Sometimes I go crazy and I demo stuff without really thinking too hard about what I’ll do after the demo dust clears. See, for some reason when I stopped and stared at all those crazy towel racks in our hall bathroom for the five hundredth time…
… I decided it was time to get the hammer and take a stand. Because who really needs that many towel bars? And who decided to put that one on the left so crazy off-centered below the window so it would protrude halfway out of the shower curtain? Especially when there’s room for a cute little hand towel ring on the un-tiled wall next to the sink near the doorway.
Can you tell that wonky half-under-the-window towel bar especially bugged me? Yeah I took it personally. So I took a minute to inspect the towel rods and decided that the ones in the shower weren’t that bad since they’d be hidden by a shower curtain 99.9% of the time (once we actually hung one). And I noticed that they all seemed to be adhered on top of the tile instead of inset in it (meaning if I could carefully chisel them off I might be able to save the tile under them for a completely seamless look). So I decided to say goodbye to that annoying off-centered bar under the window first. You know, since he was my least favorite towel bar in the history of the universe.
I very carefully chiseled it ever so softly with a flat head screwdriver and a hammer. Tap… tap…
… crap. The bar holders came off pretty easily. But they weren’t stuck on top of the tile like I hoped. They were inset. Boo. So I was left with two highly visible boo-boos that looked a little something like this:
Cue the nausea. John didn’t even know what I was up to (surprise). I was banking on a “look what I did – doesn’t it look better?” reveal. You know, as opposed to an “oops I ruined the original 60’s tile that we definitely planned to work with” reveal.
But as I stood there picturing baked potatoes (an insane anti nausea method that I honed during 100 straight days of morning sickness while prego with Clara) I assured myself that we could probably semi easily hunt down two replacement tiles and just Dremmel out those ruined ones for a pretty flawless repair. But the longer I stared at my mistake, the more I realized there was a much easier fix. At least for one of the holes. Let’s rewind a little. Look closely at the window. Do you notice anything odd about it?
Why was there trim around the sides and the top, but not along the bottom? If we added some simple white wood trim down there it would probably look a heackova lot more balanced and it would cover one of my two glaringly obvious tile gaffes. We had also been meaning to hang the shower rod up near the ceiling with another one of our favorite super long 95″ waffle shower curtains, which would end up draping right in front of the other tile hole (yes, “tile hole” is a technical term) and completely obscuring it whether it was open or closed (since we push it towards the window when open, so it would still hide my dirty little tile secret in the open position as well as the closed one). Although it’s not a forever solution like adding trim, it’s definitely a will-do-until-we-find-a-matching-tile-later solution.
So I sheepishly padded down the hall wearing my best oops-I-went-crazy expression (humming “Oops I Did It Again” for effect) and requested some help adding “a tiny bit of trim and re-hanging the shower rod at ceiling height” so I could string up our new 95″ curtain (we ordered it from amazon.com a while back but hadn’t hung it yet). John was the man. He was pretty quiet (a sure sign that he wasn’t exactly ecstatic) but he didn’t give me the stink eye or anything. Instead he got to work fixing my mess while I stood in the background holding the baby and flattering him with stupidity like “you look great in that hat” and “nobody hangs trim like you, babe.” I managed to even get a little smirk with that last one. As for what John specifically did, first he removed the tiny piece of faux trim that looked sort of like shoe molding under the windowsill by prying it out with a flat head screwdriver (a mini crowbar would also work).
Then he cut a piece of trim that we already had in our scrap pile by looking at other windows in the house and mimicking the shape (straight down on each side with a small 45 degree diagonal bottom corner cut which he made using a miter box). He attached it with small finish nails which he hammered in at an angle towards the sill, using a small metal nail punch (which drives the nails in while keeping the trim from getting dented by the hammer).
About twenty minutes and zero bucks later any evidence of my moment of madness was completely unidentifiable. And we were left with this (I even painted the new trim piece with leftover trim paint that I found in the basement thanks to the previous owners):
Oh yeah, and if you wonder why this next picture is so white, John took it. And he remembered to white balance first. See, sometimes when I’m going crazy and demoing something I forget to white balance before taking pics. I contend that this is an honest mistake. I mean in a state of demo mania, you can hardly be expected to remember how to use the complicated camera, can you? Anyway, the shower curtain and tile is pure white (along with the walls, the sink, the toilet, etc) so this shot’s coloring is the most true to life:
I know it seems like a stretch to act like my big tile “incident” was a good thing. And I might be in complete denial. But I think the window looks a lot better with that trim on the bottom, so that will definitely stay for life. And of course the whole “hide the other tile hole with a shower curtain” isn’t ideal, but once we hunt down a replacement tile it’ll be fixed for realsies. Best of all, our bathroom no longer has that crazy off centered towel bar that annoyed me from the hallway every single time I walked by. And I ask you, who the heck would want their hand towel grazing the toiler paper dispenser anyway?
