When we first bought our townhouse it needed a major facelift. Everything was original from the 70’s with the exception of one toilet. My husband and I knew when we saw it that we could transform this house into an amazing first home.
We started with demolition of interior walls and the kitchen. We had a deadline to move out of our existing apartment so I knew we had to have a functioning bathroom. I could deal with takeout for a few months but I needed a working shower!
Because we were renovating the entire home we were on a tight budget. My husband did all the work with help and guidance from a close friend who is a contractor.
The Before
The existing bathroom was a dusty rose relic. Pink toilet, bath and sink. It also had two entrances which was so bizarre because the bathroom is only 40 square feet. The second entrance led into the master bedroom which if we wanted to use from our bedroom we would actually have to walk past the main entrance to the bathroom. We decided immediately to close that space up.
The entire bathroom was gutted but we left the electrical and most of the plumbing in place. With only 40 square feet there wasn’t a lot of room for changes in the floorplan.
The Reno
I wanted to keep the colour palette very neutral as we put this bathroom together very quickly and I didn’t have a lot of time to hum and ha over wallpapers or fun tile choices. Since we know this is not our forever home I also wanted to bathroom to be an updated but very clean space for resale. There aren’t any windows in this space either so I wanted the walls and tiles to be light.
We selected a 30″ white high gloss GODMORGON floating vanity with ODENSVIK sinktop from Ikea. Flooring is a 12 x24 ceramic tile with a marbled pattern from Lowes. We continued the same tile and pattern in the shower to draw the eye up and give the space more height.
Speaking of height my husband is 6’3 so we mounted the shower head high enough that he can actually fit underneath! A mini glass subway tile was used for a feature behind the shower fixtures. Bath fixtures are in a chrome finish and all sourced from Lowes. Vanity light is from Union Lighting.
The After!
I am a firm believer that mass commercial products, like from Ikea, can look elevated if you source fixtures and hardware elsewhere. This is one of my #1 tips for when designing Ikea Kitchens.
We are very happy with the way the bathroom turned out! After being in our home for a few years now there are definitely things I would like to change slightly.
I’ve been brainstorming a few diy projects for this bathroom so stay tuned I might just change it again!
