Oh happy day. We’re here to share all of our bathroom after pictures complete with a full timeline and a budget breakdown to detail every step of this month-long weekend and evening project of ours.
First we should remind everyone what the room looked like at the bleakest moment of the makeover. When it comes to most major renovations like installing a wet wall board, rooms usually have to get uglier before they turn the corner and start looking good, so let’s take a moment to appreciate just how un-aesthetically-pleasing our bathroom was when it was all stripped down after John demo’d the entire thing by himself over the course of about 24 hours spent in the bathroom (my hero!):
Now look at the same room all put back together again. We’re thrilled that everything seemed to click into place in the home stretch, and now our bathroom is honestly one of our favorite rooms in the house. Weird, but true.
You can see that we hung a dark wood mirror (which we scored for $27 on clearance at Target) above the similarly toned vanity. We love that it also picks up the rich mocha color in our discount marble flooring (which you may remember we snagged for around $2.50/square foot at Lowe’s on clearance).
You’ll also notice some art on the wall… and you know we weren’t about to pay for something when we could make it ourselves, right? John actually came up with the idea of creating vintage-looking wood signs (he’s the brains of this operation, I’m telling you) after I lamented that the thought of square frames next to the rounded mirror could look a bit chaotic. So we picked up one $6 piece of wood, had it cut into two equal pieces right there in the wood cutting area of Home Depot and took them home to transform them into something worthy of our brandy new bathroom.
We took inspiration from our time spent in NYC (where we met and fell in love) so we thought making signs that mimicked the look of old NYC subway signs (like these that we hunted down on google) would be a special way to add more of that customized feeling that we love in our home. Of course we adapted ours to be a bit less dark to complement all the white in our bathroom (and in our house for that matter). We also picked two subway stops with the most meaning to us (we met working together near Grand Central and both lived in Astoria Queens at different times).
After bringing home our pre-cut planks of wood it was as easy as painting them white with craft paint that we already owned (it was thinner than latex wall paint so some of the wood grain still showed through) and designing two “signs” in Photoshop (we printed them out ourselves for free). Then we roughed up our prints for a weathered, creased, and vintage look and Mod Podge came in handy when it came to attaching them to the wood planks (the waterproof protection it added was also a plus since they live in a bathroom). Note: we’ll be doing a follow up post with more step-by-step sign making details for anyone who wants to take on this project themselves so stay tuned.
But on with the bathroom tour! If you look at the photo above, you’ll see that we actually opted to attach a simple chrome toiler paper dispenser to the side of the vanity since we didn’t want it attracting attention from the hall (which it would do if we placed it on the other side of the toilet under the window). We also picked up a simple white ceramic tray for the top of the toilet (we actually cut a thin strip off of one of our rubber rug-pads to form sort of a grippy buffer between the toilet and the tray to keep it “stuck” in place for the long haul). Then we used the tray to corral our favorite soap pump (which we waxed poetic about here) along with a cute little shell ball and a leafy green plant.
Although there was room for a soap dispenser on the back corner of the vanity behind the sink we thought it looked cuter a few inches to the right on top of the toilet- so while we know other people might want their soap pump right on the top of the vanity, we personally liked it on the tray (to each his own, right!). It really keeps the top of the sink uncluttered and sleek looking, and we always have the option to simply move the pump over to the sink if weeks of use make us rethink our nearby toilet-top placement.
We also love that we were able to save the vanity’s drawer by shortening it (read more about the process of building the vanity here) so we can still fit a few staples in there: toothbrushes, toothpaste, and deodorant in a bamboo tray along with contact cases and John’s hair stuff.
We love that our vanity also allows us to store a bunch of extra bath towels (picked up for just $6 each at TJ Maxx) along with a few cute decorative items like a loofah in a faux clam shell and a pretty scalloped plate with Dove soap on it for our guests (we use a bar of organic stuff in the shower, but when guests stay and want to shower/wash their face we can just mention that the soap under the sink is all theirs).
