Master Bath Mood Board

I've been playing around with the mood board concept for decisions on our master bath. Now that the shower is done we are trying to decide on how we want to finish the rest of the space so we can determine the costs and save up for what we really want. Of course what we really want is pricey so we are trying to balance quality finishes and be as cost effective as possible.

Our master bath is essentially a long hallway, the bath part is fairly small though we have opened it up as much as possible. The closet area is all part of the bathroom though we could have closed it off we decided it would make both spaces feel too small and want to keep it as open as we can. I am going for a mix of modern and traditional.

What do you think, I'd appreciate any suggestions!

From Master Bath Remodel

Except for the shower picture all of these come from websites where I sought inspiration. I think the more modern vanity is my favorite though it has less storage, I'm a bit on the fence about that. The closets are another area we are hotly debating. We want to tear them all out and use ikea pax similar to what you see above only with an opaque glass door. I love their floor to ceiling closets but between the cost and work of a tear-out and then the cost of the closets it is a lot. Our other option is to leave them as is (3 separate closets with traditional sliding doors) and just get new inserts. It would cost us a lot less but I don't think we'd be nearly as happy.

Quick Bathroom Cabinet Remodel

Before I attempted my kitchen cabinets using Caromal Colours paint I had done a test run on the vanity in my half bath. It was a pretty standard builder grade oak cabinet from the 80's, just like my kitchen. You can read here about how I discovered and became intrigued by Caromal Colours paint last year when shopping in Occoquan, VA. I picked up a jar of Peppercorn textured basecoat paint which is an almost black color.

Just like with my kitchen cabinets, I only washed the cabinet, I did not remove the door or hinges. I did tape off the inside so it would have a nice clean edge when opening the cabinet. I did this in one evening while watching TV in between the 2 coats I applied (this used roughly 1/3 jar paint). It was a super quick and easy renovation and I think it really transformed the cabinet.

The mirror above the cabinet was a bright gold color left by the prior owners. I hand painted this with a combination of pewter and black paint from Michael's to give it more of an antique look and to coordinate better with the cabinet. I then replaced the old brass cabinet handles with a chunky modern iron handle.

All in all a quick remodel for $35 in paint (well less really because I did not use the whole jar) and $20 for new hardware.

Here is the before (sorry for the bad shot, taken before we bought our house):

From Chancellor Old Photos

Here is the after:

From A Virginia Home Post

From Chancellor Dr

Shower Remodel Complete!

I've mentioned a few times the shower remodel we undertook 6 months ago. Yes 6 months is a long time, too long. If we were solely focused on the shower it would have been done much sooner, but work, kids, summer vacations and starting school in the fall all created a much slower pace than we would have wished for. All that said, it turned out just beautifully and my Tile Master (yup, I promoted him from just the The Tile Guy) should seriously take this up as a second job.

So here is what we started with when we bought our house a little over a year ago. Sorry they aren't better photos, but you get the picture. It wasn't a terrible shower, but not great either. It was 3/4 high cream ceramic tile with a molded plastic base. Our shower is a double, basically the size of a tub but without the tub. We debated quite a bit adding the tub but neither of us are big bathers and we enjoyed the large double shower more. The real issue was it was poorly constructed over regular sheetrock and when we bought the house we did not know of all the water damage behind the tiles.

From Chancellor Old Photos

From Chancellor Old Photos

And here is the new shower! It is all travertine marble with bronze hardware, the tiling goes up to the ceiling now and is laid in a subway tile fashion with the mosaic insert about 3/4 high on the wall. There is a small bench for sitting and 4 shelves for shampoos, etc. We decided to reuse the existing shower doors and spray painted them bronze, we were pretty psyched to see how well the final paint job matched. If you look closely you can see the recently promoted Tile Master showing off his handywork. Yes, that is the look of sheer relief on his face.

From Master Bath Remodel

From Master Bath Remodel

From Master Bath Remodel

So, did you notice all that happiness on the tile master's face? That picture was taken last night. I did not take a picture of his face when this happened this morning in the hallway shower we've all been using during the remodel...but I think you can imagine it...

From Chancellor Dr

From New Hampshire to Virginia

Well it is the inaugural post for this blog. I must confess I love reading blogs and always want to have my own but have had lots of starts and stops along the way. My biggest barrier is remembering to take pictures when I should. Perhaps this will force me to be better.

We moved into our Virginia Home in June of 2008 after a whirlwind house shopping expedition. My husband Steve bore the brunt of the house shopping while he was down here starting his new job near DC. I bore the less fun brunt of packing and selling our home in New Hampshire. It was a close call buying our Virginia home because we loved the exterior but were not fond of the interior - at all. Well, as I said when we bought our last 5 houses, I can fix that! So, come along for the adventure in home remodeling on a budget, with a husband, two kids, an elderly dog, a cat, a kitten and two gerbils. Some are more helpful than others, the kitten is the least helpful of all.