The Reno Report: Guest Bath

it is back to bathroom business. after we finished the master bedroom ensuite, our next bathroom to tackle in our new home was the upstairs guest bath. it is probably the biggest out of the three we have in the whole house, and because of that we wanted to get it off our to-do list quickly. since again, this bathroom like all the others, has no windows it was extremely important to us to make it still feel light and bright. our inspiration for this reno update was the image above, a clean and modern oasis. now, on we go to the before shots ...

when we first met our house, this is what we saw... pause for shock... .ok, breathing. sure it isn't sooooooo bad, it could be worse, right? however it immediately felt dark, messy and very, very dated. the cabinets and the frame around the mirror where the first things we noticed as items we wanted to fix-up. keep in mind that if you read our last reno post for the ensuite bath you will know that down the road our long-term plan is to gut each bathroom and really build them fresh from the bottom up. this means that there are a few things we aren't changing right now and need to work around. at this point in time, that includes, tiles, counter top, sink and toilet. in the before shots of the bathroom you can see that there was about FIVE different colours being using (counter, cabinet, tile, toilet and wall). no, i'm not kidding. the biggest challenge in this space was the wall colour choice. it was essential to me that it somehow blend/bring together in a more appealing way the salmon counter top, and the almond tub and toilet and off white tile in the shower.

amazing what a can of paint and some white towels can do, eh? after much debate and taping of paint swatches to walls we landed on Balboa Mist by Benjamin Moore to do the job. I have to say i'm so, so, so, impressed with how quickly the bathroom changed into a calmer warmer feeling space right after the paint got applied. the second biggest impact (which is still the biggest bang for your buck) was painting the cabinet. we sanded down those blasted  doors, filled the grooves with wood filler, and then sanded some more to make it nice and smooth. once they were ready we gave them a nice coat of Benjamin Moore Night Shade paint and a varnish finish to protect them from any water.  instant modern impact.   this is hands down the best value for your money if you are looking to fix up any old space. after the paint fully dried we added a long brushed nickle handle from Home Depot and arranged them vertically so we could hang our white hand towels from them. doing so really helps to draw the eye around the room and better blend all the new cream and white elements of the space. as you can see we also have a retro built in medicine cabinet that was original to our 70's home (i love using it). to upgrade the look of this unit we first removed the old white floral frame (yuck!), pulled out the cabinet, bought some metallic spray paint and gave it a good ol' couple of coats minus the glass shelves. once that dried we placed it back in, cleaned up the glass shelving to make it sparkle and the Mr created a new sleeker looking wood frame that we painted in the same colour as the cabinet. tips & tricks - if you have a sliding cabinet or door and find it is sticky, grab a candle and rub it on the track. your door will glide like butter! the other little things we did were we pulled down the old light fixture that was there and using the left over spray paint covered any trace of the not to lovely bronze that was there. we then easily replaced the bulbs which instantly made the space significantly brighter. now i must explain that since this is the oasis bathroom, and the plan for now is to use it for guests and as a quiet spa like bath space, i convinced my husband to install a lighting dimmer switch. best. thing. ever. now after a long day I can retreat to a lovely bubble bath, glass of wine, dim the lights and light some candles.  sounds heavenly doesn't it! 

 The Project List: 

Wall colour - Benjamin Moore "Balboa Mist"
Cabinet paint - Benjamin Moore "Night Shade"
Trim paint & door colour - Benjamin Moore "Cloud White"
Medicine cabinet & light fixture spray paint - Home Depot "Rustoleum Metallic Silver"
Cabinet door handles - Home Depot "Brushed Nickel" Pull
Glass Shelf - Ikea "Grundtal"
Bath Accessories - Canadian Tire "Apothecary"
Bath Towels - Gift!
Faucet Hooks - Urban Barn
Shower Curtain - The Bay "Hotel Collection"
Bath Towel Rack - Ikea "Grundtal"
Picture Frame & Picture - Ikea "Ribba"
White side table - From my nana's!