We live in an old home just outside of the city of Pittsburgh. Our house was built in the late 1930s – I think 1939 – and has all the great character and charm of an older home. One slight downfall though is small ass closets and a tiny upstairs “master” bathroom. But we certainly make do and I’ve utilized all of the closet space well. It helps that I love to organize. I should do a post on that for another time.
Our upstairs bathroom was in need of a makeover. So when my dad offered to renovate it for my husband and me for our birthdays this year, I jumped at the chance. My dad is extremely handy and builds beautiful furniture. We were joking that he was DIYing before DIY was cool. I did not inherit those genes but I do some things around the house and am not afraid to hammer a nail or put a coat of paint on something. So, here we go.
Before
Here is what we were working with before. Not terrible but not good either. I like a gray paint color, but for such a small room, it made it look smaller. Bright white instead. Plus, we pulled (well, my dad pulled) about 8 layers of old linoleum floor up and there was some serious need for caulking. Even after I cleaned I never felt the room was clean enough.
Another perk for an old house? Laundry shoots. I’m so happy we don’t need hampers upstairs which saves space. So that was a requirement to keep our shoot. Such awkward placement behind the toilet though.
As my friend Emily says, it always gets worse before it gets better! Here is the bathroom ripped up. We decided to splurge and get a new toilet (sarcasm) because our toilet was from 1970. 50 years – you had a good run. So happy we have a toilet that flushes normally now and not for 15 minutes. There was so many layers of old floor under here.
Getting there! I love this floor and it was so easy (not that I did it). My dad just got a sheet of wood at Home Depot and attached these peel and stick tiles to it. Trendy, yes. But also easy to change out in a few years if we’d like to.
After
Ta-da! Here she is:
What he did (I linked the sources I have):
- Painted and put molding around the shower, door and window
- Custom wall paneling and door for laundry shoot
- New floor
- New toilet (if anyone wants this link LMK lol)
- New vanity/faucet (with nice pull out drawer underneath for storage that was custom built)
- Put in subway tile around the sink
- Built a new mirror out of an existing one and updated the inside medicine cabinet for extra storage
- New light fixture
- Custom shelves with towel holder
- New TP holder
- Custom radiator cover (SUCH a difference – that was getting funky, too)
- Installed the shower door instead of curtain (I HATE shower curtains)
- Hung a makeup mirror
- I think that’s it
And I cleaned up at Big Lots with some of the things for the shelves and acrylic storage and this cute garbage can (they also have a lot of these at Home Goods):
I also got a few things at Home Goods and Target. Now accepting brand partnerships to help us redo the kitchen! 🙂
