Category Archives: Bathroom Makeover

Bathroom Built-Ins

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Remember these?

Bathroom Final Built Ins

The awesome (if difficult to photograph) built-in cabinet & shelves in the new bathroom. The whole unit is only 12 inches wide (which means the shelves are only 9 inches wide), but it goes all the way to the 9 foot ceiling. And all the way back too (well, 26 inches from the door to the wall…its a very narrow bathroom). I have three shelves that are about 12″ high, and then the top shelf is about 24″, and then the cabinet encloses two more 12+” shelves.

This weekend (while in the midst of another project I can’t wait to share) I took everything out of the bathroom cabinets and reorganized. Here’s what ended up in that built-in:

Bathroom built in contents

That’s a lot of stuff. The cabinet holds extra towels, my bathrobe (out of season), with two sets of sheets on the top shelf with a basket of pillowcases and wash cloths in front of it. The three regular shelves hold:

  • Extra shampoo, conditioner and other toiletries in bottles (held in a basket, with a vase in front of it)
  • A cleaning caddy (covered by the canvas we made along with the birthday art)
  • A long open basket with small toiletries (floss picks, toothpaste, soap)

And the top one has toilet paper. I blame my father. He talked me into it when he took my sister and I to Costco.

That’s in addition to all the other storage:

Bathroom FInal Vanity From Above

The vanity cabinet with large open shelf below it (extra towels, first aid, some cleaning supplies, things I need when I inevitably break my ankle again)

Bathroom Final Shelves

The open shelves above the toilet, home to chargers on the bottom shelf, hand towels and a basket of toilet paper on the middle shelf, and hair products I don’t use on the top shelf [Fact: I can’t blow dry my own hair. This may be because I’ve never tried.]

Bathroom Final Bonus Cabinet

The high-up cabinet above those shelves–most people don’t even notice it, but its got beach towels and my old set of towels in it right now.

I’m totally amazed at all the storage I managed to build in to such a small room. It freed up a ton of space in the hall (only) closet, and it doesn’t look crowded at all. I still miss having a real linen closet, but this is not bad at all.

Do you have a linen closet? Where do you store all your bathroom stuff?

New Apartment: Bathroom

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Practically speaking, the first room I needed ready to go was the bathroom. There were some considerations I needed to work around. Here’s the before:

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Here’s the current:

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I had to take down the cabinet over the sink because it was a little too scuffed, and since it was made of particle board, I couldn’t paint it. I replaced it with an Ikea mirror that uses a hinged mount – the perfect solution since the tiled part of the wall sticks out. It was also an oddly sized space for a mirror and this square one fit. (It looks a little high in the picture, but it’s really that the light fixture is oddly low. We hung the mirror at a height so normal-height people could use it.) I added two floating shelves with baskets above the toilet for a little extra storage within arms reach when I’m at the sink.

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Since I’m working with these odd cabinets in the shower (which are nice because of all the storage), I had to mount the shower curtain rod at ceiling height. I had to order an extra long shower curtain, so my options were limited, but I like the ruffled white curtain (with white fabric liner) – it adds some texture and feminity to my really linear bathroom.

We also painted the bathroom. Funny story – I had a ton of samples from the paint store and kept holding them up on the wall, and this one was the instant hit with me and my mom – and then I realized it was the exact same color I had painted my bedroom upstairs. So I just used my leftover paint from that room.

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And lastly, my pictures. I took the messed up framed butterflies from my hallway and cut them down to square size with a utility knife. Then I fit them in these extra-deep square frames from Ikea.

Bathroom Updates

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This is a short little post on a little bitty thing. But sometimes those updates are the most fun, so I’m sharing anyhow. I’m loving the new bathroom, but still having a minor issue.

Medicine Cabinet BeforeThat. Not just the part where it isn’t the tidiest, but the part where I can’t actually see things in there very well. My old medicine cabinet had a white interior, and I could see things in it. This one? Not so much. When I wash my face or brush my teeth I put my hair back in a headband and ponytail, so I leave those two things in there. Both are black. They’re on the bottom shelf. See them?

Yeah, me either.

I can lean all the way over and look close and I still can’t see them half the time, and it was driving me nuts.

The surface is also wood, and I worried that drippy toothbrushes and the like would hurt the wood eventually.

Enter the Target placemat:

Placemats Uncut

Which I cut into:

Placemat strip cut

And then emptied out the cabinet:

Medicine Cabinet Empty

And plopped it in (ok, so I measured too):

Strip in Cabinet

Now can you find my headband?

Medicine Cabinet with Wipe Clean placemat strip

Yep, me too! (It’s just to the left of the toothbrushes). If the mat gets dirty or sticky or anything, I can just pull it out and wash it off, leaving my medicine cabinet like new and me able to find my headband at 6 am!

This isn’t my first Target placemat use–I have a couple in my kitchen for things like the bottom of the baking pan cabinet and underneath oils. Super easy, cleans up and if it gets too dirty I can just toss it out and my cabinets will be none the worse for wear! They cost about $2 and although the designs change, they always seem to have these in stock.

Do you line your medicine cabinet? Ever used a placemat for an unconventional purpose?

