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the DIY files: installing a floor transition

Monday, May 6th, 2013

So remember when we renovated our bathroom from this…

to this?

Well, I don’t know about you, but usually after big projects there are a few little niggling details to finish up and somehow they just get left on the back burner. Left in the dust for the new, more exciting projects.

What had we left for over a year without finishing? The floor transition between the bathroom and the hallway. Whoopsies. I figured it was high time to get my butt into gear and finish this bad boy off.

I forgot to take a true ‘before’ photo – sorry, bad blogger – but you can imagine that it just went from the tile to the hardwood flooring (which is slightly lower and so there was this weird edgy gap). It didn’t look pretty.

We purchased an oak strip transition from Home Depot (they only cost a few bucks), and hubby installed it. It was one that was specifically designed for transitioning floors that aren’t level. I puttied up the drill holes with some wood filler and let it dry for a few days.

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Oh, and please disregard the lack of sweeping before these photos were taken. Just keepin’ it real with the dust, folks. After giving the whole thing a light sand and then wiping it down with a damp cloth, I taped off the edges with some ScotchBlue edgelock painters tape and pulled out my paint. It’s the same high gloss white trim + door paint that I have used throughout the house. DSC_0285

After two coats and removing the tape, here she was. SO much better. Just gives it that more polished look. Seriously, why did that take us so long?

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Oh, and I wanted to wait a few weeks before posting about this just to make sure the paint stayed up to wear and tear (I was a bit worried about it chipping – I haven’t painted a floor transition before), but I’m happy to report that it still looks good as new.

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So that’s it! Not the most thrilling post, I know, but one of those handy things to know how to do if you ever need to put one in yourself. In the rest of our place we have those old dingy brass ones which would be nice to replace at some point. Just something else to add to the list!

Have you guys ever installed a floor transition? Used a different material that you liked, or didn’t? Also, did you have a great weekend? It was sunny and hot here (we just skipped spring altogether this year – hello, summer!), so we spent the whole time outside. A bit of garage sale-ing, some reading in the backyard, walking around the neighbourhood — it was lovely.

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the bathroom: almost a year later

Friday, February 8th, 2013

Ever since our bathroom reno (which happened almost a year ago now!), I have had some reader questions about how we are liking some of the products we chose.

Here is a reminder of the before + after of this wee little room.

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The tiles. The white subway tiles and aqua glass tiles we chose from Home Depot for the shower and sink areas are still rocking my socks. They are classic and so easy to keep clean. I just wipe them down every now and again with a spray tile cleaner and they look good as new. The white grout we chose also hasn’t discoloured and still looks great.

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The marble tiles on the floor make me weak in the knees. I love those guys. They appear shiny in the photos (more so than they are in real life), and aren’t slippery or cold. We do use a bath mat when we step out of the shower so we don’t get water everywhere, but there hasn’t been any slipping or sliding around. The grout does get dirty and needs to be vacuumed from time to time (the sweep + mop combo that happens on the regular isn’t good enough to get the little bits out of the grout). All in all though, still a lot of love going on here.

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The fixtures. One thing I hadn’t thought too much about when we were buying our fixtures was brushed versus not. We wanted to go chrome, as we liked the look next to the marble and aqua tiles, but I sort of wish we had gone for brushed chrome. The regular chrome is lovely and shiny, but it does get marks on it really easily. Not a big deal to just wipe down, but I’m slightly obsessive about it, and so the brushed might have been better for my streak-free nature. Other than that though, we have loved the fixtures we chose (Moen in the shower, and IKEA for the sink).

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The sink. The sink is a trough sink (the Lillangen from IKEA), and we love it. We had been worried initially about whether it would be deep enough not to splash back, but it is great (no splashing to report!). It also has this handy little ledge along the back of the sink that is perfect for putting our toothbrushes or soap dispenser on. The water doesn’t usually reach out to the sides of the sink unless you are filling it up, so you can get a bit of dirt on either edge. I just wipe it down every few days with a washcloth and it’s no biggie. On the whole, we are still loving it’s sleek and sexy look.

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The vanity. If you remember this reno, you’ll recall that we built the vanity ourselves due to very limited space (needed to fit into our narrow nook, but be floating high enough to not cover the heat vent). The vanity itself has worked out really well. I love the floating aspect – it makes cleaning underneath so easy and gives the room more floorspace to help it seem larger than it is. I also like having the two deep drawers. You can store SO much in there, and it has meant that we were able to move a ton of stuff out of our linen closet and into the bathroom. Yay for storage.

