Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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A Marble & Dark Wood Bathroom

It’s official – we’ve got bathrooms on the brain after our impromptu update over the weekend. And not just bathrooms, but closets too. Fortunately, Meghan and her husband Sean shared a double-dose of makeover-y goodness with us: their bathroom and closet. Go figure. So check out their recaps below while we try our best to resist shopping for tile…

I didn’t have a blog when you guys kindly featured our kitchen redesign, but you inspired me to start one and it has been a really fun way to document our adventures! I thought I’d share with you our bathroom renovation. It was extremely small, extremely dated (think 1960’s fab), and smelled extremely bad (no idea of what and I don’t think I want to know).

Meghan Bath Before

We opened up the space by knocking out a closet just outside the room, took the room down to the studs and replaced everything with carrara marble and white quartz (channeling my inner Candice Olsen).

Meghan Bath After

This was the renovation we were going to do 10-15 years after we moved in. When the kids were older we said. After 3 years of nothing but renovations and babies (in no particular order) my husband promised me we wouldn’t DIY this one (well not all of it anyway). Sean throwing his back out lifting the new window for the room sealed the deal.

I worked on the design and purchased the materials over the course of six months as things went on sale to save money.

Meghan Bath Vanity

I’m an accountant by day, so here is a breakdown of the project in terms of numbers:

  • 3: The number of general contractors we interviewed for the job.
  • 0: The number of general contractors we actually hired. We decided to play general contractor ourselves and sub out to trades on our own.
  • 6: The number of subcontractors we hired.
  • 9: The number of months it took us from start to finish.
  • 40: The percentage of savings for subcontracting ourselves versus using a general contractor.

Meghan Toilet

The new toilet is named Memoirs by Kohler. Seriously. I wonder if you need any special training or degree to name toilets. The painting is one my dad did for my boyfriend 10 years ago of the BF as a baby with his father (don’t worry he’s my husband now…otherwise that would be weird)

Meghan Tile

We chose a carrera marble scheme from Avalon tile and our installers were truly artists. I may regret the marble but go big or go home, right? We went with honed instead of polished marble because honed is supposed to be more forgiving. Marble takes maintenance and stains/scratches easily so I figured honed would hide the inevitable marks. I’m really glad I did. If you live in a house full of men like I do then you know their “aim” isn’t always perfect.

Because one renovation always leads into another… this turned into to a bedroom renovation too. We knocked down a wall to combine two bedrooms into one. This now-missing wall used to hold the rooms’ closets which meant we were left with none.

Meghan Closet Before

We liked the look of built in cabinetry (but couldn’t swing the price). We liked the look of the IKEA PAX unit (but have short ceilings and weren’t sure about the long term durability of the doors).  Compromise = Ikea hack.

Meghan Closet After

We cut down four 90″ Pax units from Ikea to fit our 80″ ceilings, secured them to the wall and added a hardwood frame over it. Then we took a crack at carpentry and built tongue and groove style shaker doors and painted it all out in Benjamin Moore Decorators White.

Meghan Closet Open

In order to break up the span of doors we added a bookshelf in the middle with a hamper drawer at the bottom. We finished the unit out with crown molding at the top and interior lighting. Thanks for letting us share! – Meg

Meghan Closet Details

Thanks so much to Meghan and Sean for sharing the inspiration. We love that they were able to achieve high end looks while still finding ways to save – like managing the subcontractors themselves for 40% off, and building their own shaker doors for the closets. You can drop by Meghan’s blog to get more details on their awesome bathroom and closet transformations. But feel free to play the favorite part game here first. Sherry’s in love with those roll-out hampers and that bathroom tile. And I’m digging the converted Ikea cabinets (so smart to cut them down from 90″ and frame them out that way).

Comments

  4. Melanie says

    I love the way the bathroom turned out and the cabinets. I am planning on Paxing out one wall of my master bedroom, and I love the roll out basket idea for under my window! It’s raised up enough that it won’t interfere with the register. This post was very inspiring. Thank you!

    Reply

  7. Jennifer says

    I am so in love with those DIY closets. I am in HATE with our tiny sliding door closets and am always looking for ways that we can change them without losing space in our bedroom. Those closets are so amazing.

    Reply

  8. Amanda T. says

    SO gorgeous!!! I love the idea of having closets that look like built in cabinetry. So much easier to get to everything when you don’t have a wide closet with two skinny doors like mine. Stuff hides in those dark corners…

    Reply

  9. Andi Ross says

    We are starting to design our Master Bath and this is beautiful but I know I wouldn’t be happy with the amount of upkeep it needs with the marble BUT I am hoping to use some of your style ideas with the tile to create some interest! Great job!

    Reply

  10. Valerie says

    I’m with Sherry —I am LOVING the roll out hamper drawer! Our dirty laundry inevitably ends up strewn about the floor picking up the ever-present dust and pup-dog hairs, grr–major pet peeve. I especially love the gap so you don’t even need to roll it out to toss clothes in–genius. Who knew a hamper drawer would fire me up so much?!

    Reply

  11. Hayley says

    I’m digging that hamper. Like trying to figure out how I can get that going on in my room ASAP. Our current hamper is hubby throwing them on the floor.

    Reply

  13. Laurie says

    I love the hamper drawer too! And it holds the baskets so you can simply lift them and take them along with you instead of transferring to another holder. Awesome! It’s the little things people.

    I’m very envious of that closet. It is just beautiful and so smart to take advantage of the Ikea hardware and pull outs. Really beautiful.

    Reply

  14. Emylee says

    THESE CLOSETS ARE THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD! This is EXACTLY what we have been him hawwing around for the past year and a half for our master. I checked Meghan’s post but do you think she could give us a round about price breakdown for the wardrobe?? That would make my day.

    Reply

    • Meg says

      Sure, we’re cheapskates and proud of it!! We paid around $900 for everything from IKEA and then probably another $500 for all the wood (frames & doors). A year later and everything has held up beautifully!

      Thank you John & Sherry for the feature and congratulations on your addition!

  15. Mary says

    I am a SUCKER for some good laundry storage. Love those hampers! The shower is my favorite in the bathroom. I am always SO impressed how people come up with and execute such great design.

    Reply

  18. Emily says

    Sherry and John, if this has you thinking about your master closet do yourselves a favor and check out elfa at The Container Store. I’m a huge fan and have it all over my house. It’s a component-based system that’s completely easy to shift and change as your life shifts and changes (hello multiple wardrobes…regular and maternity!). They have an annual sale that usually starts around Christmas day and lasts through the first of the year. Worth checking out on their website (you can work with a designer via phone/e-mail) or in a store (closest one to you would be Northern VA, I think).

    Reply

  20. Krissy says

    Ohhh, I’m swooning over here. At first, I thought my favorite part would be the tile. Especially the shower floor. But those built-ins… wow.

    Reply

  24. Angel says

    Gorgeous bathroom – might keel over from awesomeness. Only thing that bothers me – the toilet seems like it should be centered. Instead it is crammed against the wall. Or maybe it just looks that way in the photo?

    Reply

  25. Amanda says

    That ikea hack/closet situation is purrfect! Thank God Ikea is only 20 minutes away from me, so I can go window shopping until we get our first house next summer!

    Reply

  26. Erin C says

    Closets are uber fab! Definitely my favorite part but then again I’m an organizing junkie. It’s like crack…I think…never actually done crack. Okay, moving on ;)

    Reply

  27. Holly P. says

    The closet hack is exactly what we are wanting to do with our master bedroom. Can’t wait to show it to the hubby!

    LOVE the bathroom too! But I don’t think I’ll be seeing a bathroom like that for quite. some. time. BOO!

    Reply

  29. Leah says

    Wow!! This is gorgeous. I love all the marble and that closet system is beautiful (although I would probably prefer a little more hanging space).

