Powder room before and after

What do you do when you have a bathroom with a sponge-painted rust ceiling?

You gut the whole thing and start from scratch.

That’s pretty much what we did with our main-floor bath. It used to be the only bathroom on the main floor, and it looked terrible. Orange ceiling, navy wallpaper border (with some hand-painted orange accents), cheap floor tile, and dingy tub and bath—woof. It was all bad.

I posted about how I planned to make over the space, and here are a few “after” photos. I’m still waiting (ever so patiently) for my husband to help me hang the Roman shade, but besides that little detail, we’re pretty much done here.

Now the details:

The black-and-white hex tile was the first thing I chose for this bathroom. It’s classic and happy and a little different than most hex floors because of the “rosette” spacing.

I knew I wanted a washstand—a small one—for this bath. By choosing a washstand, I eliminated the need for a towel ring because the towel could hang from the stand. I also liked that I could stash a basket underneath for storing toilet paper in clear sight because this is the bath guests will use, and it’s never good to run out of TP when you’re using someone else’s john.

In an effort to keep this house looking like an old house, we chose to hang a vintage-style medicine cabinet with a mirror over the sink. We also splurged on these Rejuvenation Art Deco sconces that are just crazy good.

What we didn’t splurge on was the ceiling light. I bought the schoolhouse shade at a garage sale for 50 cents. When it was time to install it, I found a light on Amazon that would accommodate a shade with a four-inch opening, and it was easy as that. Total cost was around $20.

This room is the only one with gray trim, the same color as our doors (BM Thunder). 

This bathroom used to be a full bath with a tub and shower surround. We moved the tub to the bathroom upstairs, then walled off that portion of the bathroom (in the photo above, the new wall is on the right). You can see the old shower space below:

With the tub gone, this is a true powder room, and the space where the tub used to be became a bedroom closet for my husband.

The bird print has sentimental meaning to my family. Lake Tahoe is a special place to us, and Steller’s jays are plentiful there.

I love this little bath and how scrubbable it is! Come back next week for a few more makeovers. •