We also rehung our existing white waffle floor to ceiling shower curtain (read more about that project here) and really love that the shower tile now goes right up the ceiling to meet the bar for even more height and drama in the room. We’re so glad we spent the extra time tiling all the way up… the ceiling seriously feels over a foot taller. You’ll also notice that we snatched up a simple inside-mount bamboo blind from Home Depot for just $25. We love the texture and mocha color that it adds to tie in with the tones in the marble floor and even the vanity and the mirror.
At the very end of our renovation we also had our tub professionally reglazed for a completely convincing like-new look. The tub was actually already reglazed when we inherited it with the house and that treatment lasted over 12 years (we received the original paperwork from the first time the job was done years ago from the last owners). And this new reglazing job should last just as long even with everyday use. The key is finding the best professionals who use the best equipment and the best formulas for a long lasting finish that looks amazing (we call for references, look them up with the Better Business Bureau, etc).
As for why we opted to get ours reglazed instead of replacing it, we love the large, deep, original cast-iron tub. It was too great to send off to a landfill (and too heavy and expensive to try to remove & replace). We’re all about working with what we have, so because we couldn’t salvage the bathroom’s old tile, the least we could do was salvage the tub by refinishing it (to the tune of $399- oh and it would have only been $299 if our tub hadn’t already been reglazed for anyone out there looking for a cost estimate). Oh and because we’ve lived without putting shampoo bottles around the edge of the tub for years (since it was previously refinished and that’s not recommended) that’s not an adjustment for us at all when it comes to the newly reglazed finish. Note: we used this top rated family owned local company and are extremely pleased with their work.
Here’s a shot of John’s amazing tub to ceiling subway tile. Doesn’t it look like the work of a pro? I couldn’t be more proud of my man and his first attempt at tiling! We also opted to add a simple chrome shower caddy (although we debated adding white porcelain corner shelves or even creating an enclave for shampoo and soap before we tiled) since we don’t mind the look and love that it kept our first tiling job sweet and simple.
You might also notice that we replaced the shower fixtures with an insanely affordable $69 chrome set from Overstock since our old fixtures felt a bit too cottage-y with our new sink & faucet. The best part is that we Craigslisted our old fixtures (since they were only used for a few years and were in mint condition) and actually made back $30 of the $69 we spent on the new ones. Not bad, eh? Gotta love Craigslist. And on another note, how delicious does that twenty cent subway tile from Home Depot look up close? It’s so bright and shiny and clean looking- perfect for a tub surround. Mmm.
Oh and this is one project where we weren’t afraid to call in the pros. We paid $100 for an hour of an expert’s time so he could remove our old fixtures (they were soldered in place behind the wall) and put in our new ones (also soldering them in place for long-lasting durability and performance). It was totally worth it to avoid any potential plumbing issues down the line and after receiving many $300+ estimates for a simple shower-hardware switcheroo we found a great local plumbing company (Advanced Plumbing – 804.358.1616) who gave us a much more reasonable price- so we’ll definitely be using them again in the future.
We also have our doorless linen closet (learn about how and why we removed the door a while back) which feels even more integrated into the room since we removed the threshold and tiled the floor of the closet (which used to be wood) so the entire bathroom now has seamless mocha stone squares underfoot. The difference really is amazing! It’s like it was always meant to be an open nook instead of a disparate linen closet. It’s a great place to store all of our extra towels, my hair dryer, my make-up bag, and other linen-closet stuff. But thanks to pretty boxes and bins (that we already had laying around) all the ugly stuff is hidden away for a clean and inviting look that’s organized and still super functional.
Oh and you might notice the tags on a few of those woven baskets (which we made back in the day). They keep us even more organized and John can’t claim he doesn’t know where anything is or fail to put things back in their places- gotta love a foolproof system that costs zero dollars and zero cents.
