Five Months!...but so worth it. We started this bathroom remodel the first weekend in February. As we were tearing up the floor we still hadn't made the decision about weather we were going to keep the old vanity or not. It would not fit out the door, so we tore it into pieces and left it on the curb. Never did I imagine it would take us two months to find a replacement that I could love and another two months to paint and do the plumbing! And that's not even going into the five days with no toilet during tiling. We only have one bathroom. But just like labor, now that it is over, all is forgotten. And I have my beautiful bathroom.
Before
Above is the original bathroom when we moved in seven years ago. At the time we didn't have enough money to do more than remove the wallpaper and replace the light fixture. Below is the bathroom as we have live with it the last seven years.
What bothered me most about the bathroom was the old layers of wallpaper still visible behind the trim, not to mention the rusty metal vent and lovely vinyl flour.
The Buffet
This is the buffet as we found it at an antique mall back in April. I can now say I have been to every antique mall in the metro area, and I spent a lot of time on Craigslist, but I finally found this buffet that matched the measurements to fit the countertop. We paid $220. I felt that it needed to be stripped down in order to distress it and not have all those clown colors show through. Stripping all those grooves took me over a month! Then I spray painted it white. Next I sanded all the edges so the details would stand out. Followed by a brown glaze to soften the stark white and fill in the grooves. And finally, I gave it a coat of polyacrylic to protect it from water. Then it was time to hand it over to my husband to cut out the insides and do all the plumbing. The last touch, lining the shelves and drawer bottom with wallpaper. After five months of washing our hands and brushing teeth in the kitchen, we got our bathroom sink back the last week in June.
After
We used a 20" square travertine tile. We actually kept the counter top because it was in the right color tones and was the perfect size for the space. We also kept the white ceramic tile in the shower because it is in good shape and it matched the trim. We painted all the trim and doors white, and completely replaced the baseboards. The wall color is Comfort Gray from Sherwinn Williams.
Just when you think you are done, you realize you have forgotten something. I figured it would be no problem to find a mirror to replace the old one. I liked to idea of two smaller mirrors instead of one large. I couldn't find them in the distressed white I wanted. These are actually black plastic. I used the same paint as on the buffet to finish them. Primer, white spray paint, brown glaze.
