Half-Bath Makeover

When I first thought about giving the half bath a makeover, it seemed like it would be a pretty straight forward process. We had no plans to change out the gray paint color, the tiled floor, the artwork, the mirror or even the sink. The idea for the makeover was as simple as.…we have leftover paint, boards and battens in the garage…our garage is overflowing…let’s give this half bath a free mini makeover and clear out some clutter in the process.

This half bath is about 25 square feet. I mean, it’s tiny. I seriously thought it was going to be finished in two days because the only thing we really wanted to do was to put up board and batten which we’ve done a step-by-step guide in the office and in the master bedroom now too. I’m not saying we’re pros or anything at this point but it’s not our first rodeo either, you know what I mean? It just didn’t seem like this makeover was going to be that involved.

Several weeks ago, I painted the bottom portion of the bathroom walls in Valspar’s Ultra White. It’s one of our favorite colors and it’s a true white. We’ve used it all over the house.

And this is where the half bath makeover stalled for a bit because my DIY sidekick, bestie and tech extraordinaire S worked an unbelievable amount of consecutive days.

Finally, after a break in the schedule and a trip to Lowe’s to buy one piece of plywood (turns out we were short a few boards in the “free” pile) it was almost midnight when we finished putting up the board and battens but it felt exciting to be making progress.

We spent the next day filling in nail holes and seams with wood putty.

And after the putty had dried, it all had to be sanded smooth.

You may notice we had to add a different trim to the top of the boards than the ledge trims we’ve used previously in the office and the master bedroom. That’s because the mirror would not fit with the ledge trim so we had to use this one we also picked up at Lowes.

The next day, I painted all the trims, boards and battens in Ultra White. In addition, all of those seams had to be caulked too (yep, every.single.seam.) (FYI: This is where I started using my photography light kit instead of the bathroom vanity light which is why there is a big color difference in the pictures).

At this point, we were WEEKS behind schedule on a 25-square foot non-makeover makeover and I started to panic it was all going to be too white. I mean, the commode was white, the pedestal sink was white, the board and batten was white…I know…like didn’t I just go through this in the kitchen ha ha?

Thankfully the mirror and the towel holder were black so if nothing else the bathroom had some contrast.

Those moments of panic led me to start researching new vanity lights and sink hardware. I found a rug with more color and bought wood and wicker accessories to help warm the space up.

I also added a few bits of vintage (full disclosure I’ll probably keep the charcoal gray towel out more than this one since it belonged to my Granny, it’s nice to have options though.)

After a few days, I walked away from the whole thing. I don’t know why but I started feeling rushed to make a decision about the vanity light and hardware all because I wanted to check this room off my to do list. Obviously, that is NOT the time to be making decisions like this, you know what I mean? Here’s the thing…every single vanity light and sink/tub hardware throughout the entire house is the same so changing it in the half bathroom will ultimately lead us to have to change it in all the other rooms too.

Finally, I decided to decorate with the pieces I had already collected and if the sink hardware and vanity light still bothered me, I would change it all. And you know what? I’m still on the fence.

We also added crown molding and it helped to give everything a more finished look as well.

I tried to use the same gallery wall of goat photographs we had previously used in the half bathroom but with all the board and batten, it looked really busy. The horse sign was a good second option though and I was excited to be able to use something we already had on hand.

The tobacco stick frame helped to unify the rest of the wood elements in the room too.

I can hardly believe it’s been about 10 weeks since we’ve done any room makeovers around here but I’m really glad this one is finished.

The half bathroom is the one people coming over for dinner or just dropping by use the most and it finally feels like the space is consistent with the rest of the house.

Pin these Half Bathroom Makeover Ideas for Later…

Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

 

Many blessings,

CoCo