Here’s a shot of the other side of the bathroom with our new $6 TJ Maxx towels hanging on the back of the door (see a close-up of our personalized towel hooks here). We also hung a small towel bar next to the sink for easy hand-drying. We actually adapted that towel bar to fit our bathroom so stay tuned for a follow up post with those details from John…
It’s the little things that really make a room feel finished. It was amazing how adding some towels and a few accessories seemed to bring the entire space from “in-progress” to “thank goodness we’re done!” And those last-minute touches only seem to emphasize and complement the more major materials like the veiny marble flooring, the crisp white trim and the soft taupey-green walls. Oh and speaking of the details, we scored our bath mat for $9 on clearance at our local West Elm (which is sadly closing its doors but that meant everything was marked down like crazy). It adds so much softness to the dark stone floors and the cushy texture is so inviting for bare feet.
And now for the budget breakdown. First we should mention that we got two informal bathroom estimates from contractor friends of ours (so we would have a pro price to compare to our DIY price) and both of them came in right around 10K for the entire demolition, room rebuilding, floor and shower/tub tiling and vanity installation (which they knew would be harder than a more modern redo since our 50 year old house had mortar and metal-mesh behind those walls – not to mention some old floorboard rot).
Of course we knew that we could save a significant chunk of change by doing everything ourselves but we also knew that just because a job is DIY doesn’t make it free (thanks to materials and supplies) so we headed into our bathroom makeover assuming that we’d spend around 3K on everything from demo to the final stage of accessorizing- especially because we were replacing everything from the floors and the walls to the vanity and the tile. Needless to say we were thrilled when we crunched the numbers and found out we came in blissfully under budget! Here’s how it all shook out:
- Demo: $67 (for the rental of the demolition hammer and a few other simple supplies)
- Subway wall tiles: $101 (from Home Depot for 21 cents a pop)
- Marble floor tiles: $120 (thanks to an amazing clearance price of around $2.50 at Lowe’s)
- Grout, spacers, sealer, caulk: $70
- Drywall, furring strips, hardibacker, plywood, nails: $136
- HD truck rental to get the big stuff home: $19
- Trim, quarter-round & supplies: $100
- Thinset & notched trowel: $75
- Manual tile cutter: $15 (we went halvsies on it with John’s dad)
- Wet saw: borrowed from John’s dad
- Circular saw: borrowed from John’s dad
- Miter saw: borrowed from John’s dad
- Drywall mud, tape, sandpaper & spackle knives: already owned/borrowed from J’s dad
- Primer: $11 (Valspar Drywall Latex Based Primer)
- Paint: $26 (Olympic No-VOC paint color matched to Benjamin Moore Dune Grass)
- Vanity: $410 ($165 Crate & Barrel nightstand after coupon+ $119 Overstock sink + $109 Overstock faucet + $17 Low-VOC eco-varnish)
- Shower Fixtures: $69 set from Overstock + $100 installation
- Toilet: already purchased a few years back
- Professional tub reglazing: $399
- Towels: $30 from TJ Maxx
- Mirror: $27 on clearance from Target
- TP dispenser and towel bar: $37 from Target
- Art: $6 for the wood (we already owned the paint/Mod Podge & printed ’em ourselves)
- Bath mat: $9 on clearance from West Elm
- Blinds: $25 from Home Depot
- Other small accessories & miscellaneous expenses: $67
- GRAND TOTAL: $1819.00
* It definitely bears noting that we were fortunate enough to get to borrow some tools and a few other supplies from John’s dad (ex: the wet saw, circular saw, and miter saw). If you were to purchase these items they’d probably come in around $450 but you could also rent them for far less from places like Home Depot and True Value.
Yeah we’re pretty excited about that final number. There may or may not have been some geeky high-fives being thrown around when we finally hit “=” and saw it come up on the calculator. Not only did we come in over eight thousand dollars cheaper than a professional most likely would have charged, we even came in more than 1K under our original budget. Thank goodness for clearance tile and places like Overstock, Target, and TJ Maxx for affordable accessories. And boy were we ready to have our new and improved bathroom back in action after exactly 40 days sans shower (although showering at the gym and John’s sister’s house weren’t all that bad after you got used to it).
