DIY Bathroom Remodel

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Not a lot needs to be said about the before pictures of our guest bathroom. It was pretty obvious that a lot of changes needed to happen. While it has been over three years since we moved in and the project is only just complete, a lot of big cosmetic changes were made early on to make the space a bit more tolerable.

Our first few weeks in the house included a lot of demo projects and painting throughout the house. For this room we chose Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams for the paint color. As far as demo went, the first items removed from this room were the shower door, towel rods, toilet paper holder, trim, the hollow-core door, and the 1990’s Hollywood style lights. Instead of the shower door (something we had never seen before), we installed a curved shower rod with a curtain to give the feeling of more space in the shower. We also installed a new light fixture. The original toilet paper holder was across from the toilet and installed into a hole in the drywall. We removed the holder, patched the drywall, and installed a new toilet paper holder attached to the side of the vanity. As with the rest of the house, the door was replaced with a solid-core Mission style door that we painted Pure White by Sherwin Williams. Our door hardware is a satin-nickel Dynasty lever.

After getting to this point in the bathroom with the tub and vanity top refinished, the cabinetry painted and refaced, and a new door and fixtures, the room got little attention for over two years as we worked on other areas of the house. Not to mention that the next necessary project, removing the old floor tile and installing new tile, loomed ahead of us as a huge and scary endeavor!

Once we finally buckled down and set our minds to finishing this bathroom, I of course had already added another project in my mind. The cabinet above the toilet just had to go. Of course, this required a lot of drywall work to get rid of the paint lines around the outline of the cabinet. Having textured drywall makes any patch work even harder! I love the extra feeling of space in that bathroom now that the cabinet is removed and I’m still deciding whether or not to add floating shelves or to stay more minimalist and keep the wall bare. Now it was on the the tiling project.

What You’ll Need:

• Demo Tools (hammer, sledge hammer, large pry bars)
• New underlayment
• Chalk line and tape measure
• Wet Saw
• Calla Lilly Mosaic Tile
• 1/8″ Tile Spacers
• Polymer Modified Thin-Set in White
• ¼” V-Notch Trowel
• Pre-Mixed Grout
• Grout Float and Sponges
• Grout Sealer

Steps:

1. Shut off water, disconnect plumbing, and remove the vanity and toilet
2. Remove old tiles and underlayment
3. Clean up subfloor by removing previous underlayment nails
4. Move vent hole into room by ~1.5″ to allow change from baseboard model forced air register to a floor register
5. Install new underlayment
6. Dry fit tile and make necessary cuts with wet saw
7. Snap a chalk line the length of room equal to the width of one mosaic sheet
8. Mix a batch of thin-set according to package directions
9. Apply thin-set to underlayment, one mosaic sheet size at a time
10. Carefully line up mosaic sheet with chalk line and insert spacers to align adjacent mosaic sheets – Note: although the mosaic sheets are supposed to be pre-spaced, we often had to use spacers within the sheets to maintain the gaps the best be could
11. Use grout float to firmly adhere sheet into thin-set, keeping adjacent sheets level to each other
12. Once finished, allow thin-set to cure for at least 24 hours
13. Apply pre-mixed grout using a grout float at a 45 degree angle
14. Use a damp sponge to wipe off excess grout
15. Allow grout to cure for at least 24 hours
16. Wipe away any grout residue that remains
17. Spray on grout sealer, let stand for a few minutes, then wipe away excess with a microfiber cloth, repeating until sealer is no longer absorbed

With the new tile installed, we replaced the vanity cabinet, leaving the top off to allow for better access when plumbing. We then installed new brushed-nickel flanges and water shut-off valves under the vanity and behind the toilet. Since we already had to remove the old, refinished vanity top and because our budget allowed, we decided to purchase a new vanity top and side splash. We installed the sink faucet onto the vanity top before it was placed onto the cabinet as this again allowed for better plumbing access. The vanity top was then placed on the cabinet and the final plumbing connections were made. All that was left for the vanity was adhering the vanity top to the cabinet and caulking the seams with white silicone caulk.

For replacing the toilet, we used a “better than wax” toilet seal. We chose this instead of the standard wax seals because it is able to be removed and redone if height adjustments to the closet flange need to be made (we only adjusted about 6 times!).

For our trim throughout the house we used 9/16″ x 3-1/4″ casing on either side of the doors, 1″ x 4″ header above the doors, and 7/16″ x 3-1/4″ base trim along the floors. We installed the casings and headers to leave about a 1/8″ reveal of the door jam. We used 2-1/2″ 16 G straight nails to fasten the trim and 1-1/4″ 18 G brad nails to keep a tight seam between the casing and the door jam. All seams and joints were hidden with white painter’s caulk and all nail holes are filled with white wood filler. After sanding the wood smooth, we then painted another 2 coats on the trim with Pure White by Sherwin Williams. We installed a baseboard door stop on the trim behind the door to prevent damage to the wall from the door.

To add a cleaner look for the mirror, we decided to make a frame around the mirror. We kept the overall dimensions of the frame the same as the bare mirror. This meant that we needed to cut the mirror to a smaller size using a glass cutter for it to fit within the frame. We hung the frame flush to the wall using a low profile French cleat, countersunk into the back of the frame. Future post to come with more details on making a mirror frame.