Guest Bathroom Before & After

So the long, slow renovation reveal continues. This time I'm sharing our downstairs guest bath.

It doesn't look too impressive on its own, so let me share some of the before photos:

Yep, this thing was a MESS. The subfloor under the toilet had to be replaced (slow leak around the seal- ick). The tile on the wall was hideously dated, and the fixtures needed a lot of help. As this was our only bathroom that was mildly operational, it became a priority to get it in working order prior to moving in. 

Fixing the subfloor and floor tile was priority number one. It was pretty obvious that a few heavy steps would land you in the basement. We ended up re-plumbing most of the house and installed a new sink. The existing toilet was actually new, so we kept it (but replaced the seat. Because ew.). I really liked the existing sink, but it had some rough spots and needed re-finishing. The cost to re-enamel the sink was the same as the cost to refinish the wall tile for the whole bathroom plus the tub, so we scraped that idea and sold the sink. I know, I know... but it did go to a good home.

We had the entire bathroom sprayed by a professional refinisher, including the cast iron tub. Mike has refinished tubs before and it could have been a DIY project, but that wall tile was a more difficult job, so we brought in a professional. 

Not to mention that we also had to have a professional re-tile the floor and replace some tile behind a built-in. Do you see the sliver of shelf peaking out behind the door above? That built-in behind the door caused all sorts of issues. It made the wall crooked (hello, plaster) and thus made the tile crooked. The tiled wall did not extend to behind the shelf so we had to match it and then refinish everything in the same color so that it was seamless (spoiler: still not seamless). It also means we have a narrow door to the hallway.

The home's former tenants were obviously desperate for storage, because there was a cabinet and shelf built in on the other side of the room. (I totally feel their pain, you should have seen our junk crammed into there when this was our only working bathroom. Thank God and Home Depot our master remodel meant we added an upstairs en suite.)

We found a mirror/ medicine cabinet at salvage and just painted the other shelf. Later, I removed the door because the shelves were too narrow to be useful. I decided to use it as a display shelf instead. (Note: this shelf still needs retouching and removal of some very old hardware.)

I also added some frames to the space behind the door (where the larger old shelf used to be). I posterized an image that I found online and now I can't decide if I like it. Maybe the same image of a bee in each frame? Either gradually faded out or colored Warhol-style?

 

So, at least now the bathroom is clean and serviceable to guests. A few things that I really want to add/fix:

1. Crown molding. The rest of the house has picture molding, but the entry and this bathroom have none. I'd like to add crown but the uneven plaster walls are going to be a real bear.

2. A monogrammed shower curtain.

3. Some type of trimming or framing on the sides of the mirror.The issue there is that framing may very well reduce the functionality of the mirror's hinges.

4. A wider doorway... at least a standard door size! (I'm not even suggesting that now because Mike may murder me if I do.)

5. Some type of very narrow shelf or furniture piece for behind the door. I like the empty space, but the tile makes it very obvious that the wall is crooked.Some sort of small piece would hide the unevenness of the wall.

6. The door handle. It will lock you in. If you visit, be sure to take your cellphone to the bathroom with you so that you can call us to come let you out. I wish I was kidding.

So that's the guest bath reveal so far. Do you have any suggestions on how I could make it better? Please leave a comment!