We bought our house last year, a 1950’s ranch that has been added onto and remodeled so many times that it’s hard to keep track. The previous owner remodeled this bathroom around 1992. It was functional but U.G.L.Y! I hated everything about it. The ceramic tile floor, the weird faux-stone countertop, the hollywood sidelights, the giant mirror, the submarine-like shower stall, and above all else: the wallpaper.
Color scheme from hell.
The majesty of those tassel-holding lions, so carefully trimmed and pasted over the ill-matched pink skin-like walls! Oh! It was nauseating. It all had to go.
Sadly, the wallpaper held on with such fierce determination that I did a lot of damage to the drywall. Wolverine would be proud! I tried several different techniques and chemicals (Dif, fabric softener, and finally vinegar), but eventually I resorted to repeatedly soaking and scraping with a razor scraper. The results were not pretty. In hindsight, we probably should have just painted over the wallpaper. Instead, we had a drywall guy skim coat the whole room. The bonus was having him also remove and skim over the textured ceiling!
The next step was having our contractor remove the cabinets, mirror, shower, floor, and toilet. He replaced the traditional swinging door (which annoyingly banged into the laundry closet door in the hallway–and had to be closed whenever the laundry area was accessed) with a pocket door. We also had him raise the ceiling in the shower area, which made a huge difference in how big the shower felt. The new shower also came out a few more inches into the room.
Meanwhile, I shopped for tile. We went with a classic 3 x 6 white subway tile for the shower, wainscot and sink surround. To help keep the budget down, I decided to do just an accent stripe of gorgeous blue glass tile, which would inspire the new wall color. For the floor, I designed an inset “rug” of 2″ hexagonal limestone, bordered by a granite 8″x 24″ tile, which we also ran into the laundry closet, hallway and toilet area.
Floor plan sketch with tile layout.
The shower, which was custom built with Schluter system, features a sweet, nearly-invisible drain. We used the same 2″ hex limestone tile. The grout color on the floor is a dark gray, with lighter gray grout for the walls.
Once the floor was in, the new toilet and vanity cabinets could be installed. I saved about $1000 by ordering unassembled cabinets online. I was able to put them together over one evening, although the instructions were an absolute joke. After building Ikea furniture for over a decade, I thought it would be no problem. WRONG! Fortunately, they had instructional videos online!
With those in, it was time to order the countertop, shower sill and seat material. After looking at the samples in the room, I went with a slightly browner version of the gray pebbled Cambria quartz I had initially like.
The walls were painted South Bay from Mythic paints, which I had matched from a color chip at Sherwin-Williams. We went with a white trim to match the tile (the old trim color was much too yellow). The light fixtures and plumbing fixtures were installed, and the backsplash around the sinks could be completed once the countertop was in. We used white pencil beading tile to finish off the top edge of the wall tile.
Finally, FINALLY, the shower door was installed, mirrors hung, accessories like towel hooks and drawer pulls installed, and TAH-DAH!
The whole project, start to finish, took almost 5 months! It seems a little insane, right? Well, the contractors didn’t start until about a month after my wallpaper shenanigans, and it turns out that custom countertops and shower glass take weeks to manufacture and ship. Fortunately we were not actually living in the house for the first half of the project, and we had another bathroom to share with the kids after the move. So, I guess the lesson here is don’t expect big projects like this to happen quickly. SO worth the wait though!
Selected materials and sources:
Floor tile: Legno Honed Hex Travertine 2″ x 2″ and Banding Gris Acid Marble 8″ x 24″- tileshop.com
Accent wall tile: Walker Zanger Pacific Iridescent 1″ x 4″ – tileanddesigns.com
Shower Fixtures: Delta Raincan and shower controls – crescent-supply.com
Vanity Lights: Malachi Bath Light 1-Light and 3-Light, Polished Chrome – homedecoratorscollection.com (no longer available)
Countertop, shower threshold and shower seat: Cambria Quartz in Cranbrook. – crescent-supply.com
Cabinets: Arctic Shaker Drawer Base and 2 Vanity Cabinets – kitchencabinetdepot.com
mixed bag of European immigrants, but the culture I associate with the most is German. My great-grandparents, John (Johan) and Clara Sabel, came to the US in the early 1900’s and settled in Louisville, Kentucky. They became proud American citizens, but continued to speak German at home and follow many of their cultural traditions. My mom grew up spending lots of time with her “grossmama,” learning to cook, force food upon loved ones, live frugally, and speak her mind. In honor of Grossmama–a prolific crocheter, knitter, needlepointer, mother (6 kids) and cook–and the long line of DIY crafty families she helped create, I am proud to share my continuing adventures here on Erstellenhaus.
Erstellenhaus 