There are so many great options for bathroom vanities out there now, so DIY’ing one definitely isn’t necessary. From antique bath vanities, to ones with a more modern design, there are tons of different options and styles to choose from.

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The tub. We went with a fairly low-end Glacier Bay tub from Home Depot. It has been really comfortable (yay for being able to take baths again!), and I like the simple, sleek look of the tub. The one downside is that we have found that it tends to stain more than other tubs. In the summertime with our dirty feet, it would get dark marks on the bottom of the tub pretty easily. My usual non-toxic bath cleaner isn’t enough to get it out, and cream Vim has been the only thing that works. Ever since then, we have started to buy those plastic bubbly mats that go on the bottom of the tub floor, which has really helped. So not the end of the world, but a little bit frustrating.

All in all, we are happy to report that despite a few small things, we have been really pleased with all of our choices. It definitely has that spa feeling, and is still one of my favourite spaces in the house.

Have you used any of the same products? Got any bathroom renovation tips or things you learned along the way? Planning a bathroom reno yourself? 

*This post was sponsored by Modern Bathroom. All content and opinions are my own (no free product was received by Modern Bathroom). Head on over to their site to check out their huge selection of bathroom goodies! 

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the DIY files: getting frosty

Friday, November 16th, 2012

I am pretty embarrassed to admit that this project has taken us 3 years to do (granted we didn’t live in the house for a year of that, but still!). You know our main floor bathroom that we renovated earlier this year? Well, you might have noticed that there is a window… and that that window has a great view out to our driveway and our neighbours house. Right into their kitchen window. Well, hello there!

As you can imagine, there was a lot of quickly-hopping-into-the-shower-so-that-the-neighbours-don’t-see-me behaviour. Doesn’t really make for a peaceful, relaxing space. Haha.

So out came some of the peel and stick frosting you can get from most hardware stores (ours came from Home Depot). We got the plain stuff – so nothing with any kind of pattern or special texture. It comes in a big roll, so you measure out your window and cut it down to size using an exacto knife. Just make sure to cut on some sort of hard surface underneath (I used that brown board you see in the photo).

Next step is to give the windows a really good cleaning. Luckily my lovely mum had just cleaned our windows for us with vinegar and water (I know, I have the most amazing mama!). Right before applying the frosting, you want to give the windows a good spritz of a water and soap mixture – I used a few drops of dishwashing liquid in my spray bottle.

Then peel the backing off the frosting and stick it on the window. Follow that up with a second, liberal spritz of the water + soap mixture on top. At this point you will see lots of bubbles… don’t panic!

Take a credit card out of your wallet (or air miles card in my case) and smooth out the bubbles. I found it was best to work from the middle out towards the edges. You’ll get quite a bit of water coming out from underneath, so I found it useful to have a small towel nearby to wipe it down as I went.

Once it’s all smooth, give it a last wipe down, and let it all dry. They say it’s good to leave a gap between the edge of the film and the window. Mine is probably slightly bigger than what I needed to leave, but I figured since the screen would be on top, it wouldn’t be too noticeable.

And here it is the next day. Look at all that privacy! I could even start to do some air drying in here… hahaha.

I was a little worried that the frosting would look ultra tacky, but actually it’s pretty inconspicuous and doesn’t really take away from the window or the light streaming through.

Have you guys used this peel ‘n stick frosting stuff before? Have a window directly into your neighbours pad? Feeling a little too ‘out in the open’ like we were?  Have a great weekend!! 

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project bathroom: the reveal

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

So after proclaiming that the time had come to do something about our dated and dull bathroom on March 26th, we have done a complete overhaul of this small-but-important room in our pad. One month, a lot of elbow grease, a few dolla dolla bills, and we can (almost) call this one officially done-zo. The *almost* refers to still having to install the overhead fan and put in the floor transition (both on handy hubby’s to do list!).

In case you’ve missed the progress, here is what we’ve done to the space:

-the “before”
-the demo
-tiling the shower
-grouting
-installing marble floors
-building a floating vanity
-installing the vanity
-patching walls
-adding trim and paint
-caulking
-accessorizing 
-painting the ceiling and installing a pendant light

And before we get to all of those after shots, let’s just take a little stroll down memory lane and remember what this space used to look like, shall we?! Pretty non-descript, totally storage-deprived and a danky old tub.

 

Goodbye boring beige bathroom. Hello classic, bright, and fresh. She’s a whole new woman.

