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Cottage, DIY

The big bathroom reveal

April 4, 2011

First of all, sorry for the radio silence last week. Deadlines at my real job got crazy and when I’m writing fast and furiously for work, it’s so hard to come home and put together a couple sentences for the blog. The good news is that I have some exciting posts planned for this week, starting with this one, which is the first official reveal from the big renovation.

And it’s a big one. Adding a bathroom to our house is something we’ve wanted to do since we bought it nine years ago. I definitely got “into” the design of this room more than anything else in the renovation. It’s probably the only bathroom I’ll ever build from scratch, so I wanted to really go for it.

The room is only 8 feet square but I can’t think of anything else we would need in there. At 5 feet by 40 inches, the shower is probably bigger than it needs to be but it really is luxurious. A little bonus is that there is a perfect bird’s eye view of the bird feeders from the shower. I know it sounds corny but I love watching the birds during one of their prime feeding times.

Anyway, on to the photos (which aren’t great because I don’t own a wide angle lens).

This is what the space looked like before. It was nothing but a useless dormer area with a low ceiling that few normal-sized people could even walk into.

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And here it is now. Welcome to the new bathroom.

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The door was actually salvaged from my grandmother’s house before it was torn down. It was her bedroom door. Originally I grabbed it because I figured we’d save some money reusing a door, but as I started refinishing it, stripping and sanding off layers of tan, coral, mint green and white paint, I became very connected to the history of it. I loved imagining all those colors in a house I loved so much. The door ended up being too short and our contractor had to add a couple inches to the top and bottom. We also had to buy a whole new lock set for it (which was difficult because modern doors have different back sets). In the end, I’m sure we didn’t save any money over buying a new door, but it was money well spent to have a piece of my family’s history as a permanent fixture in our home. We used Wallpaper for Windows frosted film to cover the windows to allow light to still enter the hallway but still allow for privacy.

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The teak floor was a splurge, but I love it. We bartered for it to keep the price down and the feel under your feet can’t be beat.

I’m very happy with the decision to go with a handshower and slide bar instead of a fixed showerhead. First of all, I love the Kohler Flipside handshower. It has the most amazing “soft” spray that I liken to the spot-free rinse at the car wash and I love rinsing my hair with it. Secondly, Mr. Much More Patient is significantly taller than me (like more than a foot taller than me) so the slide bar helps us each have the water where we like it.

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We used a scrap piece of teak that Mr. Much More Patient found at a hardware store in Miami. Fancy hardware stores down there, I guess.
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The small window behind the toilet is a favorite touch. I’ll do anything for more natural light.
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The towel warmer is another splurge and so worth it. I love that thing. Get one. It will change your life.

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Here are a few specifics in case you’re interested.

Tile: Floors are light gray porcelain tile 24×6. They started out as 24×12 and my amazing tile guy split them all. They are laid in a 1/3 offset pattern. Walls (to the ceiling in the shower and halfway up elsewhere) are off-white polished porcelain with oval glass accent tiles.
Fixtures: Mostly Kohler. The sink (which I think is the very first thing I picked out for the room) is Archer. The faucet is Margeaux.
Toilet: Toto Carolina II. Love it, if it’s possible to love a toilet.
Vanity: You can read more about the saga of the vanity here, but it was custom built more or less to my design.
Lights: Ceiling light was purchased locally. Vanity pendants are Sonneman and purchased at Lumens.com.
 Counter: Hanstone Ruscello Aspen. These weren’t without some drama either.
Mirror: Pottery Barn Kensington
Towel warmer: Runtal Neptune
Colors: Walls: BM Gray Mist; ceiling: BM Healing Aloe; trim: BM Cloud White

If you’re interested in seeing how we got to this point, check out these posts on the remodel:

