Master Bathroom: One Room Challenge Week 1

We moved into our house a little more than three years ago. As soon as we had the keys we started painting the entire main level and covered up the mustard yellow walls left by the previous owners. Over time we finished painting some of the upstairs rooms in the house and slowly continued to finish other small projects around the house. Throughout that entire time we couldn't stop talking about a big project we really wanted to get to: renovating our master bathroom. We finally tackled it this summer and I am so excited to share all about it as a guest blogger in the One Room Challenge!

This project was a huge undertaking for us as well as a huge time commitment. While I helped with deciding on a lot of the design elements, my husband was the real genius behind the entire project. He also did all of the work himself in his spare time outside of work. This was the most involved home project we have taken on up to this point, and I can't wait to show everyone our inspiration, experiences and of course the final product over the next six weeks!

Master Bathroom Before...

Everything in our bathroom was builder grade from 2001. So, it was really due for a serious update!

Two of our biggest frustrations with this bathroom were the tub and vanity. The tub was a built in corner tub with jets, which were not run or maintained. There was no easy way to access under the tub to see if there were any plumbing issues, and the tub creaked terribly if you took one step into it. The vanity was too short for two fairly tall people and seriously lacked quality storage (hence, all of the junk on the counter top!)

Between the yellowish paint, lack of quality lighting, dark cabinets and tan flooring this bathroom was really dark and dingy. We wanted to improve all of this with a few major changes. One was to add recessed lighting throughout in addition to the vanity lighting. We also planned to update the paint color to a shade of white or light grey. The cabinets also had to go and we wanted to replace them with taller, freestanding, grey cabinets to improve the look and functionality. Finally the flooring was a must to replace! That rolled vinyl flooring was tan, not in great shape and was showing its age.

This back corner of the bathroom really shows how dark it was in there, as this picture was taken in the middle of the day! The shower tile was the same as the tub surround and was again really outdated. It also lacked any shelving for soap, shampoo, etc.

Bathroom Plans and Ideas...

Because we spent three years brainstorming for this renovation we had some pretty solid plans in place for what we wanted to do with the bathroom. Below I've outlined some of our top priorities. You can also see some of our product ideas on the mood board at the top of the page.

Improve Lighting...

We wanted to make our bathroom a lot brighter by adding recessed lighting throughout (in addition to our vanity lights). We had previously installed recessed lights in our kitchen and knew they would be perfect for this space.

Replace the bathtub...

We really wanted to get rid of the built in corner tub and open up that space some. I was pretty determined I wanted a freestanding tub, but we had a more limited space so we had to find one that would fit just right.

Improve the shower tile...

We both loved the look of some of the textured white subway tiles we saw when we visited The Tile Shop. As we continued to browse the store, I was instantly sold on some carrara marble arabesque mosaic for inside the niches. I just love the style, and the color compliments the subway tile perfectly.

Add new vanities...

Adding individual freestanding vanities that were taller was something that we knew would make a huge difference in our bathroom. We also were set on a grey color.

Fresh paint...

As we knew from painting the rest of our house, a fresh coat of a very light grey or shade of white would make a huge difference in brightening the space. We compared a lot of colors in the Sherwin Williams collection at Lowes; this is our favorite paint brand to use!

New Flooring...

We really wanted to update the floor in the bathroom with luxury vinyl plank flooring. Our friends have it in their house and we love the look and durability of it.

New Fixtures and Hardware...

After doing some looking around we settled on knowing we wanted brushed nickel fixtures and hardware. As much as we loved the look of chrome in a bathroom, for us and our life with two little kids it seemed more practical to have something that didn't show every little smudge and finger print.

Decisions to make later...

While we figured out a lot of big items we wanted early on there were some decisions we left until later in the renovation. We waited to pick out decorations, additional storage options, waste baskets and new rugs and towels. This was a great choice because it allowed us get the bathroom mostly completed and then decide what finishing touches would bring it all together.

Follow along...

There are lots of great designers and guest participants in the One Room Challenge this fall! I hope you will check out the blog and see what everyone is working on. I can't wait to get some inspiration from some of these great bloggers.

Thanks for checking out our ideas for our bathroom renovation. We are so excited to share our project with everyone. I hope you will follow along with me the next 6 weeks and see how our renovation progressed. For little sneak peeks and extra pictures be sure to follow me on Instagram!