Let’s throw in a little side-by-side comparison for good measure. She’s come a long way, huh? Showering in that new bathtub is like a total dream.

And as always, here is the budget breakdown. You know we’re all about affordable around here. We had originally saved up $5000. We knew we wanted to come in under 5K, but were a bit worried about coming across some really bad plumbing or other major issues that would require us to hire a contractor. Luckily, other than having a bit of help from a plumber-friend, we were able to do everything on our own.

Budget breakdown:

-tile (marble, subway tile, accent glass tile): $601.23 (originally $900, but we returned some unused tile)
-bathtub and fan: $364.45
-accessories (shower rod, towel bar, shower curtain, toilet paper holder, etc): $155.46
-drywall: $115.98
-mirror: $30
-vanity (wood, track system, legs, handles): $176.50
-vanity sink: $100
-paint: $64.85
-supplies (tiling supplies, plumbing, trim, tools, etc): $900.26
-gift card purchased for friend who helped out with plumbing: $100

Grand total: $2608.73

But the best part? We had saved up some Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and IKEA gift cards from our wedding (thank you friends and family!), which totaled $1081.06 on gift cards. So actual moula out of our pockets was only $1527.67. Not bad for a complete bathroom renovation.

So there you have it. A top to bottom rehaul. I think the bathroom may now be my favourite room in the house!

What about you guys? Done any major renovations lately? Or fixed up a bathroom? Even just a coat of paint can do wonders! 

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project bathroom: the last piece of the puzzle

Monday, April 30th, 2012

We’re coming up to the finish line, folks. Painting the ceiling and switching out the light were more or less the last things on our “to do” list for this bathroom renovation. There are still a few small maintenance things – like adding the floor transition, sealing the tile, etc, but those don’t really affect the big “after”.

After painting all of the walls white, I was left wanting a pop of colour somewhere in the room, and you know how I love a painted ceiling, right? (check out this one in my hallway). I didn’t want to introduce a completely new colour into the small space, so I ended up going with the exact same greeny-gray shade as our DIY vanity (called Sterling by Benjamin Moore). You can see that I taped out the wall and painted a few strokes to get an idea of what it would look like.

And here is how she looked after two coats. The colour actually came out looking a bit more dark and moody than it does on the vanity (you’ll notice that the walls look more buttery-cream than white here, which is just thanks to the lack of natural light when I was snapping these pics!).

I’m really happy with it. It seems to bring the eye up and make the room feel taller and more spacious (a major bonus is such a small space!).

In terms of light fixtures, since we don’t have sconces on either side or above the mirror in the bathroom (and didn’t want to bother running new electrical to put them in), we needed to make sure we got a light fixture that would allow a lot of light to beam around the whole room. I fell in love with a few industrial looking fixtures, but they had shades that cast all of the light straight down. Bummer. So when I saw this guy, from the Debbie Travis collection at Canadian Tire for $50, I was sold. It was budget-friendly, a chrome finish (which ties in with the rest of the chrome fixtures), and had a clear glass shade that would cast light all around.

It’s not my favourite light fixture of all time, but it’s pretty and totally works with the space.

I also really like the crackled glass effect, which adds a bit of extra interest.

So that’s it! I’ll be back tomorrow with the whole roundup of after photos and budget breakdown. Hooray!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Get up to anything fun? I spent most of the weekend getting caught up with friends and doing my fair share of thrifting. Found a couple of good finds, which I’ll share later this week. I can’t wait for all of the spring community yard sales to start popping up – I love the treasure hunting! 

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project bathroom: the details, darling

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Okay, so after all that talk about caulking yesterday let’s get to something a little more pretty, shall we? Accessories. Whether they are for your outfits or a room in your home, who doesn’t love accessories? They totally make a room (or outfit) and add that little bit of sparkle and fun.

After doing a long list of labour-intensive projects (like demo, tiling, or laying a floor), adding the accessories felt like such a treat. First up were the bars – towel bar, TP holder, etc. We had a gift card to Bed, Bath & Beyond leftover from our wedding, so we headed there to see what they had. They carry a pretty good range of products in various finishes (brushed nickel, oil-rubbed bronze, etc.), but since we had already chosen our chrome faucet and shower head (purchased at IKEA and Home Depot), we wanted to keep it all consistent. MOEN had a nice line in chrome with simple and clean lines, so we went for them. The series weren’t particularly cheap (all between $15-$50), but they are good quality and a middle of the road price, which we were okay with.

