BEDKNOBS & BAUBLES

Main Bathroom: Product Selections

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Drumroll, please… Here is the source list for our upcoming main bath remodel! (Scroll through the “before” tour here!) It feels amazing to see things come together after planning this renovation since August. Trust me when I say it’s been a lot of work to get this far. I didn’t think that I’d ever grow tired of shopping, but I think I’d ready to tuck my credit card away for a long while after this! I still need to buy an exhaust fan and a shower curtain rod, but those will be a cinch!

SOURCE LIST

Paint: Sherwin-Williams – Riverway
Wall Tile: 4″ x 12″ Subway Tile in White (tiling to the ceiling in the shower; midway up the wall throughout)
Mirror: Rejuvenation Yaquina Pivot Mirror
Sconce: Schoolhouse Electric Irvine
Sconce Shade: Schoolhouse Electric Straight Bell Shade
Vanity: Tile & Top 30″ Uptown Vanity
Shower Curtain: Target
Ceiling Light: Norwell Lighting (currently in the bathroom; might replace eventually)
Faucet: Delta Cassidy
Towel Bars: Moen Kingsley 18″ & Moen Kingsley Double Towel Bar
Toilet: Kohler Corbelle
Toilet Paper Holder: Moen Kingsley
Cabinet Knobs: House of Antique Hardware
Cabinet Hinges: House of Antique Hardware
Shower & Tub Kit: Delta Cassidy
Bathtub: Kohler Bellwether
Floor Tile: Marble Hexagon

The vanity was such a headache to figure out. I didn’t love much of what I saw online and I really didn’t want a composite material. So, we went to Marling Lumber, a local company that specializes in custom and semi-custom cabinetry. It was like pulling teeth to get information on our options from their sales person and after many trips to the showroom and many emails, we finally got a quote for a base with a solid surface top and one with a quartz remnant top. Those prices were $1,800 and $1,400 respectively, plus another $100 for an undermount sink. I’m fine spending more for the right piece, but those prices fest astronomical for what we were getting. It was back to the drawing board and the search functions at dozens of sites. We eventually found this one at Home Depot that ticked our boxes: solid wood for the majority of the piece (unfortunately we noticed that part of it is made from composite after reading reviews, but most of it is solid wood), storage, a real stone counter, and rectangular undermount sink.

It arrived a couple of weeks later on a pallet. We thought we’d be able to get it in the house with the help of Forearm Forklifts and were sorely mistaken. As luck would have it, one of our neighbors was outside and asked if we needed help. An emphatic yes from me! So, he and Dave hoisted the 125-pound package inside where it’s going to sit until the main bathroom work begins in March.

And here’s where I started last summer. I knew I wanted to keep the paint we already have in the room. I ordered those sconces when the project was just a glimmer in our eye, and I knew early on that I wanted marble hexagon tile on the floor and a longer-than-traditional subway tile. It’s so fun to see it come together and I’m beyond eager for the install!

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Main Bathroom: The Before Tour

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Our bathroom renovations begin next week! While we’re starting with the powder room, I wanted to give you a look at the main bathroom this week. Today’s post is the “before” tour of what it looks like now, along with some “before-before” images of what it looked like during our inspection and after we closed on the house. On Friday, I’m sharing the full product list of what’s going in the space!

Now, I want you to know that while it would have been great to do a remodel for aesthetics alone, that wasn’t exactly the case here. About 18 months ago, we had water leaking from the bathroom into the kitchen below. Fortunately it wasn’t an issue with the plumbing, but years of water seeping around poor caulking that led to the damage. Additionally (as you’ll see below), there’s a window in the shower with original wood trim. We’re covering it with plastic for the time being, but it’s not the correct way to do this by any stretch of the imagination. And to make this room even more obnoxious, we have an old drum trap which barely drains to the point where we’re standing in ankle-deep water after a shower. So, we will be gutting the entire room in order to find and address all of the water damage, and correct someone else’s poor DIY attempt at a renovation.

Here’s a photo from the doorway and a pretty good overview of what we’re working with. The room is large at about 8′ x 8.5′. I love that built-in, but the wood isn’t in great shape. So, we’ll be flanking the centered tub with two built-ins that will echo the style of this original one. There will be white subway tile going to the ceiling in the shower, we’ll be putting the plumbing into the wall, and we’ll continue with tile around the room midway up the wall (approximately 48″ high). I’ll be using this paint color again for the top half. (The paint is reading brighter here with these iPhone photos than it does in real life. IRL it’s more subdued.) The linoleum flooring will be replaced with marble hexagon tile. I really want the renovation to be classic and appropriate for a 1929 home and most of what’s in here now isn’t original to the house.

Going in the room a bit further, there’s a window to the left that will be staying and we’ll keep the original trim. We’re also keeping the original trim of the door frame, and we’ll copy the trim style for the two new built-ins to make it look like it was originally part of the house.