I rest my case. Hooray crazy.
Psst- Wanna know what that silver nozzle next to the toilet tank is? Check this out.
Psssst- Clara is officially less than two months away from her first birthday. Crazytown. Which means we’re starting to think about how we’ll plan her cute little DIY b-day party. We’re spilling a few of our just-starting-out ideas (and sniffing around for not-your-first-birthday-rodeo advice) over on BabyCenter today, so feel free to drop in and sound off.
Tanya from Dans le Townhouse says
Oh, I love a solution like this! Recently I bought a light fixture that hung too low over the bathroom mirror. Doh! My bad: I didn’t measure but I refused to take down the third attempt (stupid bathroom renovation!) so we flipped it upside down. I love the look and it saved us from a do-over! Yay.
P.S. So glad you’re working with the tile – its great!
valerie J. says
I’d say that’s a happy accident. It looks tons better…balance makes world of difference in interior design.
karen @ our slo house says
It looks great! And definitely more “finished” with the bottom piece of trim.
Kristen says
This post is awesome on so many levels! It looks great – I don’t know how you survived with that towel rod as long as you did!
Rebecca @ the lil house that could says
Genius! I also always forget the white balance and usually keep it on auto. But my husband plays around with it a lot so many times I grab the camera, take a bunch of shots, THEN realize it was on daylight or something it shouldn’t have been. So I end up taking all of the pictures over again. I probably do this daily…
Cait @ Hernando House says
Glad that worked out!!
My husband and I were just talking about trying to remove the (hideous) shell-shaped towel bar holders in our guest bath. Maybe we’ll stick with the Dremmel out and replace (if we can find similar beige tiles) route….
Beverley says
That is a lot of towel rods for one bathroom! I think y’alls solution looks fantastic. Random question – are you planning on keeping the knobs on the cabinets?
YoungHouseLove says
Nope, those will get a little switcheroo action someday for sure. Along with a ton of other stuff we’re planning to tackle. Should be fun! You know we’ll keep you posted!
xo,
s
DebInNYC says
Sherry you lucked out girlie!
You can feel the tension coming off of John in that second pic. Caption: She’s lucky I love her!
When all else fails grab that baby!
:)
Cristina says
oh thank you Sherry, I really feel better now, I couldn’t stand that off centered towel bar!!
Plus the window with the trim at bottom looks really nice and more balanced!
John you have to admit Sherry had a good raptus.. ehm.. idea! and yes, YOU did a wonderful job! ;-)
carole says
ah, simply smashing :) nice job on the mitering, trim master J!
you might want to make sure there are no cracks in the tile behind the curtain…even though it’s unlikely that water would get over there, even a little water behind tile can equal big disaster.
YoungHouseLove says
Good point! I was thinking of using that thick and shiny ceramic tile touch up paint to “seal” the porous little square of mortar that’s now hiding behind the curtain. Just until we get around to a full tile replacement!
xo,
s
Krysta says
I never would have thought of fixing it that way even though the solution was so simple. And It looks so much better! Did you leave the bamboo blinds in the previous home’s bathroom behind?
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, all of our window treatments except for Clara’s curtains conveyed to the new owners. We definitely plan to switch out that blind someday though!
xo,
s
Kellan says
Brilliant!
Jenn the Pen says
It’s the little things in life that make the biggest difference!
Maryanne Nelson says
I get a little demo happy sometimes too. I love that bathroom and I think it looks greatly improved without that towel bar!
Allie says
The window looks much better than before! Regarding the extra towel rods in the bathroom, they’re great for drying clothes and swimsuits (obvious, I know). We also put those plastic shower rings on ours to use as hooks for loofas, etc
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s pretty handy actually! I also used two of the in-shower ones to dry my faux sheepskins (I wash them and then air dry ’em to keep them fluffy). Worked like a charm, and all the drips went into the tub.
xo,
s
Cristin says
Last week, I ripped the towel bar off of the wall in our master bathroom. I also thought that it just sat on the wall. It didn’t. The result? Huge holes in the wall. Luckily the towel bar was just over drywall and I almost have it all fixed (last layer of spackle and paint should go on tonight)
My husband was not very impressed… Especially when I walked out into the living room with that ‘Woops’ look on my face. I like your solutions though… The trim looks much much much better, and I’m sure the tile will be really nice when it’s done too.
Cristin says
… and I did send him a link to this post with the caption, “See I’m not the only one”. Haha.
Sandy says
Not bad for a quick fix. Something my husband would do as well. Go John! BTW – for an oldie of a bathroom, it sure is not a bad looking bathroom. Any ideas for paint color?
YoungHouseLove says
We were going to go with a deep teal like the color in this inspiration bathroom: https://www.younghouselove.com/yes-please/
But then we took that color into the guest room (well, a very similar one) which is right down the hall – so we don’t want too much of a good thing. Now I’m thinking about some color sort of like the color on the door of John’s sister’s house that we helped her pick a few months back: https://www.younghouselove.com/mmm-pickles/
Except more green and less yellow. Who knows where we’ll end up though!
xo,
s
Alex says
I’m no photography guru, however I did recently chat up the photographers at my brothers wedding to learn the inside scoop with how to use my new camera. They told me they never never never use the cheap-o-flash on the camera, that it’ll only distort the colors. They said don’t worry if the (flashless) picture comes out a little yellowy, instead pop it in photoshop and use the white balancing tool there. You simply tell the program what should have been pure white and it’ll autocorrect the whole thing. Cue the happy dance.
They also suggested you read the owners manuel, they swear it’ll turn liking your camera every other picture, to snapping pictures like a pro. I really do plan on doing this one day. mmhmm. one day.
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
A little demo and a quick fix made your bathroom window and that wall all the more good looking now. So boo for the towel rod being embedded in the tile, but yay for the new window frame solution.
One question for you, how do you white balance your camera before you take a picture?
YoungHouseLove says
We have a DSLR, so there’s a “manual white balance” function that you press and then snap a picture of something white in the room (like the trim) and it configures the color settings on the camera for a truer pic. Love it!
xo,
s
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
I will have to see if my DSLR has this function or not. Thank you! :D
YoungHouseLove says
Sure! Ours is under the menu and then you scroll down to “white balance” and put it on “manual” instead of “auto.” Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
Who seriously wants 4 towel bars IN the shower? Don’t the towels get wet? A small hook or two for washcloths, sure, but bars? I would ditch them all once you’ve found replacement tile. Definitely better now though!
LavandulaLady says
Yes, I’m wondering the same thing! I’ve NEVER seen towel bars INSIDE the shower!!!
Shell says
Those towel racks are placed exactly like I’ve seen in my nanna’s retirement village. Can they take much weight? If so – could they be there to assist the less limber :) as a hand-hold while showering, and to get safely in and out of the shower unassisted?
YoungHouseLove says
Maybe at one point they could take some weight, but I tapped them a few times and they were off the wall, so maybe after 60 years they just weren’t as strong!
xo,
s
Elisa says
Goodness.. were they trying to build a jungle gym in that bathroom?
That trim turned out great… never hurts to make a small bathroom window seem a smidge bigger!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, exactly! It was like a rock wall or something. Or a Scale-The-Towel-Bars game. Haha.
xo,
s
Samma says
It definitely looks better — good save with the trim!
I am probably the only one thinking this, but it bugs me that the black tile border is interrupted by the window. I kinda want to draw a line across the picture to finish it off!
Maybe a striped curtain in your future?
YoungHouseLove says
That’s definitely something we’re considering! We’d love something along the lines of the curtain in this pic: https://www.younghouselove.com/yes-please/
xo,
s
Roo {NiceGirlNotes} says
Looks awesome. For the next project, I vote for a LaZBoy toilet combo.
Danielle says
That towel bar would drive me crazy, too! Kudos on the awesome fix. The room definitely looks more balanced.
Kristin F says
I’d say that moment of crazy mania was the best thing that ever happened to that bathroom. At least until you paint those walls a deep, saturated color.
Go Sherry!
Mindy@FindingSilverLinings says
I just pulled something like this too. My poor husband went to his nephew’s baseball game to come home to find me painting a wall in our kitchen black (chalkboard paint). Surprise! LOL!
As far as your bathroom, nothing a little wooden trim can’t fix! It looks even better! You guys are my favorite!
xo
Mindy
Janet says
I bet they hung that towel bar (and the others in the shower)there as more of a grab bar to help someone get out of the shower. That would have bugged me, too.
Your fix looks fantastic.
Emily says
I completely agree with Janet. Before I started doing work on my house there were grab/towel bars everywhere. The toilet was even surrounded by them. I think there were a total of 7 in a very small bathroom.