Construction Update 1
Construction Update 2
Construction Update 3
Construction Update 4
Construction Update 5
Construction Update 6
Construction Update 7
Construction Update 7.5
Construction Update 8
Construction Update 9 
Construction Update 10 
Construction Update 11 
Construction Update 12 
Punch list
Stairs
Guest bedroom sneak peak
bathroom remodel vanity
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
8 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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Comments

  1. Remington says: April 4, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    That is beautiful! Well done!

    Reply
  2. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: April 4, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    Gorgeous! There is nothing like a bathroom that meets all your needs and is beautiful to boot. We totally redid ours so I know what you had to deal with, but it all turned out well — judging by looks and your comments. I love all the details: shower floor and shelf, items on the "armoire" and the windows. Nothing beats a window in the bathroom — unless it's two. Definitely worth the wait and all the work.

    Reply
  3. threeacres says: April 4, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    So beautiful! The whole room really turned out amazing. I love the teak floor, the history behind the door, and how the countertops add that hint of texture. We are having similar problems with our countertop selection (ie the "you need to buy a whole slab but only get some of it" crap). We need a lot more quartz though with two separate vanities and a shower bench so I doubt we'll find a remnant that big. I think we are going to end up getting everything the same color (was going to get two different colors for shower vs vanities) and putting quartz anywhere we can fit it to use the whole slab!

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says: March 22, 2014 at 8:41 pm

    I would love to know how the teak floor was done in the shower! Beautiful! Is there a regular fiberglass showerpan underneath? Does the teak lift up for cleaning/removing hair from drain catch? Thanks- gorgeous remodel!

    Reply
  5. tess says: July 3, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    Can I ask how you mounted or constructed the teak shelf in the niche?

    Reply
  6. Kara says: October 3, 2021 at 1:04 pm

    I realize your post is many years old now, but wondering how you put that lovely wooden shelf in the shower niche. We would love to do that but aren’t sure how to go about it. Thanks!

    Reply
  7. gina says: December 1, 2021 at 1:02 pm

    How has the teak shelf in the shower holding up? I love the wood look in the shower but I am afraid to use real wood even Teak in the shower. I also have a well water system.

    Reply
    • Erin @ The Impatient Gardener says: December 8, 2021 at 8:52 pm

      I was just thinking the other day that it has held up incredibly well. We’re 11 years in and it’s still good and we gave up oiling it about eight years ago.

      Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Pen These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Penhill Watermelon (first picture) and Penhill Dark Monarch are the best two HUGE dahlias that I grow. They share slightly twisty petals (Watermelon more so) and, when you look closely, subtle striations that add a beautiful depth of color. Watermelon grows taller than Dark Monarch (7 feet tall or more sometimes) and they both need serious staking, but it’s worth it because they produce a lot of flowers for a large-flowering dahlia. 

I like them both but if I was forced to choose (and who would make me do that?) I’d give the edge to Dark Monarch because it’s a little easier to manage size-wise, produces more flowers and has a bigger variation in flower color so it’s always interesting. 

Which do you like better?
I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But w I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But when there’s only one tool that does that one thing really well, I’m here for it. This pottery/container knife from Sneeboer makes it possible to actually get plants out of pots without breaking or damaging the pot. It’s also really expensive. 😀
A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zi A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zinnias, pycnanthemum muticum and bronze fennel shown here.
My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love tryi My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love trying out new varieties and I feel like they just work so well in my garden from both a design standpoint and a cultural standpoint (they are happy here). Because I grow so many, the ones that self sow can be surprises. 

All of these self-sown Nicotiana are probably at least partly the children of the F1 hybrid Perfume series, which grow to be about 24” tall or so. Last year I grew purple, pink, white and lime versions and these are likely new variations on those. 

Picture 3 is, in my opinion, a good example of how these self sown second-year hybrids can go wrong. I’ll probably rip that one out. 😀

And the last photo is of my favorite colorway, lime, popping up amongst the Zinnias. I find these self-sown Nicotiana popping up all summer, so there’s always a fresh-blooming supply. 

Are you as enamored with Nicotinana as I am?
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