Of course it wasn’t 40 solid days of work, it was more like four and a half weekends and a few evenings spent gettin’ her done. And we can’t forget that Christmas and New Years were thrown into the mix so we spent quite a bit of time taking a break with family and friends. Here’s a more detailed timeline rundown:
- Pre-project planning & shopping: 5 hours or so
- Removal of toilet/vanity before demo: 2 hours
- Tile demo: 24 hours (two twelve hours days)
- Getting supplies and installing drywall, hardibacker and new plywood floor: 42 hours (three and a half twelve hours days) Note: this step can be substantially shorter in newer homes where you’re not dealing with furring strips to build out walls to match old mortar depths, for example John’s dad tackled this step alone at his house in less than one seven hour day.
- Tiling the shower surround: 17 hours (one seven hour day and two five hour evenings)
- Priming and painting walls: 2.5 hours
- Tiling the floor: 11 hours (one seven hour day and one four hour evening)
- Grouting & sealing the shower & floor: 3 hours
- Buying, cutting, installing & painting trim: 9 hours
- Reinstalling toilet: 30 minutes
- Building and installing the vanity: 5.5 hours
- Hanging the mirror, art, shower curtain, towel bars, etc: 1.5 hours
- GRAND TOTAL: 123 hours (which breaks down into a little over five weekends of work)
The bathroom was definitely the biggest DIY projects we’ve taken on to date. We had never demo’d tile, used a wet saw, tiled anything, or even used a miter saw before! So we love to point to our latest big makeover as proof that anyone can tackle something like this in their own home with a good amount of research and some tireless enthusiasm and determination (for more info on how to evaluate whether a project is too big to DIY, click here).
So we’ll leave you with a photo of our bathroom as it looked when we purchased our sweet old house three years ago. Can you believe the previous owners actually had gross matted carpet covering the old basketweave tile?
You’ve come a long way old friend.
Would we do it all over again? Heck yeah. We’re interested to see how much faster and more efficient we could be now that we’re not such newbies in so many areas of the bathroom renovation process. But would we start another bathroom remodel this weekend? That might be stretching it. While we love the pride and self-satisfaction that our big bathroom project elicited, we’d be flat out lying if we didn’t admit that it was hard work and we’re happy to take a little break from sledgehammer swinging and tile cutting for a little while. We’re not robots, ok? In fact, a nice long bath sounds about right after all that blood (some), sweat (lots) and tears (just a select few).
So what do you guys think? Is there anyone out there who recently took on a similar DIY bathroom project? Any first-time tilers who are about to take the plunge? We promise it’s not nearly as scary as thinking about it. Really, once you stop dreading the whole thing and dive in it’s kind of a relief to be “doing” instead of “anticipating.” Happy renovating to one and all!
Wanna read each detailed post about the big bathroom makeover? Check out Chapter One (Planning), Chapter Two (Demo), Chapter Three (Wall Reconstruction), a little teaser post, Chapter Four (Tiling), Chapter Five (Grouting), Chapter Six (Trim) and Chapter Seven (Building The Vanity).
Maggie says
LOVE IT!!!!!! Just so you know, I plan to totally copy your new bathroom, just as soon as my husband is on board! Our house is 60 years old, so it should be fun!
Thanks for such great details on how you did it!
sarsk624 says
WOW! I am so so impressed. We’re getting ready to tackle tiling our bathroom after ripping up hideous carpet similar to yours (just imagine dark dark navy that is impossible to keep clean). Unfortunately, no tile underneath. But with all your tips and some research I think we can tackle it. Thanks for the inspiration. This remodel is nothing short of amazing
Lisa says
So impressive! Looks terrific!
