How to Refresh a Tiny Bath Without Breaking the Bank

I am embarrassed to show you my former powder room.  It was stuck in the 80’s.  The walls were glazed.  They actually were not the peutrid color they appear but much more subdued.  I had stenciled a little border about 20 years ago. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the update so we made do with painting , redesigning the existing vanity, and replacing the top.

 

We are stuck with the saltillo floors.  They are all over the main floor of the house.  The TP holder was made by local artisan James O’hare.  James has now passed but had such a big part in the construction of our house we cannot part with many of the treasures he made for us. The existing vanity had the original mexican tile so popular at the time we built our home over 25 years ago. Note the Newport Brass Oil Rubbed Bronze fixtures.  They have a “living” finish.  If you ever order anything oil rubbed bronze and they tell you it has a living  finish run don’t walk to another collection.  “Living”” means it will rub off. 



The vanity had a disgusting finish that I thought was lovely at the time.  The iron mirror had to go and will appear at the barn sale May 9th. 




The powder room is very small and I never quite knew what to do with it. When  I found a bamboo shelf for $30 at a local junk shop,the transformation began.The powder bath is right off the kitchen/family room so I wanted it to reflect the same feel as that area.



We had a small piece of soapstone left from a job, so we had our fabricator Monterey Bay Marble and Granite fabricate the back and top.  I am crazy about the soapstone.  We got rid of the painted mexican sink and added a simple white Kohler undermount.  I strippped the fixtures and now they are “au currant” unlaquered brass.  I got the hairbrained idea to stencil the walls from my friend Pam from Simple Details. Like her I purchased my stencil from Royal Design Studio.  Pam made it look “simple” here http://simpledetailsblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/foyer-revealunexpected-pizazz.html  I hadn’t stenciled in 20 years so it took me an eternity! 


Steve fashioned a bracket base for the vanity to make it look more like a piece of furniture. 


I painted it gray , distressed it a little bit (since it already was) ,and did an ever so slight glaze over it. Ignore the missing baseboard on the left. 
This picture is a more accurate representation of the color. We replaced the iron pulls with these from Horton Brasses.  They are a great resource for reproduction hardware by the way. 



I switched out the iron mirror for this frame I already owned in order to tie in the bamboo shelf.  I added the bamboo shades to the existing  iron sconces.


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Here is the $30 bamboo shelf that I found at the junk shop.



Once the walls were “spotted”  they didn’t need much to dress them up. If you follow me on Instagram you know that I found this great artillery basket at the Alameda Flea Market a while back.  Here it is above the loo. I always find that area a challenge.  Who wants to look at the toilet?



The finished product.



I apologize for the pictures. It is really difficult to get good pictures of this bathroom  since it is so small.



Sometimes working with what you have , rather doing a complete overhaul can be just as 
rewarding as starting from scratch. Our only expenses were a new sink $125, fabrication of the slab,  a new beveled glass mirror , bamboo shades, the $30 shelf and the $120 artillery basket.  Of course it helps to have a contractor  husband!!

I am joining my buddy Kris from Driven by Decor http://www.drivenbydecor.com/2015/04/april-2015-best-of-the-nest.html  and her friends Jennifer http://www.dimplesandtangles.com/2015/04/ and Lisa http://www.shineyourlightblog.com/ best-of-nest-link-party-april.html  for their best of the nest linking party. Click on the link below to see what all these clever ladies and their readers have to share