A Better Bathroom

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Bathroom Final From HallAfter never–ending work on my new bathroom, it was promptly flooded and (parts) had to be redone. It was pretty upsetting, and it turns out that my neighbor has bargain-basement “insurance”–good thing I have State Farm. Due to a number of things, including discovering additional damage that meant tearing out the shower floor and redoing it, the bathroom was only fully finished LAST WEEK. For those of you keeping track at home, that makes it FIVE MONTHS of not having a completed bathroom. Ugh.

But finally FINALLY it’s finished. Art on the walls, boxes on the shelves and towels on the hooks DONE.

Bathroom Final Full Lights Off

Bathroom Final Window & Towel Bar

Bathroom Final Vanity & Mirror

Bathroom Final Built Ins

 

And some details of the shower:

Bathroom Final Shower View

Shower floor tile is 1x2 marble tiles that look like minis of the floor tile.

Shower floor tile is 1×2 marble tiles that look like minis of the floor tile.

Other details:

The bathroom floor is marble subway tile installed in a straight herringbone. Just enough interest without making the small footprint too busy.

The bathroom floor is marble subway tile installed in a straight herringbone. Just enough interest without making the small footprint too busy.

Between the open shelf on the bottom of the vanity and the cabinet, it has a ton of storage.

Between the open shelf on the bottom of the vanity and the cabinet, it has a ton of storage.

Pretty wrapping paper (with the perfect colors!) from Paper Source in an Ikea frame.

Pretty wrapping paper (with the perfect colors!) from Paper Source in an Ikea frame.

 

Baskets on the shelves hide ugly chargers. I also put the thermostat for the heated floors and the outlet ABOVE the first shelf, making them easier to cover up--and less distance for cords to have to stretch.

Baskets on the shelves hide ugly chargers. I also put the thermostat for the heated floors and the outlet ABOVE the first shelf, making them easier to cover up–and less distance for cords to have to stretch.

The cubbies hold a ton--I have an ugly plastic cleaning caddy on that middle shelf (look for that artwork in a later post!)

The cubbies hold a ton–I have an ugly plastic cleaning caddy on that middle shelf (look for that artwork in a later post!)

I put a cabinet in when we found a hole above where my coat "closet" ends...its tough to reach, but never say no to storage!

I put a cabinet in when we found a hole above where my coat “closet” ends…its tough to reach, but never say no to storage!

Anything else you want to know? I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have this finally DONE.

When it rains…

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…sometimes the rain falls in your house. And it is NOT. GOOD.

This should be a final reveal of my new  lovely bathroom. Except it isn’t.

So.

Two weeks ago I was fast asleep, snug in my bed at 2:15 am, when I heard water. Rain? Maybe, but I usually can’t hear it in my bedroom. House guest in the bathroom? Showering with the door open perhaps? Nope, doesn’t sound like the shower…

So I got myself out of bed, confirmed no one was in the bathroom but water, turned a light on and…promptly flipped it back off. Because water was pouring through it. My upstairs neighbor somehow overflowed her toilet (I’ll let you put the 2:15am pieces togethere here) and caused a whole lot of water to come through a whole lot of places into my house. I was up over an hour that night putting out bowls, ran late the next day, and generally did not have fun.

It could have been worse.

There doesn’t seem to be any significant damage to the bathroom, the water has stopped, and her insurance will cover the damage. But grabbing bowls, having water come through your (also new) hallway light fixture for over 2 days and not being able to close the bathroom door (ahem, still) are not my idea of fun.

But it really could have been worse. I was home. I woke up. I stopped a lot of damage before it happens, including water sitting on my radiant heat floors. Life will go on.

It just wasn’t what I wanted to be talking about here. You can see some nice demo pictures of the hallway Lesley and I painted back in January. It will get repainted now, same color. It will be smoother. But mostly it will be the same, and my house will get dusty and dirty and have random people in it again. I’m not exactly excited.

Have you ever had water pour through your ceiling? Oddly, this is at least my fifth time, although my first in this place.

(Not Yet a) Better Bathroom

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Two weeks ago, my bathroom looked like this:

And then we started, and it looked like this (I can’t find the full set of pictures, just this one the contractor texted me*. But it all looked like this):

While I was gone, they made some (ahem, not enough) progress (this is the shower, where the tub used to be):

And now it looks like this:

Things you see:

  • Walls!
  • New recessed lights (a last minute decision)
  • Partial wall for shower
  • Wiring for new vanity light and heated floor
  • The space for the medicine cabinet
  • That hole above the medicine cabinet (in the last picture)? There’s random empty space in the wall about 7 feet up, above the top of the coat closet on the other side of the wall. Its going to be a bonus cabinet. Stay tuned!

Things you don’t see:

  • A floor
  • Tile
  • A TOILET

You are smart enough to determine everything else you aren’t seeing here. Things you also aren’t seeing?

Me.

Because that’s my only bathroom and it doesn’t have any bath-related capabilities. (You know how everyone says these things take twice as long? Totally right. I might be able to go home Thursday.)

Have you done any major renovations? How long did they take? Can normal people live without a toilet?!