Emma’s Primary Bathroom Renovation

If you follow us on Instagram then you have probably been seeing little peeks into what I am considering my biggest project of 2017–our master bathroom renovation. And I have some very exciting news: It’s finally complete and I’m ready to give you all a little tour!!!!

I was super excited to work with Delta Faucet and The Home Depot on this room renovation. Elsie and I both love Delta Faucet and you may remember the pretty black faucets Elsie used in her Airbnb bathroom, and if not then check it out here. My goal was make our master bathroom feel more like us and also give it a little bit of a spa vibe. I was excited to use the Everly faucets and the two HydroRain 2-in-1 Shower Heads, they were perfect for our space! I was wanting something in the silver/chrome family as well as a design that felt sleek and modern (and a little bit like, well, a spa) and this totally fit the bill. The Everly faucets also resist water spots and fingerprints, which is definitely a bonus when it comes time to clean because they stay cleaner longer! I’ll share where everything in the room is from, but first here’s a few more looks inside the finished bathroom.

I’ve never shared a ton of photos of what our master bathroom looked like before we renovated, so here’s a little before and after for you. (You can see a few more peeks in my empty house video tour, around minute 6:30.)

The space is like a long rectangle with a double shower on one end and water closet (with toilet) on the other, plus a vanity space in the center. Compared to our last home, this bathroom is HUGE and the first two years we lived here we didn’t change anything about the space. We just enjoyed all the room and I plotted to change things out to be more our style later.

Here’s a few more pictures of the the bathroom before. It’s a bit tricky to photograph, so I’m trying to show you as many angles and details as I can throughout this post. Please forgive any weird/mixed lighting. 🙂

So as I said, we love how much space this bathroom has. It’s totally amazing to have two sinks and two showers and it makes getting ready in the morning with your spouse too easy. So, loved the space. But what we didn’t really love was how dark the room felt, and very, very beige. We also didn’t love the oversized vanity that was not our style and was so big it was easy to clutter up the cabinets and lose track of things. For how big the room is it felt like we weren’t really utilizing large portions of it, as we never figured out what to do with the space between the vanity and shower. And I never really loved the little half wall that separated the shower from the rest of the room. It just didn’t feel very intentional to me.

We plotted and planned and landed on lots of white, silver/chrome, modern features, and pretty details–plus we aimed to create our own little at-home spa oasis. (How many times will I say “spa” in this post … sorry, just trying to communicate what was in my head for this room. Ha!) And once the plans were in place, I hired my friend Ethan to help me and we dove right into this project.

Here’s a look at the room as we were in the middle of demo. What was going on in my head at this point? I was feeling very sore in places I didn’t even know I had muscles in, and kind of wondering if I’d made a big mistake and bitten off a little more than I could chew. But hey, it’s gotta get worse before it gets better, right?

Also, as a quick side note, remember that large vanity that was not our style? Even though we didn’t love it, it was in great shape and we knew that someone else would. So we donated it to our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity (for the ReStore). I mention that only to say if you’re planning a project like this in your future, remember to donate items when you can to places like HFH or other charitable organizations in your area.

I think we tiled for about a week straight. There’s a LOT of tile in this room. The marble-looking porcelain tile I used is from Home Depot and I really liked working with it. If you remember when we tiled our kitchen backsplash, we used a real marble tile there and I thought porcelain was much easier to work with. Of course, it depends on the look you want, your budget, and what the space will be used for, etc. But if you’re new to tiling I do think porcelain is awesome to work with and a little easier than stone.

We also used a manual tile cutter instead of a tile saw, like we did in our kitchen backsplash. We tried that out because I don’t own a tile saw and renting one for the amount of time we’d need to seemed intimidating. My thoughts? It’s pretty amazing how well it works on porcelain tile, and it’s super safe and not at all intimidating to use. But, I think you can be more precise with a tile saw for a large project like this, so ultimately that is what I would recommend. Now if only I had a time machine. 🙂

Meanwhile, we had a few items in the room that were not a DIY and we got those ordered and going before we started in on all that demo and tiling. First, I knew I wanted a marble looking countertop for the new vanity. But I decided to get a marble-looking quartz over real marble, as I wanted something super durable and that would hold up really, really well against any kind of stain, including water stains. And although our vanity is a great size with two sinks, it’s not a whole kitchen counter situation. So we were able to choose a remnant piece (left over stock from another job) that we had to cut to fit our vanity and sinks. I highly recommend this if the option is available to you.

Second, we decided to pull the trigger and remove the half wall that separated the shower from the rest of the room and replace it with one large pane of glass. I used a local glass company in Springfield, MO where I live and I love how it turned out. If you’re local and need a glass guy, email me because I would totally recommend the company I used. They were great!

I guess I won’t give you a total play by play but here is short list of everything we changed in our master bathroom renovation:

-New tile EVERYWHERE and learned that none of the floors or walls in our (1960s built) home are straight
-Moved the vanity lights to fit the new vanity and added new lights
-Painted the walls (color: Behr, Ultra Pure White)
-Painted the trim and washed closet door (color: Behr, Sparrow)
-Got a new vanity, (we used the 60-inch but this is the style) with new sinks and countertop
-Replaced old shower half wall with a large pane of glass
-Added new faucets, shower heads, matching towel racks, hooks, and hand towel rings
-Added small shelf units, artwork, and a plant to make the space feel like home
-Added about 100 baskets for storage; just kidding, it’s only 9 baskets total.

Only freaked out and felt overwhelmed about 3 times throughout … so pretty good. 🙂

Sources: Faucets/Home Depot, shower heads/Home Depot, tile/Home Depot, vanity/Home Depot, mirrors, and sconces/Home Depot, shelf units/Home Depot, baskets/World Market, Target, and TJ Maxx. Bath mat and towels/World Market. Black and white print/Randal Ford. Purple kilim rug/Ebay. Bathrobe/IKEA.The blue Lagoon picture taken by me on vacation two years ago. Let me know if I missed anything you want to know about!

Well, we’re at the end of this bathroom reno saga and I must say, I am so so happy with the overall vibe of our master bathroom now. It feels so fresh and modern, and just like a SPA. Ha, I had to get another one in there, friends! Thank you for letting me share. And do you all want me to give a tour of the space on Instagram stories later? Let me know, I’ll even show you the toilet if you really, really need that in your life. 🙂 xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Project Assistant: Ethan Randolph. Photography: Janae Hardy and Emma Chapman.