Hi there, Kara Paslay readers! I’m Amanda from Out of Square and I’m so excited to be guest posting on Kara’s blog while she tackles the exciting world of set decorating! For those of you that don’t know me (which is probably most of you), allow me to introduce myself. I’m a late twenty-something not-so-new-newlywed with a love for home renovation and anything DIY. I’m a commercial interior designer by weekday and an obsessive compulsive renovator by weekend. With the help of my husband, a professional woodworker, we have been sprucing up our 1950’s bungalow for almost 3 years.
Since I know my favorite posts are always a good before and after, I thought I would share one of my own with you today. Our greatest achievement to date, our bathroom. You may be wondering if this is the master bath or the guest bath. Well to answer that question, it’s both. That’s right we gutted our one and only bathroom in our home. We are either that ambitious or just that crazy. The verdict is still out on that one. With a very tight budget and an even tighter schedule, we turned our basic and blah bathroom into a luxurious and vintage inspired haven. Here is what we started with…
About 2 years after moving in, we finally committed to renovating the bathroom. Being the designer that I am, I started pulling ideas and putting together a concept board. My husband, being the woodworker that he is, started planning the new vanity. After a little bit of brainstorming and a lot of debate, we agreed on this plan.
We settled on a Craftsman inspired look with a few modern touches thrown in. We loved the look of white subway tile for the shower from the start but we wanted a little something extra to set it apart from the norm. So we threw in black grout for a more graphic look. On top of that, we decided on hexagon floor tile but instead of the usual black and white combo, we picked chocolate brown tiles with some black accents. With that as our base, we knew we could tie in the craftsman inspired oil rubbed bronze hardware I had my heart set on and an architectural rendering by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright with no problem. We finally settled after 4 coats of paint on a blue-gray wall color and then accents of blue and green to tie in with the rest of our home.
So with all the design details determined, we began our research. Very extensive research. I am a planner by nature so I wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row before we touched a thing and I would recommend that for anyone about to attempt a project like this. The internet became our best friends. Once I felt confident in our plan of attack, the hubby and I ripped our bathroom to shreds and started fresh.
Yep, we were all a little nervous.
We wanted to handle the entire project in true DIY form. That included tiling the shower & floor, building the custom vanity, reglazing the cast iron tub, and installing all the mouldings. We had our work cut out for us but by doing all the necessary research before hand, we were able to tackle everything without a problem. Well, maybe a few problems, but nothing we weren’t able to figure out with a little more research.
As I mentioned earlier, we were working on bit of a tight timeline since this is our only bathroom. Since we don’t have the luxury of taking a few weeks off of work to handle it all at once, we chose to break everything down into manageable weekend tasks, making sure that we could complete that project before the work week started. Tiling the shower one weekend, then the floor the next. By doing the proper research and taking our time to do it correctly, we ended up with this.
We are so proud of every inch of it. We were able to stay within our budget and tackle EVERY project ourselves with no outside help! If you would like to know more about any of the details pictured above, please stop by Out of Square to read more!
Ok, Ok…now that I’ve rambled on long enough, I would love to hear what projects have tested your skills recently. What have you completed that makes you proud to call yourself a DIY-er?
I can’t link to the Out of Square site. I’m getting a “link is broken” message. Any suggestions?
LOVE this post/makeover! Tried linking to Amanda’s blog for more details on the items used, but the link isn’t working (for me anyways)… 🙁 – Rebecca
LOVE this redo! Where did you get those towels with the trellis design? I have a pillow like that in my living room and am obsessed with the print. Also, where did you get the vanity mirror?
Love this! What a gorgeous bathroom!
Beautiful bathroom makeover! I tried following the link to your blog but I kept getting Page Not Found. Would love to see more of your DIY projects!
Hey Everyone! Amanda sent me her post and I just copy and pasted it without checking the links. So sorry!!! Here is the address to her site!
http://outofsquare.wordpress.com/
http://ablondesdiylife.blogspot.com/
You did such a fantastic job!! I am in love with your bathroom!
Thanks so much for posting my bathroom redo Kara and I’m so glad everyone is liking it as much as we do!
Katy – The hand towels are actually from Bed Bath & Beyond and the mirror is from Lowe’s.