Bathroom Updates - Tile, Toilet, Mirror, Lights and Vanity!

     Thanks to a lovely mid-March snow-day induced 3-day weekend, the bathroom has come a long way since the March 1 update!  I mean, ITS PRACTICALLY ALMOST DONE!  It's not really done - there's no bathtub - but seriously, it's practically like a real bathroom now! And most importantly - it has a toilet!  Which means I don't have to run downstairs at 2, 3, 4 or 5 in the morning to pee. :) Yay! It was a lot of hard work, but totally worth it!

     After getting the wonderboard in and priming the walls for paint, it was time to start tiling the floor.  We weren't really looking forward to this because we chose admittedly difficult tile to work with - the tiles are a mosaic lantern pattern, and each tile is approx 2"x3".  We started by laying our initial straight line (which is hard when there isn't a straight line in your bathroom, period, haha), and then worked out from there.  Clint dedicatedly laid thinset, and I laid the tile behind him.  Though seemingly harmless, this was a little tiring at this stage of my pregnancy. And then I was (stupidly) laying tile while moving in a backwards direction and I managed to squarely step into the open vent hole on the bathroom floor.  My leg fell in and got scraped from my foot to my knee... and I tweaked my preggo back... and I'm lucky that there's a drop ceiling in the kitchen below the bathroom and I didn't poke my foot or the vent shaft through the kitchen ceiling!  :)  Other than that the process went pretty well.  

  

     The next step on the checklist was getting paint on those walls.  Unfortunately it's been tough to get a good picture that really captures the colors well between the never ending gray weather and the unnatural lighting - but I tried.  The lighter wall is called 'lavender heather' and the darker wall is dark purple with the faux brushed pearl effect.  I was afraid that the faux effect would be really difficult and time consuming, but it wasn't that bad!

 

     The following day we finally grouted the tile. And by we, I mean Clint and his brother Erin.  So I'm not really sure how tough the grouting process was, but I'm sure it was arduous.  It was also really messy since we decided to use a black grout to really accentuate the shape of the tile.  A bit after the initial grouting was done, Clint and I had to go up and buff the tiles and clean them up.  !!THAT WAS HELL!!  I think we waited a touch too long and the grout wasn't coming off very easily.  We had to hard-scrub every curvy grout-line, for hundreds of tiles.  We literally spent hours doing this.  So the moral of the story is - if you want to make your bathroom tiling experience way more time consuming and difficult than it can be, choose a curvy white mosaic tile and pair it with black grout.  :)  But at the end of the day, I love the way the tile looks, so again, totally worth it.

     After the paint and tile went in, we could actually begin to install some of the bathroom elements!  This was the part I was most excited for because I spent days and days looking at thousands of sinks, faucets, lights, dressers, tiles, mirrors, etc. trying to find elements that would match my vision for the bathroom.  (If you know me, you probably know that I'm very particular...)  So while I was excited, I was also nervous because it's hard to imagine what things will look like before they're actually installed.  Would I love it or would I hate it?!?!  Fortunately, I'm super excited and really pleased with the way things are shaping up so far! 

     With the help of Clint's Dad, the first elements to go in were the wall faucet and the light fixtures.  I absolutely love the antique look of the chrome elephant nose faucet - and the cross-bar handles are nearly a perfect match to the set on the tub.  I debated heavily about if we should use these Pottery Barn sconces because they weren't chrome (and pretty much all of our other fixtures are chrome), but I figured at least the bases are black, which should match our vanity top, and the shiny metallic mercury glass had a bit of a chrome feel to it as well.

   

     Next up was the toilet, mirror and vanity.  For as much as I tried to save money in this reno, there were certain elements I couldn't find "cheap" and didn't want to compromise on.  So, our toilet is a really pretty and slightly antique-y looking Kohler, and the mirror also came from Pottery Barn.  I actually had a hard time finding a large mirror that was wide enough, but narrow enough to fit between the vanity and our short ceiling.  

