bathrooms are a central room of any house, so clearly they topped our "to do" list when we bought our first house. now, let me take a moment to welcome you to our ensuite. first, i should explain that down the road we aim to gut and completely overhaul this bathroom, but for our current 5 year plan we want to make it user friendly, cozy and a functional place to get ready in the mornings. that brings me to my next point. i'm the dork who makes mood boards. there i said. clearly i need visuals, so here was the idea plan for the ensuite in terms of what we both envisioned for this space. it's quite a small ensuite (but an ensuite nontheless so we will NOT complain), making storage an issue as well as form and general function.
i hope you didn't just loose your lunch cause I sure did the first time i saw this. i know i shouldn't judge other people's design choices, to each their own, but really?! that wallpaper. that cabinet. that countertop. just make it stop. trust me when i say, it was WORSE in person. even the inside of the cabinet had wall to wall wallpaper. sigh. aside from putting in new hardwood floors and refinishing the floating staircase in the house, this room was main priority. I am happy to say i got all up close and personal with that wallpaper. thankfully mood board in hand we had a plan and we tackled this project head on. moving right along...
let's all have a moment to take in just how much better we feel seeing that wallpaper gone. phew! Since this bathroom has no windows it was vital to me that we pick a colour that would brighten the space. we agreed on an off white from Benjamin Moore called Swiss Coffee and right away this small space felt bigger, crisper and brighter. what do you think? the second best thing we did was paint the cabinet. this can seem like a daunting task, but if you are looking for the best bang for your buck, this is it. trust me. the original cabinet had all kinds of grooves (you can see them in the pictures above) so we spent time filling them with wood filler, allowed that to dry for 24 hours and then sanded it to a nice and smooth finish making it instantly look more modern (we found some wild past colours under there when sanding. holy.). next we used two coats of Benjamin Moore Brown Sugar with a foam roller then topped it all off with a clear coats sealer to protect it from any water . again, the countertop is something we aren't planning to change until we really gut this space a few years from now, and personally with the changes we've made so far it almost blends into the space so it isn't an eye sore. if like us, you find you have to live with something you can't change my best advice is to pick a paint colour that compliments that item. take your swatches and try and pull out a tone, and it all else fails stick with clean bright white. this ensuite is still just in progress at this point, so it was back to the list which had lots of little things left before completion.
TA-DA! i give you the ensuite in all it's glory. i feel good about this project knowing where we came from and doing our best to work around things we aren't changing at the moment (which sometimes feels hard and overwhelming). i will firstly admit that i still don't have all the accessories for this space just yet (like those wire baskets and perhaps an interesting vintage sign) but i'm happily taking my time to find those pieces. overall it's basically done, we finished re-caulking the countertop and tub, changed the shower head, installed new cabinet handles, added extra storage space and silver accessories. we've come along away and happily we can check it off the master to do list. On to the next room!
The Project List:Wall colour - Benjamin Moore "Swiss Coffee"Cabinet paint - Benjamin Moore "Brown Sugar"Trim paint - Benjamin Moor "Cloud White"Mirror - Home DepotCabinet handles - Home DepotBath Accessories - The BayBath Towels - WinnersBath Mat - Home OutfittersShower Curtain - The Bay "Moda"Bath Towel rods - Home Depot "Brushed Nickel"Glass Jars - Gift!
