AFTER TWO MONTHS LIVING HERE, I am proud to announce- I finished a room!
When we bought the house, I had big plans & I wanted it all to happen asap. I *VERY* quickly realized, that is just not how it goes when owning a home. First we had the big issues to conquer (plumbing, electrical) & then we wanted to get the floors done before we do pretty much anything. The floors are still not installed, but I was stir crazy & needed to make some moves.
I started on the bathrooms because I knew that was gonna be a quick & easy place to start. I am only showing one of our two bathrooms cause the other honestly looks the same but with a standup shower instead of bath. Also, we didn’t wallpaper the second one (yet…?!).
The bathroom before, as you can see in this post, was not our style AT ALL. The cabinets were blue, the walls were grey (which were all painted white like 2 days after we bought the house!), the hardware was brass, & just looked very much like a flipped home… which although not a bad thing, that’s just not our vibe.
ALL THE DETAILS OF OUR SMALL BATHROOM MODERN MAKEOVER
Painted the Cabinets
The first thing we did before we even moved in was to have all the walls painted white & all the cabinets painted pitch black. The walls were a given, but the cabinets are what made SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE. It instantly made the whole house look more modern/US.
We weighed our options on replacing vs. painting the cabinets & opted for the painting route. It was MUCH more economical & since our cabinets had never been painted, we were good to go. If your cabinets have previously been painted, it’s better to replace them as the paint won’t stick well.
We hired someone to do it for us, but if you’ve got a lot of big projects & are looking for the most economical option- you can totally paint them yourself! Just sand them down, prime them, let primer dry, & paint with a high gloss paint. Let dry fully before putting back on your hardware & boom- you’ve got new cabinets!
Wallpapered The Whole Thing
I’ve never had wallpaper before & knew that in this house, I wanted to have some fun with wallpaper. When we were in Miami our hotel had the cutest wallpapered bathroom & I thought that’d be so fun for our guest bathroom. I found this black & white line drawing wallpaper of multiple faces from Murals Wallpaper & was SO obsessed. This wallpaper is just SO MY VIBE.
Fortunately for us, Zack’s mom is trained in installing wallpaper. It took two days, but was actually way easier than I imagined. Murals Wallpaper gets your rooms measurements & then sends you panels marked in which order they should go so they line up perfectly.
HERE’S THE CLIFF NOTES ON HOW TO WALLPAPER: you first need to prime your walls with a regular primer, let that dry for an hour, & then start with your wallpaper glue. We bought this wallpaper kit off Amazon which gave us all the tools needed & also ordered a big jug of wallpaper glue. Once primer is dry, paint your first section with wallpaper glue, lay down your wallpaper, press it down with the tool included in the kit, & then using an exacto knife (also in the kit) you trim off the top/bottom/around any obstacles (i.e. sink/toilet/window frame/etc). Rinse & repeat until you’re done.
Replaced the Mirror & Light Fixture
The house was staged with some pretty ick accessories, including the original light fixtures in the bathrooms & these rectangle mirrors that crowded the space. They weren’t terrible, but just outdated & didn’t fit well. The bathrooms are smaller, so we definitely wanted to make it as minimal as possible so it didn’t look cluttered.
We opted for these round mirrors instead. I honestly think all bathrooms need a round mirror. It is much more chic & less overpowering. We swapped out the frosted weird sconces with these more modern ones we actually found on Amazon. EASY PEASY.
Modern Faucet Update
The faucets were bronze & bronze was definitely not going to match. Our faucet as three hole, so originally we bought these chic matte black faucets. I love them, but upon install (which Zack did himself via a YouTube video & said it was SO easy), they didn’t fit. Our three holes were too close together so the temperature dials were hitting the faucet. I sent them back & ordered this matte black set instead. I would have preferred the first option, but the second looks amazing as well!
Removed All Towel Hooks & Moved the Toilet Paper Holder
I don’t consider towels to be a bathroom accessory. I wash my face with them, they get make up on them, & they aren’t something people need to see. The bathroom had a hand towel holder on the wall above the sink & a bar towel holder on the half wall under the window. It looked clutter, so we removed them.
Instead I got these matte black towel hooks for the back of the door. It hides the towels & that’s all I wanted there.
We also moved the toilet paper holder from on the wall to on the cabinet. I wanted there to be little on the walls & since the cabinets were black, we replaced the bronze one with this modern matte black toilet paper holder. It blended in well & is just less obtrusive.
All Matte Black Accessories
If you couldn’t tell, matte black is the theme for accents in our bathrooms. We tossed out all the nasty staging accessories & replaced them with this matte black toilet brush (although I really hate toilet brushes, they are so gross!), a small matte black trash can, & this cute little matte black toothbrush holder.
What’s Left For The Bathroom
The floors! We do plan to do a black hexagon tile in the floors of both bathrooms, but we have other projects taking precedence before that gets done.
…& then I have my wishlist items, which are the things that DON’T need to be done, but I want. For the bathroom my wishlist items are to replace the counter tops with a marble countertop, redo the bathtub in the guest bathroom to be deeper (I am a bath snob & it’s just too shallow), & I would really love to do a subway tile in the guest bathroom shower.
BUT FOR NOW, THE BATHROOMS LOOK PERFECT & I AM JUST SO OBSESSED. I hope you guys love & be ready for more transformation posts because the floors will be in next weekend & I CAN NOT WAIT.
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