(Mostly) D.I.Y. Bathroom Remodel

One of my guilty pleasures is getting sucked into Fixer Upper marathons on HGTV.  My parents used to love HGTV and I hated it when I was younger! Now, I love looking at all of the real estate and getting decorating ideas from Chip and Joanna Gaines.  After a long marathon of Fixer Upper, I got the remodeling bug, and decided that the hubs and I could totally redo our bathroom ourselves.  We were actually able to do 90% of the things I wanted to update ourselves, but had to call in the professionals to replace the vanity top.  Here is what we were able to do on our own:

This was the first thing we replaced.  Our old bathroom had Hollywood lights across the top of a sheet mirror (that we also replaced), and it just made our bathroom look outdated.  We searched high and low for a fixture that was as big as our old fixture, but finding something we liked was hard!!

Once we found the fixture, Dave decided he could install the fixture himself with some help from YouTube.  With the exception of flipping the wrong circuit breaker to turn off the power to the bathroom, the project went off without a hitch!

The only room of our condo we didn’t paint when we moved in was our master bathroom.  The walls were a Tuscan beige which wasn’t offensive, but when you compared it to the crisp white of our bedroom walls, it started to look a little dingy.  We wanted a really clean look in our bathroom (with the ability to switch our accent colors easily with new rugs and towels), so we went with the same white from our bedroom.  It made the entire bathroom look “so fresh and so clean clean” (thanks OutKast).

This was a last minute decision. We originally planned on keeping the large sheet mirror in our bathroom, but the back splash of our new vanity was too high, so we decided to take down the mirror to be able to install the vanity top (This is a very long story that eventually worked out, but added 3 months to our reno project.).  We couldn’t find any mirror big enough to replace the sheet mirror (that wasn’t another sheet mirror or $1,000), so we decided to go with two smaller mirrors.  I actually love this look, and am really glad we had bad luck finding a large mirror.

When I sold my husband on the idea of redoing the bathroom, this was the only project I mentioned to him.  I figured if I could get him on board with the biggest part, he’d be fine with the rest haha.  Our old vanity top was white with built in sinks and outdated faucets.  Our new top is marble with square sinks and brushed nickle faucets. I LOVE this new counter top! It made the biggest change to our bathroom.  This was the only part of our project that we outsourced to the professionals.

I already mentioned that I love Chip and Joanna Gaines and their style, so when I was thinking about how I wanted to decorate the new bathroom I was trying to channel Joanna’s style. Her designs are mostly rustic farmhouse, which doesn’t exactly go with the rest of our condo.  To compromise, I tried to take elements of her style and incorporate it with more modern pieces (like our light fixture and faucets).  I found the shelves I hung behind the toilet on Etsy and decorated them with a metal “K,” a wire basket (which stores our extra tp), a glass jar and a cute “get naked” sign that makes me giggle every time I look at it.  I also hung a cool sailboat picture.

We also replaced the the hardware on our vanity, the light switch and outlet covers, toilet paper holder, and towel rods/rings.  Overall I couldn’t be happier with how the project turned out, especially since Dave and I were able to do most of the work ourselves!  I’m still debating painting the cabinets gray, so if I get the hubby to sign off on that project I’ll be sure to give you all an update!