Happy 100th Birthday - Bathroom

Happy birthday dear bathroom, happy birthday to you...

You may have already gotten a glimpse into our bathroom from my Quick Bathroom Updates post, where I detail the transformation our vanity underwent {before picture on the left, after on the right}.

Our bathroom was remodeled on a budget of almost nothing. Most of our projects involved the help of my dad but this project was done almost entirely by my talented husband.

After some blood {ok, maybe not blood}, sweat and tears {yes, with every home improvement project there are tears} we lovingly updated our bathroom {before picture on the left, after on the right}.

Removing the bulky cabinets made a huge difference. We {actually, he, the husband} built a new radiator cover that we use as a bench, hopefully giving more of a spa feel to our bathroom.

With some inspiration and stained glass {that can be bought at any hobby store}, we were able to give the tall oak cabinet a custom look by removing the wooden panel inserts and replacing them with the glass.

Using some gel stain, we covered the dated oak finish with a dark, rich mahogany coating. We added some crown molding to the top of the cabinet and bronze knobs to the drawers to give it a more finished look {view of the cabinet from the bathtub, where I perched trying to get this picture}. Can you believe this is the same oak cabinet?

My decorating philosophy with our bathroom was 'decorate with what makes you happy'. Instead of hiding away all my meaningful mementos in a box, I dug them out and put them on display in our bathroom. Most of which were from our honeymoon and other travels.

This may not look like much to the casual observer BUT this shelf makes me smile every day and brings me back to happy memories of my engagement. The picture of the sunset, is the sunset in San Jose del Cabo on the night we got engaged. I was a little annoyed that in the midst of a romantic moment {getting engaged}, my fiance stopped to take pictures of the sunset but will now admit that I appreciate I have that picture now. The vase contains sand and shells from that same beach and the scroll a special poem.

The corbel supported shelf, my husband built, displays more treasures from our travels, another picture from our honeymoon, some coral, 2 tiki men {these tiki men were given out by our hotel, much like chocolates left on your pillow at turn down service}...

and we have glass bottles filled with sand from each place we've visited. It's interesting to see how different something as simple as sand can look from region to region.

All the pictures in our bathroom my husband in took, matted and framed. I love the idea of filling our walls with personal pictures from our adventures.

So, that's the story of our 100 year old bathroom.

I hope we made our house proud with the updates we made.

We are proud to be part of our house's hundred year history. Happy Birthday Bathroom!

Quick Bathroom Updates

Curious how I took my bathroom from this...

To this...

With baby steps.

1. We replaced the oak framed mirror with a $150 bronze wall mounted medicine cabinet, providing more storage. We would have preferred a recessed mounted medicine cabinet but with plaster walls sometimes you have to compromise.

2. We replaced the tulip frosted glass shades on the light fixture with marbleized cream and brown glass shades. New glass shades cost just under $10 depending on the style you like. The oak panel the light was mounted on was painted the same color as the wall, to minimize it visually.

3. We replaced the silver and gold toned faucet with a $60 bronze faucet.
Shop the clearance section. Most of the time, items in the clearance section are close outs AND available for a steal of a deal.

4. We replaced the oak vanity top with a Corian vanity top. Corian is simple, clean and relatively inexpensive. Vanity tops will vary in cost depending on substance and size. If you have a standard vanity, again, shop the clearance section, you never know what you'll find.

5. Stained glass. The addition of the stained glass to the cabinet door started to give our vanity a custom look. Even if you don't have the extent of updates we had to make, this simple update makes a HUGE impact. Again, depending on size and type of glass, prices vary. Our cost was roughly $30.

Here is a close up of the outside of our cabinet door.

Using an X-acto knife, and I am sure there may be better methods, we cut the middle panel out of the cabinet door. Make your cuts from inside of cabinet door, making sure not to cut the frame/border as you make your cuts. We ordered stained glass from a craft specialty store and had it pre-cut. To mount the stained glass, we used mirror clips to secure the glass to the cabinet door.

With our X-acto knife method, you can see there are some rough edges. Fortunately, they are on the inside of the cabinet so it's our little secret.

The final steps:

1. We added bronze knobs to the cabinet door and cabinet drawers. We got a set of 10 knobs for under $20. Knobs can be bought in sets or individually.

2. We used gel stain to stain our vanity. I am sure there are other methods but what we did was gently sand our vanity and apply the gel stain. Gel stain is thicker than normal stain, it almost has a paint consistency. It looks best when applied in several coats. A can of gel stain is about $15.

A combination of simple changes can lead to a dramatic transformation. A little vision doesn't have to cost a lot of money in the end.

Linked up and a BIG thanks to: