Our bathroom has been mentioned in my Friday Favorites posts a couple times, but I haven't posted any pictures yet. It has come a long way. It looks SO much better than when we moved in though! All of the before pictures are from the day we moved in, or even before, so nevermind everything being so bare.
The first major change we made was the lighting. When we moved in, we had this hideous strip of lights. Very 90s. I was not a fan at all. Not only were they ugly, but when we turned them on, it was WAY too bright! We replaced the light fixture around a year ago. I may or may not have posted pictures of the new lights.
The first major change we made was the lighting. When we moved in, we had this hideous strip of lights. Very 90s. I was not a fan at all. Not only were they ugly, but when we turned them on, it was WAY too bright! We replaced the light fixture around a year ago. I may or may not have posted pictures of the new lights.
Bathroom lighting - Before
Bathroom lighting - After
Next, we painted and replaced that huge, ugly mirror. We painted the bathroom a shade between Sherwin Williams Hearts of Palm and Sassy Green, using their HGTV Home paint. The color was a compromise. We're both happy with the results.
Bathroom lighting - After
Next, we painted and replaced that huge, ugly mirror. We painted the bathroom a shade between Sherwin Williams Hearts of Palm and Sassy Green, using their HGTV Home paint. The color was a compromise. We're both happy with the results.
Mirror - Before
Mirrors - After
Our next update was to upgrade the faucets. We still had the original faucets that were put in the house when it was build in '96. I have hated them since we've moved in. I shopped for faucets for quite a while before I decided on the Delta Windemere. I found them on sale at Lowe's. The faucet itself was super easy to install. Getting the old one off is another story! We did have some trouble with the drain. It was kind of hard to get the old one out. It was really hard to get the new one it. It's all one long piece. There's just not that much room under the bathroom sink. In order to get it installed, we had to twist the pvc pipes below the sink, which resulted in a series of slow leaks below each sink that took us approximately a week and a half to fix completely. We are learning to be pretty handy people, but plumbing is NOT our strong point! Anyhow, in the end, it was worth it all. The new faucets look SO much better!
Faucets - Before
The next thing we did is paint the cabinets. This project was my baby, and I'm very happy with how it all turned out! We are considering doing this in our kitchen, so this was my test run. We have one other option (staining) that I will test in the guest bathroom.
First, I removed all of the cabinets from the frame. Then, I sanded them down to the bare wood. I put one coat of primer on everything, followed by 2 coats of Sherwin Williams ProClassic in Peppercorn (I just bought a quart since this was a small project, and it was plenty). This project really wasn't bad at all. The worse part was all the sanding (which will be a bigger deal in the kitchen since cleanup will be harder and there are LOTS more cabinets to sand) and waiting for the coats of paint to dry.
The primed cabinet frame
Cabinets - Before
Cabinets - After
Here are our new cabinets! I love the color. MUCH better than the outdated oak cabinets for not a ton of money!
For the hinges, we had originally bought these. This required drilling a hole into the cabinet for the hinge.They were a pain to install. I did one door and I hated it. I had some metallic spray paint in the garage, so I decided to try spray painting the existing hinges. When we update the kitchen, we will probably replace the hinges with the same style in brushed nickel.Spray painting 8 hinges wasn't so bad, but I'm not sure if I want to spray paint 34! I'll wait to see how these hold up and price shop before we decide for sure.
We also installed the hinge adapter that you can also see in this picture. They just allow the doors to shut quietly and more slow...so no slamming! I love them! We installed the hinges a little too high on the door to install them into the side of the frame (which is recommended), but we tried installing them to the top of the frame, and it worked out just fine! These are about $6 each at Lowe's, so we saved a lot of money by buying them on Amazon. We bought a 10 pack to test them out in the bathrooms. We will definitely be putting these in the kitchen as well.
We also installed the hinge adapter that you can also see in this picture. They just allow the doors to shut quietly and more slow...so no slamming! I love them! We installed the hinges a little too high on the door to install them into the side of the frame (which is recommended), but we tried installing them to the top of the frame, and it worked out just fine! These are about $6 each at Lowe's, so we saved a lot of money by buying them on Amazon. We bought a 10 pack to test them out in the bathrooms. We will definitely be putting these in the kitchen as well.
Cost of the entire bathroom project:
New mirrors: $120
New faucets: $120
Soap Dispensers: $14
Paint (Walls and cabinets): $40.95
Cabinet knobs: $4.12
Cabinet door/drawer template: $6.39
Quiet shut hinge adapters: $11.50
Total cost: $316.96
So...a year and a little over $300 later, we have a new bathroom! It's not 100% finished, but it's finished for now. I still need to find a shower curtain (I can't seem to decide on one. We've had a plain white one in here for going on 2 years!) and bath mats. That's no big deal, I just have to find the ones I like. In the future, I would like to replace the outdated white tile with something a little more modern. I'm not sure if that will happen or not. It's not that high on our priority list. I would also like to update the fixtures in the bath tub. We are waiting to see if we actually update the tile so that we can do this all at one time. We have 3 other major projects that we want to tackle before we do more work to this bathroom, so we'll see if it ever happens.
* From previous projects, we already had the primer and metallic paint I used for the hinges. I also used 30% off coupons on the paint at Sherwin Williams. They run sales pretty frequently, so I try to wait around for them.
For the knobs and hinge adapters, we bought larger packs, because we knew we would be using them in our kitchen and guest bathroom in the near future. We saved a bit of money by buying them in bulk.
New mirrors: $120
New faucets: $120
Soap Dispensers: $14
Paint (Walls and cabinets): $40.95
Cabinet knobs: $4.12
Cabinet door/drawer template: $6.39
Quiet shut hinge adapters: $11.50
Total cost: $316.96
So...a year and a little over $300 later, we have a new bathroom! It's not 100% finished, but it's finished for now. I still need to find a shower curtain (I can't seem to decide on one. We've had a plain white one in here for going on 2 years!) and bath mats. That's no big deal, I just have to find the ones I like. In the future, I would like to replace the outdated white tile with something a little more modern. I'm not sure if that will happen or not. It's not that high on our priority list. I would also like to update the fixtures in the bath tub. We are waiting to see if we actually update the tile so that we can do this all at one time. We have 3 other major projects that we want to tackle before we do more work to this bathroom, so we'll see if it ever happens.
* From previous projects, we already had the primer and metallic paint I used for the hinges. I also used 30% off coupons on the paint at Sherwin Williams. They run sales pretty frequently, so I try to wait around for them.
For the knobs and hinge adapters, we bought larger packs, because we knew we would be using them in our kitchen and guest bathroom in the near future. We saved a bit of money by buying them in bulk.
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