Re-doing the bathroom in our condo has always been something I’ve wanted to do. There’s always the thought, “How long are we even going to live here though?” But I said that three years ago and here we are so it just has to be done. Plus, everyone tells you you will get your money back if you sell your home. Right now, it’s feeling a little bit like a never-ending project I will admit, but we’re getting so close! I’m going to write a whole post about the process with tips and what we learned along the way after it’s finished. The biggest thing we’ve probably learned so far is that a DIY project will always take longer than you think (unless you’re a professional). There’s always going to be the unknown once you start ripping things apart and putting them back together.
Why We Decided to Renovate
For starters, our bathroom is super small, but there’s not much we can do about that. We have a shower, bathtub, small vanity, and toilet. Pretty standard. When we bought the condo, we painted the bathroom a dark, navy blue and by the next year I hated it. I realized quickly that I just want everything to be all white. The space is so small and the dark color just made it feel even smaller. So the first part of our renovation was painting it with Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White.” Besides a bad paint job, the tiles, vanity and light fixture were all very ’90’s and not my style. Of course I tried different things to spruce it up, like cute shower curtains and bath mats, but they were just never enough. This bathroom needed a FULL makeover.
My only regret now is not doing this sooner, but better late than never and I’m SO excited. I’ve had some ideas of what I wanted to do and everything was based around this black and white mosaic tile that I loved. Our friends had some extra after doing their bathroom so we were able to buy it off of them at a great cost.
Wes is pretty handy and always prefers to do home improvements himself. It saves us a lot of money in terms of labor costs, but (I think?) he also likes to do that kind of stuff. We decided he would re-do my (our) bathroom as my Christmas present this year, so we started the renovations while he had a week off of work for the holidays. I ended up helping quite a bit more than I thought I would have to, to be honest. But I know it’s going to be so rewarding to see all of our hard work come to life!
What We’ve Bought So Far
Click on the image below to shop!
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Choosing fixtures and decor items was actually harder than I thought. There are too many options and I learned way more than I ever wanted to about light bulbs in the process. We got our vanity and sink from Ikea. They’re really the only ones who made an attractive option that was small enough for our space. I do love the two drawers, rather than one big cabinet like we used to have. I have a lot of products so storage is key. I vowed to not have any of my products out and about after we re-did the bathroom. Well see how long that lasts right? I really want to try to though to keep things looking clean and fresh!
We did a few “Ikea Hacks” (if you will) to the sink – We added a black faucet and switched out the silver pulls for gold ones. I initially wanted to do black hardware everywhere else (like the toilet paper holder, towel bar, hooks, etc.) but then I found this cute set at Anthropologie. So, I did what I do best, and ordered them all! I plan to try out both once I have a few other things in there to see which ones I like best. Feel free to weigh in here!
I did know I wanted some brass/gold in whatever light fixture we went with so that everything wasn’t black. I ended up ordering a light from this really cute shop I found based in Houston, it has just enough gold for my liking. Their designs are really unique and stylish and they’re actually pretty affordable too. I went with this black-framed, rectangular vanity mirror that I found on Amazon. Sadly, the mirror I ordered (pictured below) didn’t work. It stuck out too much off of the wall, we need something more flush so that it doesn’t interfere with the faucet or light. But Amazon is actually a really great place to start when sourcing things for a project like this. But because everyone seems to be doing a round mirror, I thought I’d switch it up. Hopefully I can find something I like!
I really wanted to do a small, vintage Turkish rug, as opposed to a traditional bath mat, so I currently have my eyes on two from District Loom. Really excited about to see them in person and pick one! Besides the mirror I still need to find a black shower curtain rod (apparently ones that screw in the wall are harder to find) and then we should have everything we need for now.
Let me know if you have any questions about anything. This project has defintily been harder than I anticipated but I know it will be well worth it in the end (Thank you for all of the words of encouragement, by the way!). I can’t wait for you guys to see the finished product! You know you’ll be the first ones to see it as soon as it’s complete. x