Dinah says
ahh beautiful! i’m definitely going to copy this look :) i love the colors! i think the tiles are my favorite part of the project.. and the vanity.. and the linen closet.. ok everything is my favorite.
and thank you for detailing the project so well! from the timeline to prices.. you sure didn’t leave anything out!
Sheryl J says
It’s lovely! I would hire you guys in a jiffy!
Laura@JourneyChic says
Wow! This looks amazing! Your hard work definitely paid off and it proves that thinking creatively and doing it yourself equals a huge cost savings!
Andrea Melberg Thompson says
Your bathroom looks absolutely LOVELY. Is this the bathroom your child will use too. I am wondering where you will put the bath toys, baby tub thing they use when infants, etc, or if you thought about baby (toddler) in your planning. My toddler splash water about as they learn to brush their teeth, etc… so I wonder if in choosing your sink and the cabinetry, if you thought about little people (where you will keep their stool, if the sink is kid friendly, etc). Just curious. I am very excited to see the changes your home will take on with a child and how you will incorporate the wee ones. I struggle with this (and the stuff they need)). It will be too late for me to take your advice on the subject as you do it yourself… but it will be fun to see!
Take care and nice work!
Andrea in MN (w/ 3 year old twins)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Andrea,
We definitely kept the bean (and other future beans in mind) when we redid the bathroom. We knew we wanted a vessel sink, but opted to avoid a large glass bowl since we thought that was a lot more shatter-prone and could catch a little one’s chin far more easily than the basin style we chose. We also opted to forgo a glass shower door and decided to keep the softer and less breakable shower curtain to keep the room more kid friendly (and facilitate easy baths in the tub). We actually earned more storage space in our new vanity than we had with our old one (which pretty much just had plumbing and one bin under it- now we have two shelves for towels and things, etc). The main place where we store everything is our linen closet though… it’s incredibly deep and can house a ton of stuff. Although the pics in this post don’t really do it justice, you can see how many large trunks can be stacked on the bottom and how many larger baskets can be filled with bath toys and baby soaps and shampoos right here in this old post about taking the door off:
https://www.younghouselove.com/2008/07/open-wide/
We’re sure we’ll be able to make it work- and we promise keep you posted along the way!
xo,
s
Janice says
Super fab. I’ll sound like my Mother now and say the trendy vanity style wouldn’t have been my choice and I think the lack of countertop space may come back to haunt you quite quickly, but that can be changed out. What a great job overall. You should be so proud of yourselves. I’ve loved the subway stop sign idea since I saw the ones Mrs. Limestone hung in her dining room.
http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/search/label/dining%20room
Bravo youngsters!
Ashley M. says
What an improvement on an already pretty space. I love the contrast of dark and light . . . and that tiling in the shower area! Perfection. This gives me hope.
Here’s to your new room! Enjoy it — we’re envious! :)
<3 Ashley
victoria says
Your bathroom looks AWESOME! And you did it in great time. I am so proud of you both. You absolutely earned your tub time. Congratulations!
Chantel says
It looks fabulous! What a relief it must be to be all done. I love love LOVE your new accessories and paint color. Great job on everything! I can’t believe you guys did all that for such a low price (relatively! *L*).
Enjoy!
Lori says
Your bathroom looks great!
My husband and I are thinking about doing something similar with tile in out main bathroom. The Lowe’s in out town has tile that is similar if not the same as this for a really good clearance price. I have a piece sitting in the bathroom and am trying to decide if I am going to go ahead and buy it.