    I wasn't savvy enough to take any photos of the toilet with the seat down - but if you could see the tank, you'd see that it has a nice rectangular shape, and the front bows out - which matches the shape of the vanity and also draws in the curves of the tile.  (I'll make sure the seat is down for the completion post!)  So here's everything that we have currently installed!

     You may remember that the sink was a vessel sink, and I was contemplating dropping it into the vanity.  As you can see, we did just that.  We found that there wasn't a ton of space between the faucet and the sink, so the extra 1-2 inches gained made a big difference in the usability of the faucet.  :)  I also think that dropping the sink into the vanity gave it a more seamless look.  The size and shape of the sink ended up fitting the vanity perfectly!

     And here is one last picture of the space in 'natural' morning lighting.  I really love the way the light lavender draws out the brushed pearl element on the darker purple wall, and I'm really pleased with the way the purples coordinate with our 'black and white' elements.

    
     Hopefully the next bathroom post will actually be our completion post!  We still need to grout the tile in the over-tub toiletry bump-in, and then we need to frame that up to match the window/door trim and add the baseboard.  Then we just need to install the tub and the shower enclosure.  And then we'll actually be done!  I hope it turns out well.  Stay tuned!

DIY - Repurposing a Buffet or Dresser as a Bathroom Vanity: Part 2

At long last I've finally finished 
the buffet to bathroom vanity conversion!  

Well, the painting part at least... I actually finished several weeks ago,  but I've been tired and lazy and am just now

getting around to posting it.  :)  But what better time
to get back to blogging than when you're home sick
...on your birthday...
(birthday fail!)

I'm pretty sure the last time we saw this buffet

(Part 1) it looked like this:

My initial plan was to go with a strong black top,

to counter the white and separate the white base from the

large white sink.  I got the Rustoleum Satin Black oil-based

enamel paint.  Why?  Mostly because it was one of the only

non-spray black paints that wasn't giant at my
local hardware store.

I started by painting the dresser hardware with this shiny

black paint.  You can see it really shines!

Then I moved on to painting the dresser.

At this point winter was really starting to kick in so

I had to move the painting project inside (the outside temps

were too cold for the paint to dry effectively).

Moving the project indoors was a huge pain - not only because

we don't have a TON of space to work with (you can see

that I'm in this narrow area of the mudroom) - but because

there are cats indoors.  3 of them.

3 hopelessly curious cats.

3 curious cats that decided to jump all over the top of my buffet post-painting, regardless of the barriers I tried to put up.

You can see the paw prints below.

Those pesky kittens...

So I redid it.

And redid it again.

And redid it like, 17 times.

Sanding and painting, sanding and painting.

You can see in the shiny glare that the finish 

wasn't even - I'm not sure if it was user error or the oil based paint or what, but for THE LIFE of me, I could not

get that topcoat to look good.

It was streaky, uneven and terrible.  

Stuff got stuck in the topcoat from pretty much everything I used to apply the paint - and I tried a lot of different things!  

I used a foam roller, a regular roller, a hand bristle brush and a foam brush (all several times) and not once did I get something  with which I was even remotely satisfied.

Perhaps the problem was me, but I'll never 

buy that paint again!!

The longer drying time of the enamel also gave the buffet

ample opportunity to collect as much dust and cat hair

as possible.  TERRIBLE.

So after days (weeks?) of frustration, I finally decided

to screw the oil-based paint, and grabbed some of the 

leftover Rustoleum Hammered spray paint from

the tub remodel and decided to use that.

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

(after marrying Clint, of course)

This made the project 100 million billion times easier.

We moved the buffet into the bathroom that's getting renovated

so I could spray paint to my heart's desire without

worrying about the walls or the carpet or furniture,

and we could close the door to keep the kitties out.

I'm not sure why we didn't think of that earlier.

I also went over the hardware with the hammered paint to make sure it would match, since the hammered black isn't as

strong or shiny as the enamel oil paint.

I finished the painting in just a matter of hours.

