bathroom transformation

I actually completed this project while Craig was away in the Arctic in 2009, but hadn’t gotten a chance to post it yet. 

When we first moved into our condo, we made the mistake of painting most of the rooms right away, without waiting to settle in for a bit and figure out what colour would be best for each room based on lighting, use, furniture, etc.  The only exception to this is the bathrooms, which we left pretty much as is until I had some inspiration.  I can’t say that this bathroom reveal really has a theme, but it’s definitely an improvement!

Here’s the ‘before’ shot of our bathroom.  Both bathrooms were so underwhelming (and I wasn’t really in the blogging mode at that time) so we didn’t bother taking any photos of them.  As a result, this is actually the listing photo of the bathroom!

You can’t really see it in the photo, but the cabinet and countertop is grey melamine, while the walls are a (very) pale beige colour.  Also see that white thing on the wall to the left of the shelves?  That’s the right bracket of the towel rack RIGHT over the toilet. 

We weren’t really wanting to spend tons of cash to revamp the bathroom, so paint, hardware and linens were our best friends.

First, I gave the cabinet a coat of sticks-anywhere primer, and then gave it 3 coats of semi-gloss black paint.  I used a paint brush and small foam roller to get the best finish.  Next I changed out the plastic (!!!!) handles for brushed nickel ones, as well as updated the towel and toilet paper holders.

The countertop is actually still the blah grey colour, but we were happy with how much the room was improved with just the black paint that we’re content to wait for the perfect solution.  Rustoleum now has countertop paint finishes that we might look into.

Next, I painted the walls ‘Naturally Calm’ which is a Glidden colour.

The final touches were the shower curtain (actually just a single panel of a normal curtain), some art/decorations on the walls, and some crisp (and easy to clean!) white towels for guests.

The flooring is one thing that WILL be going soon as the old linoleum is starting to look a little worn.  At least it’s a pretty neutral colour and pattern, so it hasn’t conflicted so far! I would love to put a nice framed mirror right in front of the cabinet and have an updated light fixture above it, but the globe lighting is wired right in the middle of the wall so it would involve some electrical work and we’re not sure how well affixed (read: glued) that mirror is to the wall.  Additionally, I think the full size mirror actually makes the room seem bigger, so in light of the fact that we’re hoping to sell soon, it might sell better with a bigger looking room.  Maybe not.  What do you think?  If we can’t I’m going to get some nice trim and create a big frame for it so it at least looks a little more custom.

 

What do you think of the changes?  Not a bad transformation for less than $75 right?

 

Thanks for stopping by!