Megean says
Fantastic! I am sure you are thrilled with the results, because I am thrilled for you just reading about it! I know that you replaced the trim around the window – was that just for aesthetic purposes, or was there any damage to the old trim? I ask because I am one of the lucky few with a window in the shower and live in constant fear of rotting wood trim.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Megean,
You can check out our detailed chapter about hanging trim in the bathroom at the bottom of the post above (you’ll see a link that’s labeled “trim”) but a lot of the trim was either not present to begin with (since the bottom of the window and the area around the doors was tiled for instance) or was so far gone (rotten and cracked) that it couldn’t be salvaged. Plus we knew we had to add baseboards (which weren’t there back when the walls were all tiled) so we wanted everything to match and look equally new- hence the decision to just go ahead and replace everything. It really makes the entire space feel crisp and updated. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Heather G says
Beautiful remodel! Love your work, I’d love to see us do something like the bath remodel in our main bath. We recently painted and updated the shower curtain, toilet and mirror – leaving the bath and sink as our house won’t appreciate much with the update.
We bought the same bathroom mirror at Target, but paid full price! I’m dying knowing you got yours on clearance when I paid $39!
Great Job!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Heather,
We actually spied the mirror on clearance at a Target in Northern Virginia when we were there over Christmas! It was hanging in that area near the front of the store with all the home accessories (mirrors, ottomans, side tables) and had a little red sticker with the clearance price on it. Needless to say we snatched it right up! We learned a while back (see a post on the subject here) that Target prices can vary quite substantially due to location, and many things can go on sale in one location while they stay full price at another location. Our advice would be to always check target.com (sometimes things are for sale online before they are in all stores, and they even can include free shipping right to your door). Oh and if something gets marked down after you buy it you can always bring your receipt to customer service and have them “price adjust” it for you. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jenny says
Wow, this is absolutely incredible! I’m in awe right now and cannot wait for my husband to come home so I can show him. Did you demo the top portion of the wall and the ceiling or did you leave it as shown in one of the first pictures in this post?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jenny,
We actually just left the tops of the wall un-demo’d (except for the tops of the walls around the shower since we had to remove them to hang hardibacker to hold up the tile which we ran all the way up to the ceiling). Sure it meant that we had to line up our new drywall with the areas of wall that we kept in tact, but we had to build the walls out to that level anyway to accommodate things like the tub and the plumbing for the sink (we didn’t want to earn an inch or two more of wall space but have the walls not line up with the tub anymore, etc). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Kimberly @ Attempting Creative says
Such an amazing redo! So glad you have so much hidden storage. It’s the best!
LauraC says
Just absolutely fabulous!!! Great, great job! We’re hoping to redo our upstairs bathroom before baby #2 comes mid-April, but we found out from a friend contractor that it would be $10K to put a tub in there instead of the shower we have (because we would have to move the toilet). So that’s a no-go. But there are some things we’re still hoping to do: replace our sink/vanity with a much smaller one (to add some space!), put radient floor heating under new tile (just laminate now with no heat at all), install a fan, add another electrical outlet, new mirrow, new light fixture, paint. So we may do it ourselves, we don’t know yet.
But I have a question for you. I love your bamboo blinds, and really want them or nice Roman shades in our windows too. But it seems that every window in our house is a non-standard width (29″) and we can’t afford to go custom with all of them! What is the width of your bathroom window? With an older house, I would have thought your windows might be odd-sized too, but $29 for a shade is great. There are some at Overstock, but they are really, really long, and I don’t know if they can be shortened like mini-blinds. Do you have any suggestions? I’ve hit up every place I know – Lowes, HD, Target, Wal-Mart, BB+B, even Pennys. I may attempt to sew/make my own Roman shades, but the directions seemed pretty complicated online (to make working ones, I could do the fake-don’t-move ones). But I’d much rather shell out $30 for a nice shade that I can install in 5 minutes. I have enough projects and with a baby on the way, don’t relish the thought of all that extra work. Any ideas would be welcome! Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Laura C,
Our window sizes are completely non-standard! It was a miracle to find an inside mount shade for the bathroom (which is 23″ wide incidentally) but for the rest of our house we grabbed outside mounted blinds so we could get any size as long as it’s wider than the window. Does that make sense? Since we hang curtains on either side of them to flank them, even if our window is a totally non-standard size we can just grab the next standard size up (usually we get them at Walmart but they were having a recall so we hit up Home Depot) and dress every window for around $25 without ever having to go custom. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Michelle says
Absolutely breathtaking! Congratulations…you two have done an outstanding job. I live in an older home too, so I’m keeping this post for future reno plans. Thanks so much for sharing!