We’re not going to move any of the plumbing since that’s entirely too far out of our budget. Fortunately, though, I like the location of the fixtures in the room. So, the sink will be staying where it is as will the toilet. (Fun fact, our toilet isn’t level. I kept thinking it was a little tilted for the past few years and finally got the level from the basement to prove myself right.) We’ll be doing a pivot-style mirror above a vanity so it can “float” in front of the tiled wall. We’ll also replace those sconces with new ones. I absolutely love the flattering light of side sconces by a mirror. We’re not going to go with any recessed lighting in the room as I think that looks too modern for an old house. We’ll have a ceiling fixture, the sconces, and light from two windows.

Here’s the window that’s inside of the shower. I love the light that it brings in, but there’s no doubt that this isn’t water tight. We’ll replace it with a new window that’s the same width, but half the height for privacy. I can’t wait to finally get rid of that second clingy shower curtain!

On the other side of the tub, you’ll see this long counter that extends into the shower area.

Plus, there’s another mirror. Chances are that this was someone’s makeup table. The tub likely didn’t have a shower attachment originally, thus the window and its wood frame. This is very clearly all being ripped out. The tub is smaller than a standard-size bathtub, so we will be replacing it with a slightly larger one. The second built-in will go on the right of it. We’ll put a towel bar where the mirror is now.

I probably should have staged some of this photos, huh? Oh well, there’s all my junk and the reason why I’m eager for a second built-in cabinet.

This collection of snapshots are from shortly after we closed on the house. It’s been fine and serviceable up until the water damage, and some minor cosmetic changes like adding paint and replacing the fluorescent light fixture made a big difference. The photo in the lower left here cracks me up, though. It’s so illustrative of the mess we purchased with the horrible wood stain on the floor in the hall, the crappy paint job, and a broken glass doorknob that was taped together.

But this, my friends, is the crème de la crème:

This is what it looked like when we first toured the house and put in an offer. What can I say, the house has good bones and we fortunately were able to look beyond this horror show. 😉 (I cropped out the questionable stains on the floor towel for you.)

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The Best Faux Houseplants for Spring 2022

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ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE

I wouldn’t say I have a green thumb, but I am capable of keeping most houseplants alive. However, I appreciate the ease of a faux plant when it adds a much-needed dose of greenery to a dim corner of a house or when it takes the place of an otherwise finicky variety. Plus, going faux means you can display these anywhere in your home without worrying about accidentally pet poisonings. (We have to keep our ZZ and snake plants out of Oliver’s reach.) There are a lot of beautiful faux options available this year and you’ll find some of my favorites above!

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Powder Room: Product Selections

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SOURCES: medicine cabinet / light fixture / light shades / pedestal sink / faucet / toilet / toilet seat / towel bar / toilet paper holder / tile / hand towel / lidded wastebasket

Our renovations are coming up with work scheduled to begin on Feb. 15! We’re starting with our powder room, which is on the main floor right off the kitchen. This project is scheduled to take roughly two weeks before our contractor moves to our main bathroom on the second floor.

We decided to do our half bath first to give us a functional bathroom on the first floor while our main bathroom is gutted. We do have a shower in our unfinished basement that we can use during the renovation, but I really didn’t want to use the basement bathroom longer than necessary. It’s kind of gross down there and not exactly the ideal location to get ready for the day!

Knowing that we’re in crunch time for making final decisions, we placed a lot of product orders over the past couple of weeks. One of the items I asked for feedback for on Instagram was the faucet. I didn’t realize that sinks have two different standard widths for widespread faucets: four inches and eight inches. Had I realized this before buying the pedestal sink, I would have gone with the eight-inch widespread version because I fell in love with this faucet. We already had the sink delivered and I didn’t want to pay for return shipping, so I had some stress-induced tears and searched for an alternative, coming up with these:

The faucets are both by Kingston Brass and essentially the same design, aside from the knobs. I was originally leaning toward black, but 75% of those who voted on Instagram preferred all brass. I figured I’d give it a go since the faucet I originally loved was also all brass. It’s scheduled to be delivered on Monday. Assuming the color of the brass is similar to the fixture on the right, then I’ll be delighted. I’m hoping it doesn’t read too 1980s-faux-brass-yellow. I suspect it’ll be fine, though, considering all of the fixtures on the brand’s Instagram page look beautiful. (The towel bar and toilet paper holder are by the same company. Hopefully all of the brass hues match.)

We also had to pivot from the floor options I talked about here. I really wanted to go with color for the flooring. I liked the blue a lot, but couldn’t get past the jagged edges of the tile. I stopped by a local tile shop (Malony Tile for those in Madison) and found this tile:

The color is very similar to the tile in the opening photo here (which is the tile I originally wanted to go with), but I prefer that it’s not concrete so it’ll be easier to clean. It also brings in some of the deep blue-green of our stairwell paint. I also love that it makes the room feel more fun. The main bathroom is getting those marble hexagon tiles that you can see here and it’s going to be much more traditional and refined. The house needs a bit of fun that still leans classic.