Lindsey says
If you think an off-centered towel bar is crazy, your mind is about to explode!
Our hall bath is set up like your bathroom above, and the window was previously exposed to the backyard….until they built on an addition! We still have the window in the bathroom (luckily the glass is frosted), but when you open it, you get the beautiful view of electrical wiring and drywall. We have absolutely no idea what to do. Remove the window and patch in drywall? Hang a painting over it? Put a piece of art inside the window so if you were to open it, it’d fake you out that maybe you really were looking outside…or to a gorgeous view of the ocean (we live in St Louis)?! I’ll put up a picture on your facebook page the next chance I get, because we are stumped with how to handle this problem. If only a chisel could solve this one!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that is pretty tricky! Since you don’t actually get any light from it you might want to just drywall over it or cover it with a mirror or a painting that might make things feel more airy than a window to nowhere. Anyone else have ideas for Lindsey?
xo,
s
Susan says
We had this same situation in our house, and we had a mirror cut the size of the window and hung it behind the pane. So now it’s a mirror with the window pane in front (our glass isn’t frosted). It looks great and visitors often comment on how they like it.
annabelvita says
Could you replace the glass panes with mirror and build a medicine cabinet behind it.
Lindsey says
Susan: That’s a great idea!!
AnnaBelvita: I suppose that we could put a medicine cabinet there, hadn’t given that a thought yet. It’s just a little bit of a wonky place for one, but if we found the perfect fit, it could be great.
Thanks for the input!!
Alisa says
I often get demo crazy…usually late at night or when I’m supposed to be “cleaning.” I look at it this way: If I don’t get demo crazy, most of the small changes in our house would have never gotten down and we wouldn’t be as happy with the house as we are now. Those little changes are often the things that we like best about the house. Oh, and I totally did something similar in our master bath and am now needing to repair the dry wall..I should have guessed the towel bar was anchored…but serious, who hangs a bath towel bar so low that the towels touch the floor? Ick!
Ana Silva says
Good choice. You are right, it looks a lot better.
Libby says
Thanks so much for this “Oops!” Moment… I’m sure it makes us all feel a little better about those “What was I thinking?” accidents.
Also, I wanted to throw a thanks your way for the totally awesome silhouette inspiration from this post of yore: https://www.younghouselove.com/head-shot/#comments.
I am in the middle of a similar project on my blog (www.bluesielou.wordpress.com) and cant wait to show off the results.
Y’all are the best!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! Can’t wait to see it! Drop in with a link when your post is up!
xo,
s
Karla @ {TheClassyWoman} says
It was a ‘good’ accident! So glad it all worked out and yes, the window actually looks much nicer as does the wall without the 4th towelbar. LOL.
Sarah @ The Ugly Duckling House says
I know EXACTLY how you must have felt staring at that towel bar. It happened to me about a year ago. I’m still working on my fix, but that’s mostly due to the awful wallpaper that stands between me and freshly painted walls (among the 1000 other projects going on). Just ordered some industrial adhesive stuff so hopefully I’ll be seeing my own After very soon! Great solution to your little tile snafu, and I love that you’re keeping the original tile.
Beth says
What a happy accident! That added trim looks great. :)
Wom-Mom Ethne says
My hubby totally would’ve given me the stink eye, but I, too, would’ve gotten a smirk from him when I commented he was the best ever at trimming a window. Makes me want a new house to mess around with – and mess is what I’d do! (We’re not doing anymore DIY on this one.) My bff has done quite a bit on her fixer-upper, though. Fun! Ethne
http://www.wom-mom.com
katie says
The trim looks good! When is Clara’s b-day? I am due May 6th. It has been fun to watch her grow up this year & see all the fun we have to look forward to! :)
YoungHouseLove says
May 14th is her actual b-day… and it falls on a Saturday so we’ll have the party that day! By the way, there’s nothing better than having a baby in May. I might be partial, but it’s just great to enjoy the spring and summer outside while pushing a tiny sleeping baby around for some fresh air (and trying to work off the baby weight- haha).
xo,
s
Ryan says
We had our little boy on May 3rd of last year (so he’s just a smidge older than Clara). May babies are the best! We had it so easy with shorts and onesies. We’ve watched my best friend deal with her winter baby (born during a blizzard no less) and thanked our lucky stars! We didn’t have to deal with extra layers and coats during the early constant-diaper-changing and spit-up phase.
erika m says
May 6th was my due date with my first…a boy.. he’ll be 5 this year though-and was born 2 weeks early @ april 22. Flies by …best wishes with your little one!
