Originally Posted November 2019

Holy crazy summer…. life has been insanely busy and while I realize I promised to get back on the blogging train back in June I somehow never found the time too!

So this time I’m really, really, really gong to try…promise!

We did manage to wrap up the never ending bathroom renovation! To be honest the most exciting part of this whole process, was just the fact that it existed. We have never had the luxury of a primary bathroom before, in both of our previous homes we all shared ONE bathroom, which you can imagine was delightful with a house full of boys. I had full intentions of banning everyone else from using it, except myself but I quickly realized that was a tad unrealistic…

Here she is in all of her previous neon green glory.

We did utilize the help of a contractor with this project, we knew since we were marrying two rooms together, moving and adding plumbing, as well as all of the other woes that come along with renovating a 120 year old home we would need the help.

With the amount of light this space gets from those huge windows, I knew I could go black without any repercussions. Originally when I designed the space I had my heart set on doing tadelakt (Moroccan lime plaster) walls in the entire space which would waterproof all of the walls and forgo the need for wall tile in the shower. After doing a ton of research and talking to all 3 of the craftsman who do this in the whole of North America, I realized it was not going to happen. Not only was just the cost of the actual product and application a budget blower, but we would have to pay for transport and lodging for whomever we hired because the closet one was in New York.

So back to the drawing board and I landed on duplicating the look of the tadelakt by mixing 6 cups of drywall mud (in powder form) with 1/2 gallon of Black Magic paint by Sherwin Williams and applying it to the wall with a trowel. It gave me that perfectly imperfect velvet texture although it is not waterproof so I couldn’t duplicate the look for the shower.

So many questions about the previous set-up, mainly how does one shower without flashing your neighbor? I wouldn’t know we never used this bathroom before we renovated we trekked upstairs to the boys bathroom to shower without prying eyes.

I had my heart set on a caned vanity and found a few I loved but unfortunately the wall was a lot shorter than I had anticipated and I couldn’t find any under 65″ long. So after a lot of internet sleuthing (what in the world did we do before the internet?!) I stumbled on this buffet from Target, so we added a few plumbing holes and new hardware and tada the caned vanity of my dreams! We do have plans to install Ikea drawer inserts behind the doors because the storage is a little wonky because its meant house dishes and not makeup and toothbrushes. I’ll probably have a whole post on that because it could be a great storage solution in lots of applications and is relatively simple to create.

The wall above with this strange doorway alcove in it, was the back of what was our closet. We tore it out and created a massive walk-in shower out of the space. In order to continue the vibe of the tadelakt, I went with a matte black tile with black grout from Bedrosians Tile. When you stand back and take it all in I think it did the trick! I will say this bathroom is one of those spaces that is difficult to photograph because it is not a very wide room but skinny and long.

My husband is the genius that thought of doing a floating walnut bench, it really warms up the space and carries the wood tones throughout the bathroom.

He had to plane and join two pieces to get the extra long length, and then he sealed it with three coats of Waterlox to ensure that the water doesn’t rot or warp it.

I would have to say the highlight of the bathroom is the multiple shower heads and body sprayers, it really does take your shower game to a whole ‘nother level. I am normally a 5 minute ( if I don’t have to wash my hair) shower-er but I now sometimes forget to get out for a solid 30 minutes. Like I mentioned above this was suppose to be a no-go area for everybody else but its so easy to throw four boys in here at once, slather them in soap and spray them down.

I love, love, love the floor tile, it looks like marble but is actually porcelain! They are 30″ Honed Calcutta tiles by Bedrosians Tile, you would never know its not real marble the veining and color are insanely good! Also with the large scale tile it means less grout lines to clean, win-win!

This is the previous view from the bedroom into the bathroom. We got rid of the closet door and turned the bathroom door into a pocket door to maximize space since the bathroom is so narrow. I think it looks so much cleaner and streamlined now.

So there it is folks, what do you think? I’ll get a source post together over the next few weeks for you!