So, seeing as how our house is a modestly sized mid-century rambler, there is one bath tub in the house. Our main floor has the main bathroom, plus a small awkward quarter bath right across the hall. I imagine the tiny quarter bath used to just be a linen closet at some point. Anyway, the main bath is the one we all use since it has the only tub. It has a big vanity, but only one sink. (To be honest I don’t see the point of two anyway.) I don’t really care about the vanity. It is outdated looking, but in good shape. We don’t have the cash to renovate the bathroom, so I just wanted to spruce it up.
There was rust on the ceiling, the wall paint was peeling, and our moldy shower curtain was actually the one left behind by the previous owners. In addition to that, the window blinds didn’t fit the window, were super dated, and not installed properly. Then, the previous people who installed these awful blinds, spray painted the vent cover to match the matte silver of the blinds. I am guessing they were trying to match the horrible light fixtures they installed. Honestly, I really wish they had left the bathroom as it was in its 1960’s glory. So much of the original stuff in this house was replaced with really cheap garbage. However, the bathroom was actually remodeled in the 70’s. The tile and cabinets are a decent shape. It was the atrocious 90s that did this bathroom in.
A really shallow makeover should improve it enough to get me through the next decade until we actually redo the bathroom. Hopefully, we are done with major plumbing issues. ( The bath tub emptied out into our sons ceiling!)
I set out to replace the blinds with simply white faux wood blinds that actually fit the window, plus fix the damage caused by the previous installation. Then replace the painted vent. Sand the walls a bit and paint in Sherwin Williams Whitetail. Replace the shower rod with one that is not rusted. Replace the curtains with something brighter to make the room seem lighter.
I added some rugs too since the tile, while nice, is really cold.
I find bathroom items tend to get gross rather quickly, so I didn’t want to go spendy. I went with all hardware store, Home Goods, and Target.
I replaced the white rod with a bronze rod, to go with the new bronze based light fixtures and new bronze faucet.
The bronze light fixtures and faucet are from Wayfair and were fairly inexpensive.
Installing the faucet was a little more labor intensive since the plumbing was corroded. we ended up having to replace the plumbing below the sink as well. Not a big deal, but it did turn what should have been an hour project into a full weekend project.
I also took the doors off of the small linen cabinet that was behind the bathroom door. This cabinet had four doors on it and they were annoying to open with the bathroom door being right there with the perpetually wet towel hanging on it. I just painted the inside of this mini closet to look nice and moved the items in side to nice looking baskets instead of plastic tubs.
I was vaguely worried about having open shelving storage since it could end up being messy and cluttered looking. However, It has managed to stay looking the exact same for three months so far. I am guessing this is because it is mostly MY stuff so I am the only reason it would get messy. Since I am a little nutso when it comes to organization, the open shelves are working out just fine.
Again…..BEFORE
And AFTER
It is amazing how much brighter and cleaner it looks just from some paint and fixtures. Years ago we talked about installing a canned light in the shower since it was SO dark in there. My husband doesn’t think we even need one anymore. I am on the fence on that, but it is light-years brighter n there. Our neighbor came over and I hadn’t mentioned the bathroom. When she saw it she thought we had actually done a true renovation on it. THAT is how effective some paint and fixtures can be.
