What kept me away for a good portion of 2015....

Was moving from our home of 16 years into a "New" home, built in 1972.  It's a lovely center hall Colonial and all 3 bathrooms are in need of an update.  After long consideration, we decided one bathroom would get a complete overhaul, down to the studs.  The other two will get some cosmetic updates over time.  I'll make sure to share those transformations with you once they are completed, but for now, this post is about Our Harvest Gold Bathroom.

Yep....1970s!

This was a 1970s bathroom, if I've ever seen one.  It had to go!  Here's a simple, but effective graph of the existing layout:

I'm an old fashioned gal and rely on the paper grid sheets we used back in our geometry days!  Ha!  They work for me.  As a side note, before we moved in to the new house, I had a floor grid for every room, with accurate measurements and to scale cut outs of every piece of furniture.  So when the movers were here, we referred to "the room grid" to let them know where every piece was to be placed.  We ended up making a few tweaks in furniture placement, but it really helped the day of the move be less chaotic and very organised!

Meanwhile, back to the bathroom:  the layout was fine, so we didn't have to move any plumbing. The existing vanity was 43" wide, so I picked a 36" wide vanity to replace it.  It's amazing how much more spacious the bathroom feels by using a smaller vanity!  We still have plenty of storage in the cabinet.  Design is often times about creating illusions!

 Since my hubby and I are not handy, we hired a contractor to help us with this project. Harry from K&H Cabinet took on the task of helping us with this bathroom.  I've known Harry for most of my life.  As a matter of fact, his father built a home for my parents in 1959!  I hope he doesn't regret taking on this project...as it took him a few days to gut it, and 6 weeks to rebuild it!  Of course I was sweet and precious throughout the entire time!  (cough, cough)  It's hard having workers in your home everyday...you know?

This new bathroom, along with lots of packing and unpacking, dealing with trades people (we needed a new electric panel box, new boiler, lots of painting....blah, blah, blah) is what's kept me away from my RPK Reloves.

Do you want to see what my vision was for Mr Harvest Gold Bathroom?

I love the look of a frameless shower.  It makes this small guest bath look so much larger!  Take a look at where the shower door swings open.  It misses the front of the toilet by about 2".  This part of the layout was almost a big mistake on my part!  I had originally purchased a standard, elongated toilet, 31" from front to back.  After the shower was tiled in and the walls had new wall board, I started to look at the layout, taking more careful measurements and discovered we would not be able to have the shower door swing open, into the room, because it would hit the toilet.  I am not feeling too keen on my master plan!  I found another elongated toilet that was only 28" from front to back (and quite a bit more expensive, but that goes without saying!). I think the problem is solved...but it's not...

The next thing for me to worry about was the width of the shower door.  24" is the standard width of a frameless shower door. The primary user of the bathroom is 6'3", 200lbs.  Would he be able to ease in an out of a standard 24" door?  I don't think so....Maybe we have to use sliding doors?  Ug! When the shower guys came to measure and brainstorm with me, the space was such that we were able to get a custom 26" door.  Yay!  When the door swings open it misses the toilet by 2"!  

So the moral of this story is measure twice, and maybe even thrice.  The success of this small bathroom came down to inches and paying attention to those details!

 I was concerned with water spots on the glass.  I'm not a squeegee kind of gal and wasn't sure how we'd keep the glass sparkling.  Our contractor told me about RainX.  I cleaned the glass well, sprayed the RainX on the glass, wiped and buffed it off, and there are no water spots on the glass after a shower. The water beads up, and once it's evaporated there are no water marks!  Love it!

I've been using Houzz and Pinterest to help collect ideas for my vision.  I was drawn to the basket weave marble, surrounded by 12x12 marble.  I'm thrilled with it!  The basket weave is from Lowes and the 12x12 marble on the perimeter is from Home Depot.  No fancy tile stores for me....

The cabinet and Carrara Marble top are from Amazon.  I was a little nervous about ordering a piece like that online, but the customer reviews helped give me the confidence to go for it!  I'm glad I did....

The wall sconces are from Joss and Main and the mirror is from Target.

The 9x12 wall tile is from Lowes...and the 1" marble hex floor tile is from Home Depot.

The Delta faucet is from Lowes.

I didn't get a good picture of the wood paneled door, but it's solid and was a deep, mahogany color.  I decided not to paint over it....I love the wood with the white marble.  The door needed some nourishment though, as it had been neglected for 40 years.  MissMustardseed's hemp oil brought it back to life...with a beautiful, warm luster.

I learned from watching Sarah Richardson for many years that you can create a lovely design without breaking the bank when you shop at the big box stores. I tried to design a lovely bathroom, with a high end look, but wanted to keep the expenses within reason.  The big box stores have gorgeous products at affordable prices.  If you are in the market for a home improvement project, give them a try....

So that's why I've been away!  Hopefully, I'll get back to posting about some of my furniture reloves!

In the meantime, I hope you had a wonderful 2015!  Warm wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016!

xoxo

Robin