A Bathroom In Transition Gets a Much Needed Makeover

Our guest bathroom needed help the day we moved into our home. But, as things go, it got ignored. There were so many more important things to do in the home, and the bathroom wasn’t actually in truly awful condition. I know the picture above looks horrible, but one we got the estate sale leftovers cleaned up, the only real problem was the floor.

Eventually,tThis little bathroom will  be gutted and we’ll start over from scratch. So, we didn’t want to spend a ton of money to in getting it usable. But seriously – let’s get this thing functional!

So, last week, we gave this little bathroom a little refresh and turned it into a space we’d be proud to invite our house guests into. Check it out!    

 

Here is the bathroom cleaned up a little. We removed all the rusted radiators and installed an HVAC system so there were holes in the floor. We also had the entire house rewired so the electricians had to punch holes in the ceiling and beautiful wall paper! Boo!!! (Yeah for rewiring though)

 

Except for a good cleaning and removing the butterflies and nasty curtain, this tub was actually in great condition!

 

This bathroom was renovated in 1970. It was the original bathroom of my 1917 home, so I suspect they must have gutted it. Nothing is characteristic of the early 1900s.

I plan to bring it back to an updated version of the early 1900s vibe, but for now, it needed a good cleaning, a new floor and a new toilet seat and cover. The budget, if possible, needed to be less than $150. 

Here’s what it looked like after we cleaned up a bit:

We had to scrape the floor a little bit to get whatever was left of the old mortar remnant. And yes, that is a nasty Bandaid I found under the tile! #shudders

So..the floor. I love a good pattern on pattern look so I wanted something to compliment the floral paper yet not look busy. When I was at my local Home Improvement store, I found black and white peel-n-stick tile for 53¢. Even better, the entire store was having an 11% off sale. Yes!…Tile for 47¢ per sq. ft! The flooring itself was less than $50 but we had to get the supplies to prep the floor which was a little but of self leveler in a few small places and the primer that needs to go down on the floor. The primer helps the stick on the “peel-n-stick” tile stick. My favorite pattern is a stripe so I decided to stripe the floor. For less than $100….

The only tool I needed to install this tile was a pair of scissors.

Easy, Easy, Easy… When it was time to tile, I tiled about 2.5 hours. I used a straight edge to cut the tiles around the edges and voila… temporary floor that has lasted three years.

 

I actually love the floor with the wall paper. We kept the old light fixtures. There is no need to buy anything until its time to remodel! We are actually going to keep the same layout when we renovate with one switcheroo…

 

This little nook will become a double sink area. We will remove the pedestal sink (not pictured because its around the corner) for more built in storage. Or, maybe leave it open for a cool piece of furniture for storage. Toilet and tub shower will get gutted and rebuilt in the same way. We will reuse the original tub that is in excellent condition!

 

I am not sure what this little nook was but it had two of the coolest sconces (that were original to the house). Except the sconces were placed in the middle of the wall. When this is a double sink I am not sure where they will go above the mirrors or between the mirrors like this bathroom. I knew keeping them in the middle would be a problem for any storage or way we would use this space in transition. My electrician gave me great advice. He told me to wire them and place them were they would go above the mirrors and then close them off (or place a fixture there). His reasoning was genius. It allows me to place storage on the wall for now (which I didn’t do but didn’t know that then) and it allows me the maximum length of wire so I could move it if I wanted to when we renovated. We were we wiring the entire house so they had to do something to the lights because they were rewiring them. It cost nothing more to move it up while they were there. If I chose not to do this but decided later that I wanted them higher, I would have to call them back and have them run a longer wire which would cost me more. Now that I have the length of wire I can keep it there or move it down when the walls are open.

The problem was they had to patch the old holes in my pretty wall paper!!!!

 

I decided to cover them up with a gallery wall. I also decided to cover the light boxes up instead of installing a temporary fixture. The original sconces are “up light” sconces so they don’t fit! If I chose to put them lower I might use them.

I thought about using this space for storage but we just don’t need it. We have the built in cabinets and that is enough. The basket is great for towels and the chair is perfect for throwing clothes. I have a little boy so there is not much storage required here. He just needs a place for his toothbrush, comb, and soap. The chair is nice because my guests use it for their things too.

We also dropped all the light switches to standard height when we re wired the house. I guess standard 100 years ago was much higher. You can see we haven’t covered this patch aesthetically. We had to cover it with a drywall patch to pass our home inspection. Kids being able to stick their finger in a hole where there is wiring…that wasn’t going to pass!

I do love gallery walls in bathroom and it has served the purpose of covering up things here well.

Have you seen these adorable faux hooks from Ikea? I love them and my son wanted blue so I went with it and actually think it would look better than the black option. My sweet boy has a floral bathroom so I decided to let him have a say!

On another note, I love wall paper in here so much that it will get new wall paper when we renovate.

I used the same Ikea discontinued shelving unit for over the toilet. I used a thrift store planter basket with a clear trash can for trash.

This little target stand is a game changer for my little boy who cannot reach the medicine cabinet. He is starting to now, but when he was smaller it was much easier for him to get his things in the tray.

I love how the striped floor looks three years later. It has held up so well! 

I have been telling myself to paint the trim of the medicine cabinet, door and window for the last three years. it is off white and the tile and fixtures are white. There are just too many pressing things to do and its going away so its hard to be motivated.

I do love my Ikea dishtowel hand towels. So cheap and I have so many ready to replace them!

This shelf is the same one I used to style this rental bathroom. This is where it has been used and how its been used for some time. My guests can hang their bag on the side or place it right on the top shelf.

I love this mountain print. It really has all the colors of the bathroom in it!

 

I love this indoor/outdoor rug runner but my son has to use an Turkish towel because he still will not get out of the shower without remaining soaking wet… we are working on it!

This little snake plant has moved around in all my Curbly posts but this is its actual home. Snake plants don’t need much sun or water at all and the humidity of the bathroom is great for it!

Just for fun… Here is the bathroom when we moved into the house and started renovating (We used the other bathroom while we updated this one).

And here is the refresh for a little over $100!

This bathroom has held up for almost three years but it is time and by this time next year will be renovated. I am thankful for cheap flooring that helped this bathroom hold on for a few more years. I actually will be sad to renovate it but its needed. The old plumbing is still here and it needs to be updated. 

On another note… we also passed our home inspection and our son has been using it since he moved in!