Spring Renovations: The Half Bath

When we bought our house in 2018, pretty much every space was in dire need of updating… none more so than the first floor half bath.  The vanity was 60″ wide with only one sink, the mirror was a borderless thing that took up 75% of the wall, the paint was atrocious, and the flooring was SHAG CARPET!  As renovations took over our 2019, we updated the flooring and put in custom wrought iron pipe shelving for shoes, but everything else got a band-aid fix: We repainted the vanity, reused all of the old hardware, used a mirror from a bedroom set that wasn’t in use, and I made a walnut countertop for the sink.  After remodeling everything else in the house myself, I was tired and ready to be done, so “good” was good enough!

As we started making our “5 year itch” list of projects this winter/spring, that bathroom was at the top of the list.  The kids had basically destroyed the walnut top, so the only redeemable part of the room was ruined.  The plan was relatively simple: repaint the vanity to a new stylish color, all new hardware for cabinets and sink, new mirror to match the hardware, a new top for the vanity, and wallpaper to make it look fresh and bigger. Easy!

Truly, it actually was pretty easy! Behr Premium Cabinet enamel made easy work of the vanity, Menards (I was surprised too!) had the best looking cabinet hardware, and the mirror, faucet, and wallpaper all came from Amazon! Wallpaper was DEFINITELY the most difficult and frustrating, but because it was peel and stick it was very forgiving for this amateur.  I was amazed how the pattern my wife chose made the room look TALLER.  With about a cumulative 10 hours of work, the space went from “meh” to “wow”!