Here was our sad, old towel bar. A plastic white thing that had definitely seen better days. Since our bathroom is so small, the back of the door is the only spot for a towel holder. We contemplated just putting up hooks instead, but tested out hanging our towels on the hooks in our bedroom and found that they never quite dried properly. So, bar it was.

The BB&B bars came with these handy-dandy paper instructions that show exactly where to drill in. We marked the spots with the screws themselves, and then just drilled ‘er in.

Muuuch better.

And the toilet paper holder? Not much rhyme or reason in picking the perfect spot for this bad boy, we just put it on where it would be comfortable to grab… don’t need to get all descriptive here. You know what I’m talking about.

And voila.

Now for the mirror. I had two main criteria for this decision: 1) it needed to be high to fill the space as much as possible to make the room feel bigger, and 2) I wanted it to be wooden to bring some warmth and texture into the room. I went to my favourite mirror source (HomeSense) and came home with two possibilities. For those of you Canadians out there, HomeSense is really fabulous for mirrors – there is usually tons of selection and they are super reasonably priced.

Anyway, I came home with two different options. The first was this rustic and industrial beauty. I thought it might add a nice juxtoposition to the slick textures in the bathrooms (marble, subway tile, etc). Although I liked it, its chunkiness just felt a bit too heavy in the space. (*Note: you’ll notice that this decision making happened a while ago, before the backsplash tile had even gone up).

The second choice was this more sleek ebony wooden frame. It’s definitely the more slick version of the two and it’s slim, tall lines seemed to fit in the space better. Winna winna, chicken dinna.

And here she is installed and looking all pretty. I like having the pop of wood as a bit of contrast in the room. It looks more like shiny black in these photos, but up close you can see the wood grain and the deep chocolate colour.

Oh, and did you notice that pop of pattern and colour reflecting in the mirror? Yep, that’s the new shower curtain! This paisley beauty popped out at me on our BB&B shopping trip and I couldn’t help but pick it up (it was $50 – but I still had that gift card). It’s called the Sardinia. At first I thought it might be too much in the small space, so I carefully took it out of the packaging and draped it over the shower curtain rod.

But after a few hours of peeking my head in every so often and slowly walking by the room, I was smitten. It pulls a lot of the colours from around our little house (aqua, lime green, light gray), and the paisley is such a fun pattern. If I ever want the room to feel more “calm”, I can always get a white or gray waffle shower curtain (what I was originally going to buy) and just switch them out based on my mood.

But for now, I can’t get enough of these fun colours.

So that wraps up the accessories fun. The last few things on the to-do list are to paint the ceiling and install the new light, install the vent, seal the tile, and put in a floor transition. The final reveal will be next week. Stay tuned!

Happy weekend, everyone. Got any fun plans? Any travelling, spring cleaning, or DIY’ing? Whatever it is, I hope it’s fabulous!

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project bathroom: caulking

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Before I get into telling you about caulking our bathroom, let me just say that I have been giggling for more than a few minutes about all of the not-very-appropriate titles I could have named this post. Apparently I’m still in junior high?

Back to the adult stuff… last we left off in the bathroom reno saga, we had just put up the trim and done a fresh coat of white paint on the walls. Next up was to get all of the caulking done. Not a very exciting project, but it’s definitely one of those things that adds that finishing touch. Even if you’re not renovating, it’s good to re-caulk your showers/tubs every so often. You just need to cut away all the old stuff and start with a blank slate.

Here’s how things were looking pre-caulking. See that gap between the back of the sink and the wall?

And this big gap between the tile and the tub? This particular gap is pretty high in some spots as our wall wasn’t level and we laid the tile so that the tile would be level all the way up (we didn’t want to get to that border of aqua glass and have it look crooked).

With pretty big gaps, they recommend that you use this backer rod before you put the caulk in. It’s basically just a long tube of gray foam.

You cut a piece to size and then squeeze it into the gap. It provides some insulation and also acts as a baking for the bead of caulk you’re about to put on.

Once I got the backer rod in, I prepped the caulking gun with a tube of white 100% silicone caulk. This stuff isn’t paintable, so it’s really meant for bathrooms and spots that will get wet (as opposed to around trim).

I couldn’t get a lot of action photos as I was doing this project solo, but here is a shot of the caulk once I had applied it. I stuck the tip of the caulking gun right into the crack and then dragged it all the way along. After this step, I would put the caulking gun down and use my index finger or thumb to smooth out the bead. You need to have some paper towel on hand, as you’re constantly needing to wipe off your fingers. Oh, and make sure you don’t wait long between applying and smoothing – the caulk dries really quickly and get tacky.

And here is the after! Much better, right? Clean and crisp.

I even put some caulk down at the bottom of the tub – there was some grout there but it hadn’t filled in everywhere, so this finished it off.

Caulking is one of those things you get better at with practice, so I think it’s good to start with a more inconspicuous spot and then work up to the really noticeable areas. Caulking around fixtures, like a shower head or faucet for example, can be a bit tricky. I waited until I got the hang of it before I tackled these area in our bathroom.

So that’s it! A really easy peasy DIY project. Now that we have that checked off the list, next up to finish ‘er off is to paint the ceiling and then add in the accessories (the best part!).

Any of you done any caulking recently? And really…did anybody else giggle just a little bit when they read caulk and caulking about twenty five times in that post? Please say I’m not the only one… 

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project bathroom: trim and a little paint

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

So, I bet you thought it wouldn’t get any more exciting than patching walls on Monday’s post? Well, get ready, we’re going to talk about trim. Yep, this is a week of thrilling blog posts here on the sweetest digs.

Anyway, just bear with me. Adding trim actually made a huge difference to our in-progress bathroom reno. Here is how this half of the room was looking pre-trim. The doorway was pretty rough and there was the lack of transition between the wall and subway tile behind the sink (I forgot to take a photo of that area post-wall patching, so that big gaping hole did get fixed before the trim went up).

I had a bit of help with the regular trim around the doorway (thanks Dad!), but I handled some of these tricky bits solo. There were two spots in the bathroom that wouldn’t be able to have nailed-on trim, since they were partially going to be on tile. I consulted with some of my local hardware store buddies about what I might use, and they suggested this ultra-strong “PL Premium” glue. Apparently it bonds almost anything and is crazy durable. It’s also a-okay in rooms that may have some moisture (like a bathroom).

I cut the piece of trim to size using a regular old hand saw and then applied the glue pretty liberally to the back side. It’s kind of smelly stuff so I had the windows open for tons of ventilation and wore gloves too.

Then it was just a matter of placing it in the right spot and holding it on for a few minutes. You want to leave it un-touched for a good 24 hours while it cures. Looks so much more finished, right?

Oh and just so this post isn’t completely devoid of any pretty pictures, here is an updated peak of the DIY vanity with it’s drawers on.

The other piece was for where the shower tile butts up against the window trim. We needed a piece of trim that would wrap around the corner. Luckily, we found the perfect piece in the trim department and just cut it to size.

Again, I just applied the glue and stuck it down.

And here’s how that side of the bathroom was looking post-trim. All capped off and so much more finished. I was a happy gal, for sure.

You may have also noticed that the room was looking a little bit crisper and whiter. Well, that’s because I slapped up two coats of paint – ‘Simply White’ by Benjamin Moore in their Aura Bath series. I was a little bit worried about the matte finish, but it went on really nicely and seems pretty durable and washable.

That isn’t the end of my painting though. Since it’s all feeling pretty light and bright, I have plans to paint the ceiling in something other than white.

Here’s the up to date “to do” list to be able to check this room off:

  • caulking
  • paint ceiling
  • install accessories (towel bar, shower curtain, toilet paper holder, new mirror, unit above toilet)
  • de-haze and seal the tiles
  • install new light fixture
  • install vent
  • frost window

I think that’s it, anyway. There might be a few more niggly little things that pop up. I can see the finish line on this one, though.. which feels great!

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project bathroom: fixer uppers

Monday, April 16th, 2012

Doing corners and filling holes. Not one of the more exciting steps in the reno process, but I’m just keepin’ it real folks. This step always seems like it’s going to take all of 20 minutes and somehow becomes a multi-day project. We had a variety of patching to do in our wee little bathroom – fixing existing walls, working on the new areas of drywall, and filling some big gaping holes.

Let’s take a look at what we were working with.

One of the first things I tackled was the old walls. They had this weird subway tile pattern on the bottom half which at first glance looked like the real thing, but once you zoomed in you could tell it was just a painted vinyl. Not charming.

Since we didn’t want to rip down the walls and start over with new drywall, I figured I would try and patch them. I grabbed some handy dandy Polyfilla (the “prep” stuff is for smaller holes, and the “big” stuff is for the bigger holes.. duh!).

Basically you want to slap the stuff on and scrape it into the gaps, then go over it again to wipe away the excess. It’s kind of tricky to write into words, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly. Here is how the wall was looking post-pollyfilla.

