STARTING A HALF BATH RENOVATION

December 15, 2017

Ground has broken on our first floor powder bathroom. It is an entire gut job and it is HAPPENING. This is our first bathroom renovation in this house and so a dainty sized half bath is a great one to cut our teeth on. Plus, it’s first floor so most used and visible! Here is a reminder of the before. Chipping tile, a bad vanity, AND GENERAL MUSTINESS. The door would catch on the uneven tile and I felt shame for every poor guest who had to brave that mountainous terrain to use the bathroom. I have no shame in saying I actually liked the wallpaper, but in the name of having a super clean and fresh foundation, it had to go too.

With ripping out the vanity and putting in a pedestal sink the wallpaper would not cover all of the newly exposed wall. DEMO TIME. I stripped the wallpaper which took me about six sensational hours of using a clothes steamer.

The old sink and toilet, bye. David’s brother ripped up the floor tile for us and of course we discovered a bit of water damage.

POWDER BATHROOM

Water damage is not even a big deal to me now after installing our wood floors. Honestly I operate assuming every bathroom older than fifteen years has water damage. (Maybe ten?) David replaced the subfloors and cut out the part of the wall that was effected, which I then patched with new drywall.

There was a couple simple plumbing fixes and then we added our millwork! This is the same look we did in our living room and I love continuing it in more places.

I wrote a more detailed tutorial of installing the millwork in that living room link, but the overview is that we use this trim and this nail gun to adhere some rectangles to the wall. We do everything about three inches apart (three inches from the ceiling, the baseboard, another box, a corner, etc.) We also added a thick crown molding (the widest I feel I can get away with on eight foot ceilings) and a new chair rail.

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Since that wallpaper was I believe put up when the house was initially constructed, there was bare drywall underneath. Because of that (and the area of new patched drywall where the plumbing damage was) before painting I slapped up some of this primer so that the untreated wall would not just keep soaking up paint. A whole gallon is only $10, so worth not skipping on it.

The tile I am picking is going to use a multi-color hex pattern, so since it’s kind of the star, the walls will stay a neutral white. But this millwork adds the detail and interest I love with white walls.

GLORIOUS PROGRESS.

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I considered removing the soffit, but it would have been extra money to have an electrician re-do the recessed light in it, so I decided to keep that little gem and trim it out with millwork like the rest of the room. I think it actually looks better than if I had torn it out because it adds another layer and structural detail. AND THEN when we were nailing in the trim we learned there actually was a vent inside of the soffit, so that would have been an unfortunate surprise that would have derailed the whole thing which I tried to play off behind my nervous laughter.

We have motion in here! Also the clean, pinewood-y smell. Everything was just old and with the tile and vanity gone, plus all the water damage completely cleared it is totally fresh and solid. NOW WE PUT IT BACK TOGETHER.

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Comments

  • Great post! Starting a half bath renovation can be an exciting and rewarding project. A half bath is a small but important space in your home that guests often use, so renovating it can have a big impact on the overall look and feel of your home. However, it’s important to plan carefully and consider all aspects of the renovation, from budget and timeline to design and materials, to ensure that the end result meets your needs and expectations. With proper planning and execution, a half bath renovation can be a great investment in your home’s value and your own comfort and enjoyment.

  • kim

    beautiful. what do you use for the panel that splits the wall in half to upper and lower millwork?

    • Rachel Schultz

      This was just a standard one at home depot!

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