Master Bath Renovation

Hey ya’ll! We (along with a couple professionals) have been working non stop for the past two and a half weeks to renovate our master bathroom. We timed our beach vacation to where we would miss the first week of the chaos, which was so smart! Living in a construction zone with two little kiddos is not a fun thing, so I’m glad we thought that through and planned appropriately. 

I started the designing and shopping for this bathroom in April to make sure we had everything here and ready to go when we left for vacation. For example, the vanity we purchased took almost two months to be built and shipped so if I hadn’t started the process early then it would have never been here by the time we needed it. 

Let me start with telling how we designed this space. (This is also how we design all of our projects.) We brainstorm, take pictures, search Pinterest or Google, and eventually sketch out what we want. We’ve learned that pictures speak volumes, so sometimes we already have an idea in our minds and then try to find a picture to help our crew visualize what we’re talking about. For example…here are the pictures we used in creating our bathroom. 

Then Nathan sketches out our own plans for how we want the layout to be.  He is a much better artist than me, so this is a team effort. I design, then explain to him what I’m thinking…all while he is sketching. We make a great team! 

These papers (along with several meetings with our guys) are turned over and lay the blue print for our finished product. This is how we do our flip projects too! Lots and lots of planning…

So now let’s start with some before pictures of this bathroom. To the best of my knowledge, this bathroom was original to when our house was built (except for new light fixtures and new paint that we added three years ago) so it definitely needed some TLC. It was in fine working order, but was way out dated and needed much more than a “facelift”. A facelift, in my mind, would be something simple like fresh paint, new countertops, etc.  We decided that if we were going to tackle this room, we were going to really do it right. We rearranged the entire layout of this room. The old “toilet and shower room” is going to be a second master closet, but it is not finished yet. I’ll share pictures of that room once it is done. 

Ok…back to before pictures. 

One thing we always loved about this house is how big our master bathroom is.  From the first day we walked through this house, we knew it had tons of potential.  I was so excited when we finally decided to take the plunge and renovate it. 

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I wanted this space to be a good blend of many different styles including: farmhouse, industrial, cottage… as well as using some key pieces that we found in Charleston, SC. So basically my personal taste is a big mixture of all different decorating styles. I’ll list all of the sources for the items at the end of the post. 

Here are some “after demo day” pictures of the bathroom.

And now for a couple details about the design for our new space. We wanted tons of storage in our shower so we had them build the tub out from the wall so we would have additional storage, as well as elbow room all the way around (this makes the shower seem so much bigger). We also had them build a small bench at the back to serve as additional storage or as a sitting place. This small change also makes the inside of the shower much bigger. The “soap box” runs the length of the shower to ensure we will never run out of space for our shower stuff. All of these seemingly small details make such a big difference in how custom this bathroom feels. 

The built-in shelving next to the shower was all custom built by Nathan. I wanted the shelving to be chunky, so we went with 2″x12″ boards and attached two of them together to make our shelves 24″ deep.  I mixed two different stains (Minwax’s Special Walnut and Minwax’s Dark Walnut) to try and match the stain of the vanity. After sanding the boards down to make them nice and smooth, I applied one coat of stain and (after letting it completely dry) added two coats of polyurethane. We were both thrilled with the end result. 

Okay, and now for the after pictures…because I know that’s all you guys really care about. Haha. I’m kidding. But really…when I read these types of blog posts the pictures are the best part. 

This first picture is the view directly after walking in to the bathroom from our bedroom. 

Well, there it is folks! We’ve certainly enjoyed being able to design a space for ourselves and have already enjoyed it. I’ve been taking baths in the tub all week long (even before the rest of the space was finished!)

As always, thanks for reading!!

XOXO,

Megan

Sources list:

Bathtub, shower faucet set, sink faucets: Lowes

Floor tile and soap box tile: Wayfair

Vanity: purchased through Houzz, but made by Fox Den Decor

Vessel sinks: Houzz

Subway tile for shower and tile wall: Liberty Salvage (we scored this tile for $1 per square foot!)

Toilet, bath fan, recessed lights, vanity lights (those 3 are actually exterior lights): Home Depot

***I need to add that this bath fan is the coolest thing ever! It is blue tooth capable, so I can sync it to my phone to listen to music through the speakers. It has a water proof remote control for inside the shower. It also has a blue night light and a regular white LED light, as well as the normal fan part. This was a spur of the moment purchase that we have thoroughly enjoyed!***

Antique gold Mirrors and picture frames: Target

Towels, towel hooks, shower curtain, cabinet drawer pulls, storage boxes, small gold table, trash can, bath rug: Homegoods

Live hanging plant and orchid: Lowes

Macrame plant hanger: Amazon

Laundry room sign: Etsy

Prints on wall: Local artist in Charleston, SC

Paint color: Nurture Green by Sherwin Williams

Grout color: Charcoal