Taking on the Bathroom Walls

Just a few more posts before the big bathroom reveal. I'll be honest, I still haven't actually taken the final pictures… oops! But this bathroom took so many steps that I hate cramming it all in to one post. Sorry mom. And let me tell ya- these posts take up as much as my time as actually doing the projects!

 

After the tub was tiled and the floor went down, we went forward with priming and painting the walls.  I'd like to consider us painting pros by now. While I would have dreaded this step before it actually ended up being hardly any effort and went quickly.... and again I actually did paint- not just take pictures!

  

 

 

 

PRIMED!

 

 

Once it was primed and ready to go, out next step was of course PAINT!

 

We still had leftover paint- Valspar "Bay Waves"- from our bedroom project and the nursery doors, so I opted to just use what we had. I loved the gray we used upstairs, and I wanted to keep the bathroom light and fresh so it was a no brainer- and a money saver. We painted the gray from the top of the ceiling to about mid-way down. It's funny how the lighting in the bathroom actually makes the paint look more gray/blue compared to the same gray upstairs, but it works for me!

 

 

 

The rest of the way down was painted white. Why you may ask? Because we decided to do board and batten for the lower portion of the wall…. and it was seriously so easy! Not only that, I think it MAKES the bathroom. You'll see soon…  

 

 

 

Once painted, we installed the baseboards and trim. We just picked up some pre-primed 1" x 6" boards and then some shoe moulding. Nathan cut it all down and then we simply nailed it in, spackled, caulked, and painted- yes more paint.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Next step was the building the storage behind the toilet. This only took Nathan one evening to build. Once dried, I primed and painted.

 

 

 

 

It may look weird now- but trust me it all comes together! The top two shelves are actually going to have doors on them- while the bottom will be an open shelf. Now I LOVE the look of the open shelving, but I'm needing practical storage for all of my mismatched towels and the baby bath toys that will be taking over my bathroom... so doors are definitely being added!

 

Next post is all about the board and batten... my SECOND favorite part of the bathroom!  

 

 -Tricia

My New Bathroom Obsession: The Floor Tile

The final task Nathan's dad helped with (before he was released from our 2 week hold) was the tiled floor. You can check out the tub tile here if you're interested!

You can see the old floor tile in the picture below. It was probably the least awful thing about the old bathroom- but it still had to go in order for us to renovate the room.

 

The floor tile came from Lowes (although Home Depot has pretty much the same thing at the same price). The octagon tile came in 12 x 12 sheets, so it went pretty quickly once they got started.

 

I LOVE this tile and it is one of Lowes' most inexpensive options. It's a classic and definitely is a throwback to the 1920s when this house was built- which was my goal when starting the bathroom redo- I didn't want anything too modern.

 

 

Another token shot of Nathan on the blog. 

 

The sheets of tile were priceless. Can't imagine doing any of this one-by-one!

 



 

 

 

 

All the tile is down and ready.

 



 

And then Nathan grouted.... but I have no pictures to prove it because I think I went to bed. God bless him.

 

Here is my new obsession- our beautiful floor!

 

 



 

We ended up going with the "Warm Gray" grout and I think it's perfect. The gray contrasting with the white tile really shows off and compliments the design AND I don't have to worry about dirt getting in the grout lines. Win/Win!

 

 

We also used a mixed in sealer for this and it seems to be holding up to dust and dirt pretty well. We've had a lot of dirt with housework lately so it's already had a lot of practice.

 

Both tile jobs were probably the more tedious tasks for the bathroom… but well worth it. Sometimes I just want to lay on the floor and take a nap because it's so glorious… or maybe I'm just that tired. Who knows.

 

 

Will be back soon with the next update!

-Tricia

 

The Tub Gets a Tiling Job

Finally back with a bathroom progress post…. (You can check out the previous posts here and here) We've been taking a nice long break this week from anything house related, but I figured getting a post in is the least I can do.
 
Soooooo secret's out- As of this past Sunday (Mother's Day) the bath is done! OK- we still have one or two finishing touches, but I'm considering it complete and it feels so good! That being said, it was still such a monster of a job that I refuse to just show you the finished product without the steps that it took to get there. (And I've been too lazy/tired/preggo to take any of the final pictures yet so a big reveal post is not really possible at the moment….)
 
This post is all about the tub tile. Nathan's dad is pretty good when it comes to this stuff. His parents redid their first floor bath last year and it looks awesome so having him here for the tile component was HUGE. The tile was also one of the last things he helped work on before escaping his 2 week imprisonment with us, so we were lucky that we were able to fit it in.
 
The first tiling job they took on was the tub surround. My goal was to keep the look of the bathroom classic so we went with white subway tile. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with that choice and it can be pretty affordable, so it was a no brainer.
 
Before any tile was placed, we applied a waterproof barrier... that's the dark teal stuff on the wall in the pic below... 
 

 

 

Once dried, it was time to lay the tile.

 

 

 



 
Now, it wouldn't be one of my projects without making it a bit more difficult. Instead of just slapping the tile on in the typical layout, I wanted to add a little bit of interest. We decided to frame out an inset of the long wall and lay a smaller scaled tile within the tiled frame. (By the way- there really isn't a synonym for tile so I'll be using that word a lot here). I originally wanted the center tile to be even smaller scaled than what we chose, but the price of the smaller tile we looked into was just unreasonable and not worth it… so this was going to have to do. 
 
Here's a lovely iPhone picture showing the framed-in area pre tile.
 

 
And here is the tile all set in... but before grout.
 

 

 

 

  

  

Once the tile was in, it was grouting time (which I think happened during Derby weekend- it's all a blur!). I finally was able to get my hands dirty and help Nathan with this portion. We ended up choosing a white grout and mixed in a sealer which Nathan's dad suggested…. it's awesome because you don't have to go back and apply sealer to every grout line. Time saver for sure!
 
Here's the big guy grouting away. He loves when I put pictures of him up on da blog. I made sure to show three of him for extra measure.
 

 

 

What a difference grout makes...

 

 

 

 

 

Once the grout was dry, we wiped it clean and then caulked the corners and edges.... and to top it all off we added the shower head, faucet, and hardware. It definitely finished the look.

 

I think I'm in LOVE....

 



 

 



We actually cheated on Lowes and purchased the tub tile from Home Depot. The reason? The tile we found at Lowes wasn't as white as the floor tile we already had picked out. The Home Depot option ended up being a better color match so we went with that. Blasphemy I know.

 

 

 

 

It ended up turning out great and is definitely the look that I was going for. The detail is subtle, but I think it gives it a nice effect and makes it look like we spent a little more time and thought into how our tub was going to look (which we did- to Nathan's dismay).

 

 

 

 

 

And that's the tub tile for ya- turned out pretty great and I've been happily enjoying my bubble baths in a nice, fresh, clean bathtub. It's a far cry from showering in this thing for the past 2 years....

 

 

 

Next up is floor tile- probably my favorite part of the entire bathroom!

 

I'm going to take a bath now. Later.

 

-Tricia