Erin C. says
I am due on May 23rd. I can’t wait to go for some walks with our little guy in the park!
katie says
You guys are right about May! I can’t wait to push the stroller around outside, and so glad I won’t need to deal with all those layers.
Other pluses I have heard for later on: still in school to bring in birthday treats, and lots of fun summer birthday presents (bike, swimsuits…)
And Sherry, I also lived on baked potatoes for 4 months!
COLLEEN says
its amazing what removing that bar did! it’s all in the details which the two of you are experts about!
xin says
I just love when you show these types of Oops moment! You keep it so true, really inspire us fellow DIYers to go ahead and not be afraid. Love the quick fix. The window definitely looks much more balanced. Are you keeping that black border, or goint to paint it white?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re planning to at least try to work with the black border, which we actually think could be a cool little graphic touch after we get the right window shade and paint the walls and bring in some art and other “contrast” so it’s not the only thing you see!
xo,
s
Ever - The red house by the lake says
At least it looks a lot better now.
But I am curious – living in Sweden, that would not be recommended at all, because once you break the “seal” of the bathroom, all insurances might be void because of the risk of water getting beneath the tile.
Did you do anything with the remaining whole or did you just leave it there?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Ever,
We’re planning to use thick and shiny ceramic tile touch up paint to “seal” the porous little square of mortar that’s now hiding behind the curtain. Just until we get around to a full tile replacement of course! It shouldn’t get wet at all since it’s covered by the fabric and liner (and we only use that bathroom to bathe Clara, nobody showers in there) but we’re better-safe-than-sorry geeks, so we’ll definitely do that asap!
xo,
s
J'Ann says
Maybe the previous owners had a towel fetish? lol Whatever the case wow! all in one washroom. Love the work with the trim. Wish I had a handy dandy like John *sighs*.
Allison says
I thought I was the only weirdo that did the baked potato thing! Thanks for making me feel less strange.
And I learned on an episode of CSI that smiling helps control your gag reflex. It totally works.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh now I actually want to be nauseous to try the smile thing. Haha.
xo,
s
Christina says
So do you just think about baked potatoes or do you eat them? Wish I’d known about that during pregnancy!
YoungHouseLove says
Both! If they were on hand I ate them. If not, I thought about them. Something about the warm heavy starchiness of them settled my tummy.
xo,
s
Jaime says
Good save! Don’t you like it when a seemingly terrible thing turns into a blessing in disguise? Looks great now!
Carla says
That towel bar HAD to go even if it meant demo’ing the whole wall. Window looks better with the trim too.
Danielle @ The Sunshine Girl says
I just did the same thing in our kitchen! I think demo just makes a girl to anxious and excited to fully think it through. It feels good to rip stuff down! I convinced my husband to help me take cabinets down and rip our backsplash off last weekend while our little peanut was down for her nap. Pop over to my blog to check out my adventures in kitchen demolition!
Keep up the good work!
renee says
I gotta get me one of them John Petersiks…:)
YoungHouseLove says
Seriously. They come in handy.
xo,
s
Molly says
Great solution! I wish you luck in finding the lonely square tile … we have the EXACT same bathroom (trim / tile / floor) and couldn’t (easily) find matching tiles when we needed to retile the shower walls, but not the whole bathroom. We were on a time budget, so opted to retile the whole room. You are much more resourceful, I’m sure! As an aside, can’t wait to see what you do with it! We went with a light blue wall color, I think one of the PB colors at BM at the time.
Kristie says
Awesome way to turn that tile frown upside down! Love the re-do. People and towel bars are funny. In our first apartment, the bathroom had SEVEN, count ’em SEVEN, towel bars. In a one bedroom apartment. And the prior occupant lived alone. Huh? Guess he liked to be reeeaaallly dry.
Abby C. says
That window looks much better with the trim there!
JR says
What a fat relief to know that I’m not the only one who gets a little overzealous when it comes to strange design elements (i.e., an offensively placed towel bar)! I do some of my best work when I just can’t take something anymore— I think it’s the rage finally boiling over in a fit of “what would possess someone to DO this?!”
When we first moved into our home, the kitchen was like a horrible dingy closet-esque nightmare… that didn’t bother my fiancé at all. Let’s just say he busied himself hooking up the essentials (you know, huge t.v., cable and man things) while I moved the fridge 1” at a time to the other side of the room. It took me an hour to move it 5’ but at least I slept easy that night!
laxsupermom says
Wow! It looks so much better. John did a great job matching up the trim. Definitely worth a moment of “oops.”