MegRuth Photography says
You guys did a fantastic job! I have those soap dispensers all over my house. I LOVE them.
I’m still obsessed with that floor, obsessed.
SarahV says
I just completed a bathroom renovation yesterday! My bathroom now has subway tiles halfway up all the walls, floor-to-ceiling subway tiles in the shower, hexagonal mosaic tile on the floor (with contrasting grey grout) and the walls are peacock blue! It looks so beautiful and dramatic! Congrats to you two for completing this job!
Taylor (The House on Penny Lane) says
It’s so great to see a fabulous bathroom makeover that doesn’t involve moving plumbing or expensive bath/shower accessories. Seeing this makes me feel better about not wanting to do an extreme bathroom overhaul. Well done!
Emily V. says
Amazing!! Good job. I love the door-less linen closet! Great idea! Everything is just fabulous!
holly west says
It looks absolutely beautiful. My favorite is the flooring, but the combination of everything just goes together perfectly. I’ll bet you never want to leave the room now!
amelia says
looks AMAZING!! so exited to see the whole bathroom done and complete. Looking forward to the post on how to make those awesome pieces of wood art – they look so good! All the colours are great – it was like those towels were made just for you! lol
very impressive…next – baby room!!!!
Tiffany S. says
It really is stunning, and I think you saved more money that you think. I LOVE the towels – they are awesome. And, of course, I love the paint color because,on my screen at least, it’s the color of our living room. Really, you’ve outdone yourselves. I hope you get a big day of rest and time to put your feet up!
Anne @ the doctor takes a wife says
This looks beautiful!! I’m so jealous and can’t wait until hubby and I have a house to make our own. Boo renting!!
Mendie says
Wow-great work you guys! That is an amazing change. You inspire me to do some renovations around the house with each and every project! Congrats on the new bean….can’t wait to see what you do with the nursery!
Krissy says
Did you ever consider putting in a glass door to your tub instead of a curtain? If so, why did you decide to do the curtain?
Thanks!
Sam says
It looks amazing! I can’t believe how much money you guys saved. Oh wait we are talking about you guys after all, I can believe it. Awesome.
Brian says
Does that deodorant burn your armpits? I used it for a month and then one day it started to burn my pits. Just wondering. :)
Bridgit says
Where do you get all of your shell/starfish accessories? They are so cute and I am sure you know where to find them on the cheap!
Caitlin @ That House on The Corner says
GREAT JOB!!! I literally had trouble sleeping because I was so excited for your big reveal! Now, more than ever, I am DYING to take on our bathroom! Just way too cool!
Just a quick question, in the “before” pic your bathroom floor looks dark, was the basket-weave covered with carpet or is it just the picture?
emily says
my husband and i (also local richmonders) have been following this project pretty closely since we’re about to do this to our 1942 bath that looked almost exactly like yours. this has been incredibly helpful, thanks so much!!
Babs says
I just love that wall color. makes it so serene!
Amy E. says
love it! i need to look back through your posts and find out that wall color though.
we just finished our shower reno this past weekend. due to many delays including a honeymoon, the holidays, etc; it took us a grand total of just under 5 months from demo day to the first shower. but it was totally worth it since the old one had a leak which could have caused a LOT of damage if left unattended.
Connie says
I am “green with envy”. Seriously, this is outstanding! Great Job, and congrats on having your bathroom back.
Lindsey says
Amazing job!
Everything looks great and I can’t believe you did it all for under $2000!
Love it,
{ Lindsey }
mrslimestone says
Looks great! What a transformation. Love that little drawer.
(And im sure you know this already but Astoria Ditmars is in Queens, not Manhattan.)
mrslimestone says
Doh – ignore my last comment. i didn’t read the line you both lived there!