    Reply

  30. Sasha says

    Love the IKEA hack, definitely my favourite part of this post. Those cabinet doors… WOW, so nice, wish IKEA made some like that :)
    I have seen a few online who have done this kind of hack, is it weird that I kind wanna try my hand at it? Maybe it’s the IKEA-fan in me coming out. I practically live IKEA, my family always joke that I know the IKEA catalog backwards/forwards/upsidedown… Not entirely true, okay kind of true. Hope I’m not the only one with this issue ;)

    Reply

    • Gaenor says

      You’re not the only one who has “learned” the ikea catalogue – which is why when I saw this hack I thought – “but IKEA do a door like that!”
      The Hemnes door for Pax wardrobes is fairly similar in style. I guess it was hard to adapt for the lower ceilings though.
      :-)

  33. amyg says

    Those cabinets are the EXACT thing I have in mind for our master…but a little better than what I had in mind :)

    Thanks so much for this – now I have a visual to show my huz so he will listen to my idea!

    Reply

  34. sarina says

    So.. I like the bathroom for sure and I do love those hampers in a drawer. So much nicer than my habit of putting a hamper in my tub and being lazy and just tossing my clothes in it..lol

    But, making two bedrooms into one? I am pretty sure most realtors would say that is not a great idea to reduce the number of bedrooms in a home. I guess unless you have a ton of other ones or have an unfinished space you could change into one. I would think if you had all those other extra bedrooms your home would probably have a pretty big master to begin with. But if this is their forever home and it makes them happy.. it certainly turned out beautifully!

    Reply

  36. Sheila says

    This has officially solved my where to put the laundry issue in our master bedroom reno. Love that the hampers are right there but not. Thanks for a great inspiration post.

    Reply

    • Meg says

      Thanks Joa! We bought them through “Green Demolitions.” They sell kitchen and bath fixtures and donates a portion of their profits to charity (http://www.greendemolitions.com). We were able to find high-end Grohe fixtures for less than 1/2 the retail price. I found the fixtures I wanted on their website and they shipped them to my house. Great to deal with and the fixtures are a really nice quality (and we got to do some good in the process!). Hope that helps!

  41. Robin says

    AMAZING! I’m usually not that excited for reader redesign posts (sorry), but this one hit it out of the park. The tile is gorgeous; I would feel like I was in a resort hotel when I entered that bathroom at home. I love that they used different shapes and sizes of the marble to make beautiful patterns all over. The center floor looks great, along with the shower, and even the marble around the bathtub. And then came the beautiful closet with hidden laundry baskets! I love it all.

    Reply

  42. Amy says

    What does the whole hiring subcontractors mean exactly? Sorry if this is a stupid question but I don’t understand.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      No worries, I had no idea what that meant a few years ago either! Then we did it in our first kitchen! It just means instead of hiring a team or a person who manages the entire project (coordinating the tile guy’s schedule with the cabinet delivery and the counter install and the demo and the electrician) you just do that yourself and interview/hire/coordinate each of the subcontractors (electrician, tile guy, framer, etc). Things can take longer and be stressful to do yourself, but it’s an amazing option to save money that way!

  43. Julianne says

    What a beautiful update!! I’ll have to agree with both of you and say that it’s a toss up between the built-in cabinets and the marble. Heck, it’s all gorgeous! :0)

    Reply

  44. Tara says

    Totally Gorgeous… What a fantastic transformation!! We have been dragging our feet on our master bathroom reno for over 4 years now….neither me nor the hubs is particularly handy but reading about this is inspiring! I moseyed on over to her blog but couldnt seem to find mention of where she got her vanity from & countertop & fixtures from? Hopefully she can help with that question here!! Thanks

    Reply

    • Meg says

      Thanks Tara! The vanity is from Modern Bath (model Avanity Madison). We were wary of buying a vanity over the internet but was pleasantly surprised with the quality. Solid construction, soft close cabinets, etc. We purchased it without the counter and then had a quartz top cut to match the tub surround and shower bench. The fixtures are Grohe and were purchased at a steep discount through Green Demolitions. Hope that helps!

  50. Hannah says

    Woweee, that amazing built in wardrobe!! Looks so good with the doors closed and the shelves, and the laundry drawer!! And boy that shower is purty. Mmm tile.

    Reply

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