Do you have a bathroom or powder room that is so out of date that you don’t even use it? It’s functional, but you just loathe being in there? I had one of those. With our home being as old as it is, there are still yet a few spaces that look their age and our main floor powder room was one of them. It had its original wall mounted porcelain sink in that old cream fixture colour from decades ago with separate rusty hot and cold faucets. It was a cute space, but after living in our home for over 19 years, it was a space that I know I didn’t enjoy being in. I couldn’t even imagine how our guests felt being in that space.
Back in November 2019, the toilet completely died on us. It had been repaired a few times already, but it was finally in disrepair. I think that was the final straw for me. Additionally, the hot water faucet dripped constantly and was also not repairable. Try as we did, it just would not strop dripping. So, I did what any frustrated person would have done. I called our kitchen contractor to see if he could provide a quote to do the work before the holidays. That was the clincher. It had to be done before the holidays. Can you imagine the stress I put on our contractor? But, he agreed to do it and have it useable by the holidays and he came thru for us.
I’m going to share with you the unbelievable before photos of our main floor powder room. You’ll love the wall paper, but trust me, it gets old fast. The powder room is tiny. It sits beneath our stairwell. I’ve often referred to it as our Harry Potter bathroom, you’ll understand why if you’ve ever read the book or seen the first couple of movies in the series. The dimensions of our powder room are 7.5 feet x 3’-3”, so it’s tiny, but I knew it could become a powder room with just the right amount of coastal flare. I decided in this powder room to use black accents which was not overbearing at all and I’m so happy with the results.
So let’s take a look at the before and afters, staring with the view into the powder room. I had recently painted the door Sherwin Williams Inky Blue. I really loved that colour, but in the end, I re-painted the door to match the door in the adjoining foyer Benjamin Moore Water’s Edge. It’s such a beautiful colour and it helps bring the colour palette throughout the rest of the main floor. What do you think of that blue floral wall paper? Isn’t it cute? Well, as I mentioned earlier, the cuteness wears off. What I didn’t like about the busy wall paper is that I couldn’t tell if the walls were clean and I needed to know that. We had the original lathe and plaster demolished and installed shiplap on the back wall and painted Sherwin Williams Alabaster. I’m so happy with how it turned out. It’s bright and airy and that was the look I was going for.
The fixtures were both purchased at Home Depot. I had to find something small, but I was also looking for storage. There wasn’t any useable storage in the original bathroom, so this was a must have for the new powder room. The large mirror was purchased at HomeSense. I wanted to have it take up as much as the back wall as possible. Our older small mirror always seemed too small for us. Again, I was really happy with finding this mirror. I also found the circular wall mounted 3-shelf unit at HomeSense. I wasn’t even looking for one, but when I saw it, I thought it would be perfect for the powder room.
The light fixture, faucet and switch plates were all purchased at Lowe’s. I wanted black and for some reason, this was the only place I could find similar black accessories.
The flooring was the game changer for me. We used luxury vinyl plank flooring and it really pulls the space together. It keeps it fresh and light which really was the goal for this small space. It was really the complete opposite of the small dark space it previously was and I am no longer worried about having my guests use this space when they are visiting us.
One project at a time, I am transforming my 100-year old house into a coastal home.
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Shari xo
