That Time We Renovated a Bathroom on a Whim (Part II)

So the actual title of the post should be, “How I took a perfectly functional bathroom out of commission for 3 weeks, gave all the money to Lowe’s, wore paint in my hair, and (once again) made my husband regret his life choices.”

But that’s a little long for a blog title. Much like renovation of any kind (long, that is), no matter how much ~~delusion~~ ambition you have at the onset.

But it is pretty, oh is it pretty. And we learned stuff and tried new things and got to put a fancy antique mirror in a tiny closet of a bathroom, which makes everything feel magically Victorian-er. Yes, it’s a new word and you’ll certainly see it on this blog again.

Things we did:

Paint the top of the bathroom walls the prettiest greige
Tile the lower walls of bathroom and the walls above the shower with luxury vinyl tile to make it look like we have shiplap and marble
Added crown molding all around (to cover up for the fact that we are not the greatest house painters of all time) and around the shower tile (to cover up the fact that hanging hexagon tile straight on not-quite square Victorian walls is hard, if not impossible)
Spray painted the faucet oil rubber bronze
Painted the vanity with pale pink chalk paint and sealed with PolyAcrylic Matte
Transformed the “70’s tastic” ReStore bargain cabinet into a cute farmhouse-style showpiece of organizational bliss with white chalk paint and contact paper
Spray painted the $5 light fixture from ReStore oil-rubber bronze, buried the crazy orange sparkle shades and replaced them with antique socket covers and Edison bulbs (and then hung the beast with much cussing and to-do and at least one temporary power outage)
Lime washed an obscenely pretty Victorian mirror given to me by my lovely friend Annette (who also contributed the antique socket covers and an entire garage full of fabulous crystal-ly pretty things that will keep me busily decorating all winter!)
Turned an old window in my craft stash into a mirror/towel rack using Krylon’s Looking Glass spray and three coat hooks
Spray painted the shower curtain rod oil-rubbed bronze and converted a $12 sheet set into a shower curtain complete with bubble valance without having to use the dreaded sewing machine (I’m still afraid of it)

Things we learned:

Tiling
Grouting (I used my fingers – it was more like a child’s art project than home improvement)
Crown molding cutting and hanging (well, Paul learned and I watched)
You can spray paint a faucet! And it looks good!

What we spent

$50 on wall, ceiling and cabinet paint
$125 on tiles and tiling supplies
$30 on crown and trim molding
$12 on shower curtain* (sheet set: found here but regretfully twice the price now!)
$10 on curtain rings
$15 spray paint
$5 on light fixture and $15 on Edison bulbs
$2 on over-the-toilet cabinet
$15 on new cabinet pulls
$30 on bathroom rug, cute Magnolia Home decorative sign and new flour sack towels
Random thrifted crystal for pretty yet practical accessories: $3

*Here’s the deal on the shower curtain. I took a full sheet set, a plastic shower liner and window curtain rings. The flat sheet becomes the curtain and the fitted sheet becomes the “valance”. Basically I made a sandwich of the three pieces (2 sheets and shower liner), folded the sheets to desired lengths, and used the curtain rings to hold the layers together. No sewing required!

Grand Total: $307

More than I wanted to spend? Yes. Astonishingly cheap by way of bathroom renovations? Also Yes.

And now for the fun part: let the gratuitous photo party begin!