Hall Bath Makeover (or Renovation) Planning

Initially, this post was going to be my budget-friendly plan for a mini-makeover in our hall bathroom. Simple stuff like a new shower curtain, rugs, painting the vanity. However, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to start exploring a larger update. This is the last room in the house that is a heavy lift in terms of renovation and I started to think about how nice it’d be to have the interior renos largely done, minus small things like lights, paint, etc. For 2016, my biggest goal is to focus on the outside, but in terms of return on investment and functionality, the hall bath kept popping up in my mind. Now, I’m thinking that we can still do a few things to the landscaping (that we can do ourselves) in terms of plants (and we still might need to get the house painted), but for our big project this year, finish out the inside.

I’m working on getting estimates now and ultimately, that will determine if I do a mini-makeover as originally planned, or a larger cosmetic update. The nice part about this bathroom is that it’s purely cosmetic – no moving plumbing and I’d re-use most of the fixtures, which were updated by the previous owners not too long before we bought the house.

Plan A: Renovate

Below is a quick design idea board I pulled together so you can see what I have in mind. Overall, I want the feeling to be bright and cheerful, with some more traditional touches. Since this bath will serve a kid’s bath one day, but is also our main guest bath, it needs to walk the line between the two. To do that, I plan on keeping the walls a cheerful shade of blue (Spa by Valspar), but using gray and white for more muted tones. I’ll be keeping the brushed nickel hardware throughout as that’s what’s mostly in the rest of the house.

The renovation would include replacing the vanity, the tile surround and the flooring. The floor tile is the original 1970s tile – and while it’s got a funky vibe to it that I like, it’s super grimy. I attempted to clean it last summer and scrubbed and scrubbed the grout, but it’s still really dirty. 40+ years of grime does not come up easy! The tile surround is beige square tile – it’s mostly hidden right now with the shower curtain.

For new shower tile, I’m planning classic subway tile for a three reasons: 1) Love the clean, simple lines and traditional, yet modern feel 2) It’s wallet-friendly 3) We have a few boxes leftover from the master bath reno so I have a head start! I’d like to do a band of accent tile around the tub though, and I really like this gray penny tile from Floor & Decor. I came really close to using this in the master bath instead of the hex tile.

The floor tile is also a no brainer for me as I’m still obsessed with the tile we used in the master bath and plan to use it again here. I personally really like the look of a bigger tile in a small room as it keeps the space from being too busy. And, bonus, we have a head start here too because I have some leftover!

The shower curtain I had custom made in 2009 when I first bought my condo – I still love it, but it doesn’t really jive with the direction my house is headed (my condo had a much more eclectic, girly theme) and it feels really heavy in such a small room. What we found in large bedrooms and closets in this house, we lost in tiny little bathrooms. After 6+ years of use, I think I’m finally comfortable parting with it. While I was searching on Google for striped shower curtain options to share, it just so happened that this one from West Elm was on sale, plus free shipping so I snapped it up! I’ll also be buying a few new white towels to replace the brown ones from my old bathroom too.

For the mirror, we had two medicine cabinets in the master bath that we didn’t end up using. I sold one on Facebook and kept the other to use in this bathroom. Given the size of the room, any extra storage is an added bonus. It’s white, but needs a fresh coat of paint and it will be as good as new! We have a 30-inch vanity now and we’ll keep it to that size, updating with gray shaker cabinets and a stone top.

And Plan B: If we can’t do the full renovation, my plan is to leave all the tile as-is. Instead, I’ll paint the vanity gray and get some new white bathmats to try and cover the floor tile. I’ll still use the striped shower curtain and add some fresh white towels. While it won’t be exactly what I envision, I could do all of that for probably under $200 since I already own the medicine cabinet and would be doing the painting myself.

Stay tuned to see how this project evolves!