Master Bath Transformation - Before and After

It's been a long stretch since I stopped in here for an update, so I figured I'd bring you up to speed on our bathroom redo.  When we moved into our house, I had a long list of "I'd like to change that." Our master bathroom, however, fell more under the S.O.S. category.  Still, I think there's benefit to living with a space, no matter how discouraging, for a while to really get a sense of what works, what doesn't, and why.  About six months ago, we decided to lift the quarantine.

Before I jar you with the "before" images, let's cleanse the palate and see what I envisioned for the renovation.

Now, brace yourselves for the "before"

(image from the MLS listing when we bought the house)

I like to call it:  the Mid 70s Builder-grade special.  With a splash of hospital. 

Original mauve tile, with walls painted to match.  Original vanity, which was curiously squat - even for a short stack like me.  Needless to say, there wasn't anything worth salvaging.

I use the word "master" bath loosely because, although it is ensuite, it is tiny.  Yes, it would be lovely to have dual sinks, but we actually don't overlap too much in terms of use.  We also didn't have much option to expand the space without creating a weird jut into our bedroom, or taking up valuable closet space.  So, the footprint had to stay.

The good news was that having a small footprint meant I could go a little more luxe in terms of finishes.  More than anything, I wanted to brighten it up, and try to expand the space visually.

I believe we accomplished that.

The design plan was pretty straight forward - I wanted marble subway tile to the ceiling in the shower, then to wrap around the other walls at a half-wall height.  The floor tile needed to have a higher grout-to-tile ratio to prevent slipping, so I opted for a small marble herringbone mosaic.  I carried the same tile from the vanity area into the shower to continue the visual line - another trick to make the space seem larger.  We designed a small vertical panel of the mosaic in the facing wall, because, hey, I couldn't get enough of it.  We were able to keep the lines all nice and clean by tucking two shampoo niches into the back wall.   So again, not an inch larger, but it feels


much more open!

P.S. - Artwork by my daughter and I (yay for freebies!)

I went with brass fixtures to warm up the color scheme, but mixed in polished nickel for the towel bar and tp holder to keep it from feeling too Liberace.

The other major component to visually enlarging the space was to mirror that baby up!  It was tricky, but I had plate mirrors cut for the dimensions of a mirrored medicine cabinet.  It's a nice, layered finish, and bounces tons of light.

The vanity base ended up giving me a bad case of the willies.  I envisioned converting an antique cabinet into a vanity, and searched for something with the


dimensions (we had no wiggle room), that would still function like a true vanity - to no avail.  Having a custom vanity built was out of budget, so I had to go with a standard vanity base.  Little disclaimer:  Unless you can't tell the difference, I'm not a fan of using Big Box store items for renovations, and I really felt like I was selling out, design-wise to use one, but I held my nose and did it. By topping it with a custom volakas marble top, though, I think I'm at least somewhat redeemed. ;)  It also meant there was room to splurge on the radiant floor heat, which. is. a. game changer.  Toasty toes instead of frozen-stuck-to-the-marble feet is a huge luxury in my boat!

I think it's fair to say the space was completely transformed.  Before, it was painful to see.  Now, it's a  pleasure to use. 


Marble Subway Tile


Marble pencil trim


Herringbone mosaic tile

(similar to)  ~  

Shower fixture

 (similar to) ~  

Basin fixture

 (similar to) ~  

Vanity base

(similar to, but think ours was more, and is nicer)  ~  

Vanity top


Mirrored Medicine Cabinet