Let’s take a trip down memory lane and head back to February 2019. We were nearing the due date of our daughter and running out of time! With only one bathroom in the house the top priority before going into labor was completing a DIY overhaul of the space. Naively we thought we could get this project done in 3-4 weekends but in actuality it took us about 10. Not bad for first timers but boy did we feel in over our head at times! First let’s look back at where we started…
And here it is now! Freshly updated and oh so satisfying to see everything we had envisioned come together.
And now that you’ve seen the pretty lets look at the process. First up, demo! The floor, wall tile, plastic tub surround, toilet and vanity all went. At this point there was no turning back and we were in the deep end!
With demo complete we set our sights on tiling the floor and tub surround. I wanted to keep vintage elements (hello 100 year old house) so I picked a classic penny tile for the floor and this subway tile for the tub surround. Boring, maybe but the perfect backdrop for the star of the room – the walls!
Once all the tiling and grout was completed we turned our attention to the damaged walls and decided the best and easiest solution was to install board and batten. We used fiber board to cover the damaged walls and made sure our batten covered the seams! Check out Young House Love for a great tutorial on how to plan and install board & batten. Final step was adding this wallpaper from Serena & Lily. It was the icing on the cake, the star of the room! We were starting to get out of the deep end.
The final part of this DIY bathroom overhaul was the vanity. Our bathroom is small and standard vanity depths were too big so we had to work with what we had. No way was I going to live with that orangey oak cabinet! So, I set off to transform it. I’m no expert but these were the steps I roughly took with a lot of trial & error!
- Stripped the existing stain using Citristrip
- Once the stain was removed I washed down the cabinet, and sanded it with 60 grit
- Applied a Pre Stain Wood Conditioner for even stain penetration
- Applied Weathered Oak stain and wiped off excess (after a few minutes)
- Once the cabinet dried I then applied Simply White and wiped off immediately.
- Repeated steps 4 & 5 a few times to get the desired color variation. Again, trial and error!
- Installed new vanity handles
- Added feet to the vanity
We replaced the vanity mirror with a recessed medicine cabinet from Pottery Barn and the vanity light fixture was replaced too. Both fixtures brought in additional vintage elements.
I’m still pretty impressed that we pulled off this DIY bathroom transformation.
