Bathroom DIY

One of the biggest challenges of this reno was trying to maintain some soul in a completely renovated, new house. Originally, we hadn't planned to strip this house down to it's bare bones but, when you start ripping things apart, one thing leads to another and all of a sudden you find yourself in a brand new home....definitely not what we intended.

So, what to do? What to do? Well for starters we saved as much as we could from the original house: doors and door knobs, air grates, baseboards, etc. More on their re-vamping later...

The reclaimed barn board floors really give the house an old, soulful feel. I've gone on and on about them, I know, but they were SO much work, a really scary project, and have turned out to be the best vintage-y thing in our new home.

I also chose retro inspired tile, reminiscent of the home's original age and architectural style to counter balance our more modern design choices. Again, more on that later!!

But now, my favorite project, the bathroom vanities.....
Instead of new big box store vanities, I opted to use pieces of furniture in the bathrooms. A la Sarah Richardson, I searched out two vintage pieces, painted and chopped them to size, added sinks and faucets and VOILA! Beautiful, original vanities that we couldn't be happier about.

So far the bathrooms are the closest rooms we have to "done" and every time I walk into one I want to "oooh and ahhhh". Success, I think.

A Few Notes:
Ideally vanities should be 30-34 inches high. Takes into account your sink height and search for pieces that fit into the right height range or will be easy to modify. You also need to account for the right depth. Get the specs on the sink you plan to purchase to help guide your purchase.

You will need to make room for plumbing. The perfect vanity (I think!) has doors on the front to make adapting it to a bathroom easy. I couldn't find a dresser with doors and the right dimensions for the family bath, but the drawers are great and, believe it or not, we only lost half of one of the top drawers to plumbing!

Powder Room
(still not quite done....but you get the idea!)




Family Bathroom






I managed to save money (one of the dressers was given to me and the other was $120) and I was able to up-cycle 2 great pieces of furniture. Win-Win.

They also look pretty fab...so maybe that should be Win-Win-Win?