Then Clint and I spent a few days going over white areas with about 3 coats of polyacrylic (since it doesn't yellow the way polyurethane does), and also went over the black 

top with about 4-5 coats of polyurethane.

Here's some shots of the nearly finished product.

I apologize about the color - it was a little dark without

lights and not much better with the lights. :/

~tada~

And here's just a couple shots with the huge sink.

I love how well the curve of the sink fits the buffet's shape.

Part of me wants to inset the sink since its a bit high and there's a convenient lip that we could drop into the top, but we haven't made a final decision on that yet.

natural light

overhead lighting

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - I think it'll look great in our black and white bathroom. What do you think?

DIY - Repurposing a Buffet or Dresser as a Bathroom Vanity: Part 1

We decided to repurpose an older buffet for use as a 

vanity in the bathroom remodel.  We chose this route for a few reasons - we like 'handmade' stuff, we wanted to save money,

and we thought the style would match the farmhouse well.

After weeks (months?) of craigslist browsing,

we finally found the perfect buffet.  Sadly it wasn't as 

cheap as a lot of craigslist finds (350, +25 for them to deliver), but I thought it was worth the investment. 

I really wanted a piece with center doors to maximize the storage we could get since we ripped a closet out of the bathroom to fit a double vanity.  Converting dressers with drawers in the middle requires cutting through several drawers to accommodate the sink drain piping and that kills a lot of your potential storage.

This is the buffet we chose:

I really loved the buffet feet (which remind me of the

clawfoot tub feet) and the woodwork along the base.  Because of the bowed front of the buffet, we've opted to use a single extra large (27" wide) oval sink, which mirrors the curve well.  

Originally it would have been nice to have his and her 

sinks - but it just wasn't right for this buffet.  And let's 

be honest, I doubt anyone had double sinks in 1911, right?  

At the end of the day, a single extra large sink is more 

era-appropriate and farmhouse-appropriate. :) 

 Though I'm not sure exactly what era this buffet is from 

(I highly doubt it's from the early 1900's), I am confident that it will match our bathroom perfectly!

* * * * *

The Refinishing Work

We knew we wanted to paint the buffet and stick

with our black and white theme, but we weren't sure how

much black and how much white to do.  After looking at several (dozens!) of b&w painted dressers on pinterest, Clint decided

that he preferred the 'less is more' look.

We decided to paint the entire buffet white except for the top and the hardware.  We thought it might be weird to have a white sink on top of a white vanity (and the whites might not match perfectly),  so a black top seemed like the perfect solution.

The first step in prepping the buffet was sanding

it and repairing the wood where needed.  We sanded with 100

grit sandpaper.  We probably *should* have gone over it again with finer grit sandpaper to make sure it  was really smooth... but we're lazy... and uh, this would make the buffet

look more 'antiqued' or 'rustic'... maybe? :) 

There were some chips in the top that needed filling,
and one part of the woodwork on the base needed repair.
We used Elmer's Carpenter Wood Filler.

After the filler dried, we sanded it flat and began
priming.  For the priming we used Zinnser Cover Stain Oil-based Primer Spray.

After letting the primer fully dry, we applied

the actual white paint to the dresser.  For the exterior

coat, we used Rustoleum Stops Rust Satin White Spray Paint.

We did several light coats. I think we used about 4 cans

for full coverage of the dresser and drawers.

After the white dried, I began painting

the buffet top - but I haven't finished yet.

I've been having some difficulties with the black

paint we chose for the top, and its been

nothing short of a huge pain! :(

Once I get that last coat finished, I'll seal the whole

piece using polyurethane on the top, and polyacrylic on the

body of buffet.  I've read that polyurethane is a better seal

against water (which is important for the top where the

sink will be), but yellows over time - which is why

we'll seal the white areas with polyacrylic

which isn't supposed to yellow.

I can't wait till it's finished - and to post an update

of the completed buffet vanity!

Stay tuned :)

Check out the final product in Part 2 here!