I will have to be satisfied with my not so nice grout. The one thing I could change was the silicone along the floor line.  The old material was covered in mildew and it did not clean up with any cleaning agent I had found.

This was all me. It took about two hours to cut and razor blade all the old silicone out.  I did this sitting on a foam pad inside my shower.  Not a fun way to spend a Saturday. Afterward I cleaned the area with bleach and water and put a dehumidifier in the room to clear out any moisture.  The old silicone was a nice gray color which blended with the tile.  Home Depot and Lowes had three options: white, clear and almond.  I figured white was the best way to go.  I really wished I had done more research here and either ordered gray silicone or maybe used water resistant caulk that was gray. The white silicone is very bright.

While I siliconed (yes I am making that verb) we decided to start painting the walls.  Going off our last bedroom repaint oops I went with my gut and only bought one sample of paint.  Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray.  It is beautiful and the sample went up and matched the upper tiles in the bathroom perfectly.  Without a second of waiting I went to Miller Paint and color matched a gallon in semi-gloss. I then set about frog taping all the edges.  This was serious! I have never taped/cut in so much in my life. We had one door, one window, a tile shower, a sink cabinet, baseboards, lighting fixtures and a toilet.  Thank God we decided to paint the ceiling the same color or else I may have gone a little batty. 

The ceilings in the bathroom are too tall for me to reach even on my step stool so I called in Josh to paint out ceiling and cut in along the upper edge of the wall.  I followed behind cutting in and using the weenie roll to roll the 2.5 sqft of actual wall space in the room. We were able to two coat the entire room in one Sunday. Since I had patched and filled all the holes the weekend prior.  One weekend, one fresh clean space.

Bathroom Trim: Painting Around the Toilet

February 2013

A couple weeks after we finished the fireplace I started working on a list of things to do before September.  One of the rooms that needed the most work was our bathroom.  This was remodeled in 2006 by the previous owner and since moving in we hadn't done much to it. To start, it looks like a lovely bathroom, while not my style I appreciate that they made some good updates.   However, living with it for close to three years had really changed my opinion.  It was not my taste and many of the materials chosen have not held up very well to the daily abuse a single bathroom gets.

Back in 2010, we changed out the double hung vinyl window to a vinyl casement with frosted glass.  The main need for the change was this window opened directly to our patio and if the window was open, it was not discreet (this is a polite way to put it).  The new window opens towards the side yard and allows people to be on the patio and not looking directly in.  Also, the frosted glass allows us to avoid having to hang a curtain in a damp location. When we installed this window we did not patch or paint any of the wood trim that was mangled putting this in. I have carefully tried to cover this up with flowers or other bathroom accessories but it was pretty embarrassing.

Using a house guest due in two weeks to spur me on, I decided to patch and repair the window trim and then paint all the trim a fresh coat of semi-gloss white.   Over the course of several nights I came home and patched and sanded.  I figured this was the best time since Josh was away on a business trip so the bathroom got a lot less use then it would.  This had been the hold up for years.  Between two showers, numerous bathroom trips there never seemed to be a time for get in there and allow paint to dry.  

It ended up taking three coats of paint, which I applied mostly on my hands and knees.  I got up close and personal with our toilet and got to remind myself why this was the most poorly designed bathrooms I know.  There is literally about 18 inches of space around each item in the room which creates these wonderful thin slivers of useless space where hair can hide in nice balls and where I now needed to wedge myself to paint. There was a moment when I had to rest my cheek on the side of the toliet as I reached to get the back corner.  It was graphic (no picture, thank goodness).  The good news the bathroom is about 32 sqft so it didn't take long to do a coat, the bad news I got paint all over myself.

Josh came home to freshly painted trim and a cleaned up window and was dutifully impressed.  I was proud. 

But, the rest of the room now looked all the more worn for the new glossy trim.  We both agreed we really needed to paint the walls and clean up the grout as soon as possible.  I made an appointment for a tile cleaner and figured we would start there.