We are waiting to purchase the medicine cabinet. I really want hidden storage in that space for things like Tylenol, but we need to wait until the wall is open to see where the plumbing stack is. Assuming it’s not right where the mirror is going, we’ll go ahead and order this one. I don’t have an alternative wall-hung mirror picked out, so keep your fingers crossed!

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Renovation Diaries: Our Powder Room Selections to Date & What Flooring Do You Prefer?

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It felt like we had all the time in the world to make product selections for our upcoming powder room and main bath renovation when we committed to a contractor in August. The work was scheduled to begin in February; there was no rush to commit to products. But now that we’re in the latter half of November, we really need to finalize product selections. It’s exciting, but it’s also a bit daunting.

To give you some background, our house has one powder room off the kitchen, a full bathroom on the second floor that serves as the main bathroom, and a full bathroom in the unfinished basement that is, well, disgusting but serviceable. We decided to start with the powder room first. This way we can shower in the basement when the main bathroom is being renovated, but use the powder room during the day. We’re making product selections for the rooms in tandem — and just placed the order for our tub that our contractor is mercifully working out a storage solution for since we don’t have the space to keep it at our house for the next several months. However, we really need to accelerate our plans for the powder room to get all of the products ordered in time.

I need to take proper “before” photos of the powder room, but here’s a quick snapshot I took to give you an idea of what it looks like currently:

Here’s an overview of what we’re doing:

  • First off, we’re keeping all plumbing in its current location. The toilet isn’t in the best spot, but we don’t have the interest to put money into moving any of it. It’s fine where it is.
  • Take the walls down to the studs to put up fresh drywall. It pains me to remove plaster, but there’s no way to remove the tile from the wall without damaging it. If we wanted to add tile to the wall to cover the damage, it’s about $1,000 in labor alone.
  • Remove the wall-to-wall vanity that takes up way too much space in a small room and replace it with this pedestal sink.
  • Get rid of that wall-to-wall mirror and hopefully put up an inset medicine cabinet assuming the plumbing stack isn’t behind that wall. If it is, we’ll consider going with a wall-mounted medicine cabinet (not my preference) or a regular mirror. I’d prefer having some extra storage for miscellaneous items, but it’s not a deal breaker in a powder room. We’ll be waiting to order the medicine cabinet I like until the wall is opened up as it only has a 30-day return window.
  • Replace the toilet.
  • Replace the tile on the floor. It’s the same as what’s on the walls now.
  • Replace the sconce.
  • Keep the window, but remove the blinds.
  • Paint walls, door, and trim white.
  • Add wood baseboards to match the profile of the baseboard on the first floor; paint them white.
  • Add a decorative shelf for plants opposite of the window.

My biggest consideration right now is the new flooring because I think it’ll set the tone for the room. I fell head-over-heels for the tile in the opening image. The room is just 25 square feet and with 20% overage, the tile came in at $267. It’s such a great price for stunningly beautiful tile. However, I hesitated when I saw the brand’s extremely rigid return policy and the fact that shipping would be $200. (And I totally understand. It’s a small company and tile is heavy and fragile to ship. It would be a slam dunk if money was no object, buuuut it is.) So, I wanted to take a look at other options before committing and landed on these two from Home Depot:

I ordered a sample of the one on the left to see how it compares to the one from Clé. It’s a bit more expensive per square foot for the product itself, but we’ll ultimately save money when shipping charges are taken into consideration. I don’t love the lighter edges around the sides of the tile, but we’ll see what it looks like when it gets here. I also thought I’d shift gears from a colored tile and see what marble looks like in my mockups. I’m doing a marble hexagon in the main bathroom and didn’t want the two rooms to be too matchy-matchy with the flooring materials, but this marble herringbone is beautiful. (You can see the marble hexagon tile I picked for the main bath in the opening image.)

I just started putting together a product collage to see how the pieces I’ve already selected coordinate with the flooring. I still have to pick out a toilet and hardware, but here’s where we’re at:

I do really love the playfulness of the blue flooring here. I think it’s fresh and a bit unexpected for our house without straying too far from the midcentury-meets-traditional look I love.

Here’s the other option:

Pretty, right?! So you can understand the dilemma. I love how elegant this one looks! The powder room is right off the kitchen, which is, shall we say, “underwhelming” at best? So, I almost feel like this is too pretty to be right next to the kitchen. (Whenever we tackle the kitchen, it’ll be a budget-conscious face lift and not a full renovation. I’d rather not spend that kind of money when we don’t think this is our “forever home.” That said, given the staggeringly high house prices, it’ll likely be our home for the foreseeable future while we live in Madison.)

I think I know which one I’m leaning toward, but I’d love to know your thoughts!

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