After many months, and many stops and goes, we’ve finally completed the half bathroom. The mirror frame turned out great but wasn’t without challenges, so the last 5% of the project just dragged on. As I was snapping the pictures, I was thinking about how disappointed I was that it took so long. I don’t want to wait almost a year to complete another room in the house (many of the rooms are about 50% done). Ultimately, it just reinvigorated me to complete the other projects.

In the last bathroom post, I briefly talked about how a quick weekend project turned into a several week saga. I promised that I would share the story. Buckle up because I’m going to give you the quick and dirty version because it’s been a year and I don’t remember all the nasty details. Thank goodness!

As you may remember, the old bathroom had sheet vinyl flooring. We thought it would be a quick and easy job to pull it up but it turned out to be a dirty, disgusting mess. As I was pulling up the vinyl, I could see that the plywood underlayment by the toilet was damaged and disgusting. I made this little graphic (see below) to show you the layers that make up the bathroom floor. This wasn’t too big of a surprise because what prompted the floor removal was a leaky toilet. It seemed that every-time someone flushed the toilet water would accumulate around the toilet. I, at first, blamed my son who, at the time, would occasionally pee on the floor. But after the third time, my husband investigated it and viola it was a problem with the toilet.

Despite the disgusting-ness of the underlayment, I was optimistic that the subfloor would be undamaged and we wouldn’t have a major debacle on our hands. We had to remove the underlayment anyway so the new tile would be the same height as the wood floors in the hallway meaning this wasn’t much more than a gross nuisance. However, as we began to take up the plywood underlayment, it became clear that the subfloor was also damaged. This ended up causing a major headache for so many reasons. I honestly cannot even remember all the details, I just know that we had to cut up a piece of the subfloor (see my illustration below) and get a plumber to remove the toilet flange and replace some plumbing because there were too many elbows which prevented us from having a good place to cut/repair the plumbing. I’m sure my husband could write a 10 page recollection of this but I’ll spare you the details. Anyways, due to all these problems it delayed everything by weeks.

We championed through and eventually put in the floors, fixed the toilet/plumbing (thanks to a plumber!) and had a functional bathroom again. That’s the bathroom story.

Anyways, let’s quickly revisit what the bathroom looked like when we first moved into the house before we get to the good stuff– the after photos!

And now….what it looks like today.

The room feels completely different but my favorite change was the mirror frame. Yup, the very last piece of the puzzle that took a long time to complete. My husband is handy, so I explained to him exactly what I wanted him to make. To his credit, he knew exactly what we needed to do to make the mirror I was describing- have a mitered edge on the wood. He showed me a set of router bits (the tools that are used to make the edges) but I struggled to see how some of them would produce the finished look, so I asked him to produce a few samples. He brought me a couple of options and soon we were off to the races.

After all the frame sides were cut and prepared by my husband, I stained the wood using Early American from Minwax. This mirror is made of pine, which can be difficult to stain, especially if you want an even, medium brown color. To overcome this I was extremely generous with the wood conditioner and applied three coats of stain. I finished the frame by applying a polyurethane top coat to help protect it. At this point, the frame stayed in the basement while Jer and I fretted about how to attach it to the mirror/wall. Ultimately, we decided to use heavy-duty double stick tape (this is the one we used). Jeremy assembled the mirror, placed the double stick tape on four sides of the frame and then stuck it on the wall. That double stick tape is serious–the frame is not moving!!

A couple of other small details in the room that I love are the new switch plate and outlet covers (style: continental, purchased from wallplates.com) and the canoe basket (vintage) that fits perfectly in the cabinet shelf. I’m open to slowly adding in some art, but as of right now I’m just enjoying the new room and not stepping in toilet water.

I took a few pictures of the room with my phone when the light was on and the door was shut since this is how most people will actually see the room. Despite the odd angles, these pictures capture the actual color of the room under those conditions.

This post contains the link to most of the materials/resources used for this room. Feel free to check it out if you are interested in any of the details.

I have big plans for our current house but big plans often move very slow when you’re fitting them in between full-time jobs and a kid. Over the last 2.5 years, my husband and I decorated and renovated a few different spaces but the house is definitely still a work in progress. The first project that we tackled was the powder room. It’s located on the first floor, gets a lot of use and is very small, so it seemed like the perfect starting place. 

The great thing about this room (and the rest of the house, really) is it was just fine. It functioned great and it looked okay, so I could take my time to decide what to do with it. When I started to evaluate the room I found that I didn’t really want to change out the toilet or the pedestal sink. I liked both of those things. The mirror is a standard octagon builder-grade mirror that is glued to the wall. I wasn’t too thrilled about the mirror at first. Although I liked the Octagon shape, I hated that it didn’t have a frame. I contemplated removing the mirror but was terrified that in the process of removing it I would create a huge hole in the wall. So I put the mirror on the back burner and put off deciding on what to do with it. 

The flooring was a sheet vinyl and I knew I wanted to change it*. Initially, I thought we could put hardwoods (or some variant) in the bathroom. But I wanted the hardwoods to match the rest of the house and we just were not in a position to do the entire first floor at that time. So, we moved onto tile options. I played with several different ideas but I knew I wanted something that would be classic and stand the test of time. I ultimately landed on a white honeycomb mosaic tile. It feels versatile and traditional. 

The room was painted a neutral beige. Now, I am actually a fan of beige as you’ll probably see in other parts of the house. I enjoy having light, neutral colors in the main living spaces. But I see small spaces, like the powder room, as an opportunity to do something fun. For me, that means dark walls. I debated between two main wall colors: Sherwin Williams Domino and Sherwin Williams Caviar. Either color would have been fine and I can’t even remember why I decided on Domino, but I did. No regrets on the color. 

The light fixture, faucet, and accessories (towel bar, toilet paper holder) all felt dated. The original towel bar perplexed me. Why in the world would I need such a large towel bar in this little bathroom? Perhaps I would one day try to bath myself in the pedestal sink when all the other bathrooms were occupied? Maybe it was so large to allow each family member to have their own hand towel displayed on the bar. I don’t know but I quickly told my husband we were getting rid of it and putting in a small hand towel ring near the sink. Now, after living with it for a while I can’t even imagine walking into the bathroom and having it any other way.

The light fixture was a 2-light brass number that reminded me of the ’90s. It looked like every light we had in the house I grew up in, so you know that meant I needed to change it**. I always loved schoolhouse light fixtures, so I found a bathroom version that would fit in the space. I considered several options – three-light versions (too big), some with slightly different globe shapes, some frosted and some clear. I ultimately chose a classic frosted 2-light version. Again, since I’m writing this so long after I bought the thing I can’t remember exactly why I choose this exact fixture. 

The faucet was a spur of the moment purchase. At that time, I had already put together some rudimentary mood boards and had a general idea of what type I wanted. My husband and I were strolling around Lowe’s looking for something to buy, as one does, and he suggested a new faucet for the bathroom. I quickly agreed and pursued all their options. I landed on a one-handle, single hole brushed nickel faucet. It was pretty and it would do the job. Honestly, it was a great upgrade. It feels sturdy, heavy and works like perfection. It was exactly what the sink needed. 

The one bogey in the room was the cabinet above the toilet. I liked the function but wasn’t sure about the aesthetic. Wouldn’t a pretty picture be better? I huffed and puffed a little bit about the cabinet but ultimately I couldn’t get rid of it especially after living with glorious storage for several months. I played with the idea of getting a newer, prettier version of the cabinet. I looked around but nothing really caught my eye. I decided to just update the hardware. I’m open to replacing it one day but I have to say I’ve grown to appreciate that little cabinet. 

After slowly making all the changes described above, I realized that the bathroom felt a little stark. It needed some warmth and I am a huge fan of natural textures and elements.  If I could, I would put wicker, rattan or sea-grass in every room (it will probably happen). Anyway, I decided a little wicker box on the toilet would give the room some warmth and matched a woven trash can to it. I thought a nice wood frame would also help tie the natural elements together. This is also about the time that I decided that the bathroom mirror, the one I had put on the back burner, would need a wood frame. I found a walnut trimmed octagon mirror on Houzz.com and love it, but I was/am still scared of creating huge holes in the walls, so I’ve told my husband we will frame the mirror out to make it resemble my inspiration mirror. We have yet to do this but we’ve purchased the materials and plan on doing it soon. I’m excited to see how it turns out.  

Hopefully, in the next week, I’ll write up and take pictures of the final bathroom (and complete the mirror). I’ll then tell you the riveting story of the toilet and how a two-day project turned into a two-week nightmare. It’s a little sensationalized but the broad strokes are correct. 

* I like vinyl sheets and have lots of thoughts on them. I have a proposal for the vinyl sheet designers/manufacturers–One day I’ll write that up.

**I have a theory that the decor/styles that we grew up with as children influence our design choices as adults.  It’s probably a very-self reflective theory but may hold true for others.

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