Then you want to sand it down before doing any painting. I tend to use the block sanders since they are easier to grab than loose sanding sheets.

So that was one fix taken care of.

Next up were the corners. We had thrown up some new drywall all around our shower surround (see that here), so had to do something about the seams where the new met the old.

We grabbed some of this sheetrock flex metal tape from our hardware store…

… and a tub of drywall compound (or “mud” as it’s known in the drywall world).

Basically the flexible metal tape folds in half and fits into corners. We cut the pieces to size first, then put some drywall compound onto the wall, stuck the piece of tape on, and then layered more compound on top. You want to scrape it down and try to feather it out as much as you can. The aim is to get it to blend in with the wall.

Here’s how it was looking while it was still wet.

Once dry, you sand it down for a smooth finish (again, this is easiest when using the block sanders).

Last up was this big hole above the sink. We’re planning on putting a piece of trim where the tile meets the wall in order to make it look seamless, but knew that the trim wouldn’t quite cover that gaping hole.

Plain old polyfilla wasn’t going to be enough since there wasn’t anything for it to hold on to, so we used some of this wall repair fiberglass tape that we had on hand.

We cut it to size and basically just stuck in on top of the hole.

Then we put the drywall compound right on top of it. It was little messy and we couldn’t scrape it for a totally smooth finish (it wasn’t strong enough for that), but we just wanted to get that hole covered.

Once it was dry, we were able to sand it down and get it relatively smooth. All set for that piece of trim.

Remember those sanding blocks I mentioned? Well, there was a lot of sanding. Five blocks worth and a whole whack of dust.

So there you have it. Tales of patching holes and making corners. Thrilling stuff, huh?

Next up – trim, caulking, and then some paint. All of this prep work is going to make slapping that paint on feel oh so good.

So what about you guys? Do anything fun this weekend? Any super exciting wall-patching? ;)

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project bathroom: vanity take two

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

After we built our custom vanity (which you can read about here), it was time to install that sucker. Goodbye, teeny-tiny wall mounted sink with no storage!

Remember how the Lillangen sink was practically bang on for measurements in our little nook? Well, once we held it in place with the vanity it just felt too close to comfort for us (like the door was *almost* scratching it as it opened/closed). So, we decided to knock out the drywall and bump it in a little bit for some wiggle room. We had a medicine cabinet in this wall already, so we knew there was some room behind the wall.

Just more dusty drywall. A typical day in the life of a reno. We put a piece of carpet down to protect our beloved new marble floors.

Then DIY Dan grabbed some sheets of drywall leftover from doing around the tub and cut them to size. Thank goodness for that handy hubby of mine. I feel like I can take on quite a few handy things around the house, but installing drywall just ain’t one of them. We tend to have “Dan jobs” and “Gemma jobs” (some of mine are things like wall patching, painting, caulking and tiling). Not surprisingly, he’s better at the rough stuff and I’m better at the precision stuff.

Then it was time to bring in the vanity and sink. We got a little nervous about the heavy sink sitting on a completely floating vanity, so ended up running out to IKEA and grabbing these stainless steel legs (used for the Godmorgon vanity.

Once again, DIY Dan did his magic and got it all drilled in and installed.

The modern, square-lined sink instantly made the room feel so much bigger. Such a long, lean beauty. Kind of like our own beautiful runway model (I think I might be falling slightly too in love?!).

We wanted to keep it simple and budget-friendly for the faucet. After checking out a few options at different stores (and being slightly shocked at how crazy expensive faucets can be.. !!), we ended up going with an IKEA faucet. Not only was it friendly on the purse strings ($49.99), but we knew the Rorskar faucet would be a perfect fit with our IKEA sink.

Oh, and we also quickly tiled the backsplash using all the same tile and process as our recent shower surround tiling. Three lines of subway tile with a pop of our glass aqua tile (we did a row of two instead of three this time since that’s what we had leftover).

Some basic plumbing later, and she was all ready to go.

So this was as far as we got. A functional sink, but still missing the drawer fronts and lots of patch work left to do. Since we pushed the vanity/sink back into the wall a bit, the tile comes up exactly flush with the old wall. We’re going to patch what we can of the cracked wall above and then probably just add a piece of trim to clean it all up.

I can happily report that we can now shower, brush our teeth, and use our toilet again without disruption. Just in case you wanted to know.

Things are humming along in our casa, so I’ll keep you posted on our progress!

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