This post was originally shared on my former website, OurFiftiesFixerUpper.com in May 2018.
Did you see the reveals of the One Room Challenge guest participants and featured designers? There are so many incredible projects! A special congratulations to Erin Kestenbaum and Vestige Home for being selected as the two new featured designers for the next One Room Challenge in the fall- they both did such an amazing job!
The One Room Challenge is over and we didn’t finish on time, but we’re still working hard on bringing our bathroom to the finish line. I’ll continue to use the term “One Room Challenge (ORC)” as I share updates so it’s easier to find on the blog. We slowed down a bit over the past couple of weeks due to various things going on in our lives… a mini vacation, Memorial Day weekend plans, and family events. If we’ve learned anything throughout this renovation it’s that we can’t spend every waking moment working on our house-in order to stay sane, we need to keep our priorities in order, and that means putting family and friends before home renovation projects.
Since the ORC finished up, we’ve finished up painting and tiling our bathroom, and have purchased supplies to just about finish up the space. The goals we had made for week 6 were:
- DONE: Tile the floor
- DONE: Grout all tile
- DONE: Prime the entire room
- DONE: Paint the ceiling
- DONE: Buy materials for linen closet shelves
- DONE: Install lights
- NOT DONE: Install shower fixtures
In addition to painting the ceiling, we also painted the walls. I wanted the paint to almost blend in with the shower tile, and we accomplished that with Snowbound by Sherwin Williams. I absolutely love how light and bright this room is now- it’s the complete opposite of what we started with! Unfortunately things can never go as smoothly as we’d hope for, and we realized after painting that maybe we jumped the gun on that step. The seams of the drywall were pretty obvious, so Josh went back and re-mudded over them. I have to sand, prime, and paint them again now. Luckily it shouldn’t take too long, since it’s just a couple areas.
We also had the tub professionally refinished, and we are so glad we went that route. The guy who did it was in and out of the house in about 2.5 hours and our tub looks essentially brand new. I’ve already recommended the company to multiple people in the Twin Cities, so if you’re interested just shoot me an email! It cost us $450 and to us it was money well spent. We would’ve spent probably $300 on the supplies and equipment (paint sprayer, paint, chemical cleaners, etc.) and it would’ve taken us probably 8 hours, and would’ve looked nowhere close to as good as it does now.
The light fixtures and fan made a huge difference in brightening up this room as well. Adding a can light made a huge difference in here. We went from 2 bulbs to 5 in this room- just a little bit brighter! The Edison bulbs I found on Amazon are a perfect match for the fixture we went with. I love how sharp and clean it looks.
The floor tile was a little harder to install than we had thought it might be… working around the angled lines of the bathtub wasn’t the easiest! I watched some YouTube videos and learned about a tile nippers that way, which ended up being our saving grace. Josh said it might be his “new favorite tool!” We ended up laying the tile on Memorial Day and I grouted a day later- while I had the stomach flu. (I know, I’m crazy… I was hoping that a distraction would keep my mind off the nausea, but it didn’t exactly help.)
I wanted a crisp look that would provide some good contrast in an otherwise white space, and the black grout was perfect for that. It will look great with our black vanity! Let me tell you though- if you haven’t laid black grout on white tile- it is a PAIN to clean up. I bet I made 20 trips up and down our basement stairs to get clean water! The haze is still pretty overwhelming too and I bet I’ll need to make another 10 trips for that!
We hope to get the project completely finished over the course of the next couple of weeks. Here’s what we need to get done:
- Install toilet
- Install vanity & faucet
- Install & paint linen closet shelves (Black Magic by SW)
- Install & caulk trim & door (window, baseboards, door)
- Hang mirror, artwork (need to decide on some first, but have frames purchased), shelf above toilet
- Install fixtures (TP holder, towel holders, shower curtain rod, shower fixtures)
- My favorite part… decorate! (shelf above toilet, linen closet, choose artwork)
I’ve also been toying around with the idea of not doing board and batten in here. I love the look of it, but it will add quite a bit of time and money to the project, and I think it’ll look great without it in here. We’re going to get everything else installed before we make the final decision on that.
We’re on the home stretch- here’s hoping that everything goes smoothly from here on out!
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the progress of this bathroom makeover- Week 6, Week 5, Week 4, Week 3, Week 2, & Week 1.
Update 7/18: The bathroom is DONE! Check out the reveal here!
