Half Bath Gets a Whole Makeover

I belong to a Garden Club, and volunteered to host our annual Men’s Night cocktail party at our home.  (Disclaimer: Although I am very honored to be a member of this club, I by no means am very good at gardening.  Becoming better at gardening is on my bucket list….)

 Half bath BEFORE

Knowing that we have an ongoing list of projects and improvements to accomplish, I thought this party could be the catalyst to jump start a few on the top of our list.   The half bath was certainly at the top.  Seriously, look at this eyesore!  Complete with a padded toilet seat.  Yuck.

My inspiration for the design for this bathroom were these light fixtures.  Although they are technically outdoor fixtures, when I saw them I knew I wanted them in this bathroom.  I am a firm believer that there are no rules with light fixtures.  If it fits, install it.

Sean removed the sink and toilet.  We drained the radiator, which seemed to take forever.  Who knew that such a small radiator could hold so much water!  Took both of us to carry it to the back porch, which, by the way, was starting to look like a hillbilly porch.

Now was time to start the demo.  I got myself an 8 pound sledge hammer, donned a respirator mask and protective glasses, and starting swinging.   I was swinging and  slamming the wall as hard as I could.  There was plaster EVERYWHERE.  And my arms were really tired after only a few swings.  But I kept going.  And going.  Got Sean to do a few swings.  Until it was time to get all this plaster into the dumpster.  Can i say heavy?!!

Once the plaster was all removed we were down to the lath.  Said goodbye to that too.  I used a heat gun to remove the linoleum on the floor.  Sean installed the sheet rock as well as concrete board on the floor so I could then install the tile.  I found this great tile at one of my frequent salvage shop haunts.  I Googled and YouTubed by way through that installation.  What a lifesaver those two references were.

I wanted beadboard throughout the bathroom, and I thought that installing it horizontally would look great with the light fixtures.  Installing this way is quite a bit more time consuming, but totally worth it.   My dad and I started hanging the beadboard, and got most of it installed.  We kindly saved the bump out corners, and around the door for Sean.  Waaaay too much measuring and math for me!!

I love how it turned out.  Exactly what I had in mind.  I covered a roller shade with fabric for an inexpensive window covering.  Gotta love spray adhesive.

Sean was installing the toilet paper holder 5 minutes before our guests arrived for the cocktail party.

We are happy with how this bathroom turned out.  This was our very first “gut” job and for a while there, we thought we had bitten off more than we could chew.  But we conquered and all the work was so worth it in the end.

Have any scary bathroom stories to share?