When we first moved in our new home, the main bathroom was in need of a little facelift. Today we partnered with one of my very favorite home furnishings + fixtures companies, Schoolhouse Electric, to make it happen on a small budget…
Here’s a before picture of the bathroom. As you can see, it was quite outdated when we moved in. You can’t see the cabinets, but they were a medium brown wood as well. We knew we wanted to update a lot in here, but didn’t have the budget to give it a complete renovation.
This bathroom is the main one on the first floor we share with the kids. Although, since we renovated the guest bathroom we’ve been mostly showering in there- it feels so luxurious!
For this main bathroom, the first thing we did when we moved in as renters 2 years ago was remove the wallpaper and paint it white. Everything is better white- a nice clean slate. Then, a year later when we bought the home we had the cabinets painted in the bathroom at the same time we painted the kitchen cabinets and floors. Adding all the white helped a lot and we kept things this way for about a year.
Replacing the vanity lighting was relatively straightforward, although might be difficult for someone who maybe hasn’t done electrical work before. I picked out two u/2 scones from Schoolhouse Electric to replace the vanity lights. I knew we needed at least 3 or 4 bulbs for the double sink, and I loved the minimalist design of these. Also, they’re only $69, so great for a small budget. Jared had done some electric work before so he was comfortable replacing them. It was pretty involved and did require a lot of patching and rewiring.
For the towel rack we went with the Maxwell Towel bar in Satin Brass. It’s a really beautiful fixture. I love the modern feel to it. The hand towel is their Vintage Check. It’s such a classic pattern.
It was trickier to do than we planned, especially because the new mirrors were larger and would prevent the cabinet from opening all the way, but I’m still glad we went this route. We ended up using a very strong construction adhesive to hold the new mirror on. We still have storage, we didn’t have to buy a new cabinet or patch up a huge wall, and the mirrors are such beautiful pieces. Hooray!
I’m also happy about keeping the gold faucets, for now. Adding some old with the new feels right in this space.
Good job Jared!! Love what you kept and what you updated!
I think some of my favorite Reno’s are when there’s a real budget and real people making things work! This bathroom looks great, good job! Thanks for sharing about the sconce. I have a bathroom that I would like to put an updated sconce in and I think this would be perfect. The price is especially convincing.
Thanks Katie! I think you’re right- it’s unrealistic often to redo an entire bathroom from scratch!
What a big difference the renovation made! The new bathroom is so beautiful, so elegant. I love the gold accents! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com