Half Bath Before & After

You GUYS! I am so so excited to share what is probably our biggest and best project DIY project to date – our half bath.  A few months ago, I blogged about how nasty our 1/2 bath was… carpet on the floors, CARPET ON THE WALLS!, wallpaper on every. single. surface. possible. (including the door, window, and trim!), not to mention a totally weird radio in the ceiling that would turn on with the flick of the light switch (the light, however, did NOT turn on with said flick – totally mind-boggling).  Tearing it all apart was about the best feeling ever (you can read all about the before/demo here).

And, yes, we totally defaced our own home with graffiti in a move that I am one part embarrassed about (who defaces their own home?), and one part pleased with (it gave us the idea for the chalky after).

We removed everything from the bathroom and smoothed the walls where the carpet squares had been attached with liquid nails.  Then, we replaced the weirdo radio in the ceiling with a cheap & loud ceiling fan that is wired to the new light fixture we hung, making it nearly impossible for others to hear your business – super-crucial since the kitchen is just steps away.  We Jason blocked out the area where our wall-hung sink would go, and hung the wainscoting.  Everything was covered in several coats of paint…  It’s amazing how removing the bulky cabinets and drop ceiling and giving everything a fresh coat of paint really made our tiny, tiny half bath seem much bigger and fresher.

We splurged on a tiny wall mount sink – there were few that would nicely fit the 15″ square sink space in our tiny half bath, so we were pretty fortunate to find this one on ebay for $300.  Other details needed to be cheap to fit into our budget… we purchased a cheapish faucet online, had the mirror we removed from the half bath cut to a smaller size and then framed it with stained 1x2s, and hung a string from 2 nails as our towel rack.  I made the curtain for the bathroom from an old tablecloth, and hung a silly wooden fish purchased years ago on a family vacay above the door to the bathroom (since JT hates it, it’s pretty much the only place he’d let me hang it), and threw a handful of chalk into a jar I already had.

We’re currently saving up to replace all of the flooring on our first floor with beautiful hardwood floors, so we didn’t want to do anything too permanent (or expensive!) with the floor in the half bath.  When we ripped up the carpet that was originally in the half bath, we found old 60s laminate flooring that we covered in 2 coats of black paint and three coats of polyurethane.  It seemed to scratch easily, so we covered it in woven mat tiles from World Market (this also helps reduce echos and eliminate bathroom noises from wandering into the kitchen).  I threw some TP in an old wooden crate under the sink and called it good.

Initially, we thought we’d spend $400 in this space.  That was before we realized that we were going to have to splurge a little on the sink.  Instead, here’s our budget breakdown:

• Drywall Compound – $7
• Cheap & Loud Fan – $13
• Wiring – $25
• Light Fixture – $37
• Wainscotting & Trim – $80
• Paint – $34 for black/chalkboard paint
• Plumbing – $50
• Sink – $300
• Faucet – $75
• Woven Carpet Tiles – $10
• Wooden Crate – $5
• Materials we had before starting the project: primer, white semigloss paint, ceiling paint, stain for the mirror trim, polyurethane for the floor, old tablecloth for curtain, ridiculous wooden fish, chalk, glass jar, mirror, string to hang towels on
• Total: $636
• Satisfaction that we did it all ourselves: Priceless

Not bad!  And, so so so much better than the before…

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I’m linking up to the CSI’s Beautiful Bathroom Challenge, Shabby Nest’s Frugal Friday, Just a Girl’s Show & Share Day, Thrifty Decor Chick’s Before and After Party, and the DIY Show Off’s Project Parade!