Simple Bathroom Updates Anyone Can Do

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This blog post has been created with the help of Lowes. The content may be sponsored but any thoughts are my own.

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When we first moved into our current home, I knew the bathrooms and kitchen would be a total remodel project. The kitchen was very dated and looked like a Dalmatian. The bathrooms were just not at all pleasant. Not long after moving in we ran some water through the sink in the upstairs bathroom and watched it come running right through the ceiling in the room below. Needless to say, we had to renovate that bathroom from plumbing to walls.

 

The main bathroom also had some plumbing issues, among other things. When we started with the bathroom you could hardly even get into it. Remember when they used to call a bathroom a water closet? Well this bathroom literally used to be a closet. Two closets combined in fact. The layout was….special. When we walked into the bathroom the tiles on the floor would squish under our feet thanks to the water issues the bathroom was having.

 

We started by completely tearing out the bathroom all the way down to the studs. I think I may have taken pictures at some point but without any lighting in the area you can imagine how the bathroom (and former closet!) looked.

We added a new shower and toilet and closed up one of the doors (there were two going into the tiny space!). We redid all of the plumbing and the electric. The electric was a mess and we found old knob and tube (still hot) running through the ceiling. It was good that we got it out of there when we did, what a fire hazard!

We decided that the bathroom should be a white color because it’s rather small and oddly narrow but we wanted to give it more detail than simply being a boring white bathroom. Instead of using sheetrock on the walls, my hubby nailed up 6 inch boards which give the bathroom a wonderful old-fashioned and yet timeless look. We painted the entire bathroom a slightly-off white color including the ceiling. The ceilings in the bathroom are 9 feet tall and with the white paint the bathroom looks much larger than it really is.

For a sink we decided on a tiny pedestal sink, only thinking about making the space appear bigger. I really wasn’t considering functionality when we made this decision. Since this bathroom is on the main floor, it’s constantly being used by the kids and I as we go about daily life. The pedestal sink is just too small for this function and my kids usually end up making a very large mess with the water.

 

I also didn’t consider that we might use this bathroom more than just a “guest bathroom”. My husband and oldest son use the bathroom for showering and getting ready in the morning and there is virtually no space in the bathroom as is to store anything except for the towels they are currently using.

It’s nice to have simple home projects to do in the summer when the days are just too hot to be outside, so we decided that we would work on a better bathroom for our needs. Our solution was to find a nice, heavy duty, functional vanity. We’ve gotten many of our items that we’ve used in our renovations at Lowes so we started our search there. I looked online at the Lowes’ website first and although they had a wide selection of vanities, I needed to look at one in person to make sure it would be a good fit for our needs.

We chose this Style Selections Morecott Vanity for our little bathroom because it was a great size for the space and because it was made with solid wood, a detail that is very important to my hubby.

We decided that the included finishes weren’t quite what the style that matched the bathroom so we ended up switching out the door handles and adding in some in a black oil rubbed bronze color to match the faucet we found.

Even though we upgraded the vanity into something that would be more functional for our family, it was the little details made it fit perfectly in our little bathroom! It helped tie the vanity into the mirror, light fixture, and the little hooks that we had throughout (which we found out in our barn and just cleaned up to use!)

What are some little changes that you have made in your bathroom that have made a big impact?

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Lowe’s.

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6 Comments

  1. I really enjoyed this post on remodeling an old home, since I live in one and don’t know where to start. I have asthma and other health problems which shy me away from remodeling mess and dust. I truly appreciate the small projects that can be done quickly, even though I may not be the one doing the work. Great job on your little bathroom remodel!

  2. Love this! We gutted and renovated our one and only bathroom around this same time. I can sympathize with special layouts and antiquated plumbing/wiring!