Megan says
It looks fantastic! I am so jealous that you have a new, clean bathroom. Ours is so old that no matter how much you clean it still looks dingy. Anywho, my favorite parts are the sink and those towels! Love ’em!
Lilian says
Wonderful job guys! If I had a gym membership or a sister in town I’d demo my shower tile too! Right now the tile is very “manly” and I hate it. Luckily I am only reminded of this manliness when I shower, the rest of the time my shower curtain pretty much hides the beige and black tiles!
caitlin says
wow. I cannot BELIEVE you did all this for under $2000!!!
You are total miracle workers!
I hope I can use a lot of your ideas for the eventual complete destruction and re-creation of my kitchen.
Rebecca says
You two are truly inspiring!
mariela says
LOVE what you have done with your bathroom! AMAZING!!! Tell me where did you get your light fixtures? I’m looking for a similar style! Thanks :)
YoungHouseLove says
Mariela- The light fixture is from Home Depot. We got it while back (way before this makeover) so it was nice to not have to replace that since we were replacing nearly everything else!
Caryn- No problems with our soap pump! We love it and know of many other readers who have snagged them and enjoy them as well (scroll up to see a comment to that effect right on this very post).
Caitlin- Yup, can you believe that? We ripped up the matted gross carpet as soon as we moved in. Crazy!
Bridgit- We pick up our shell/starfish accessories wherever we see them. The shell ball hails from Kohls a while back, and the faux coral and the faux clam shell both come from beachfront stores in Delaware where the family vacations. Hope it helps!
Brian- Neither of us have any complaints about our deodorant. No burning issues here after over a year of daily use. Hope it helps!
Krissy- We did consider hanging a seamless glass shower door instead of a curtain to allow the space to feel even bigger and more open, but with a little one on the way we thought something softer and less shatter-prone might be a smarter choice for our growing family. Plus it was easy on the budget!
xo,
s
KOS! (Keep On S'myelin!) says
I absolutely love it!
I’ve been trying to come up with decorating ideas for my house and your site has been a wealth of information!
Tran says
Thank you so much for this post! I really appreciate the budget breakdown and so glad and relieved to hear how much it came to in the end. Your time breakdown was icing. Kudos to your wonderful and thorough documentation.
And the results look fantastic. Really love the paint color, floor color, sink choice and the whole vibe. Very soothing. Well done!
East End says
I love it! Have to admit though that I cringed when I saw the vintage floor tile go. You’ve managed to pull it all together so nicely.
Kim Smith says
It’s beautiful! Wonderful job! So professional!
Carrie says
Once again, you two have shown some true DIY talent! This is a truly gorgeous room from top to bottom, and it shows great ingenuity and eye for design. Seriously, if I had accomplished this, I would just stand in there and stare at it all day. Job well done FOR SURE!
Jenn says
Thank you so much for your tutorials. I love how your bathroom turned out. Our next project is to tackle our 1929 bathroom that desperately needs to be redone. My husband has been scared to tackle it because it is going to be such a huge project and he has never done anything like this. We are hoping to start it this spring. We would start sooner but we are having a baby on Thursday and just finishing the nursery and some work on the hallway. Would you recommend doing it in sections like redo the tub, then walls, etc or should we just demo all at once? It is the only bathroom in the house and we will probably only be able to work on it on the weekends.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jenn,
Even though this was the only full bathroom in the house, we opted to demo everything out at once because we knew that would help us get to the finish line with fewer speedbumps and in less time than if we did things in stages. Of course you should do whatever feels like it’ll work best for you, but since we had John’s dad visiting for one weekend to help us build the walls back up and start the tiling process we really wanted to tackle as much of the room at once as we could (it would have taken a lot more time to attack the floor separately instead of demoing it out at the same time and hanging all the drywall and laying all the plywood in one fell swoop). Hope it helps!
xo,
s