Monday, November 15, 2010

My Beautiful Bathroom

I love our new bathroom. Want to see some before/afters?

Before


We replaced the oddly installed Formica counter top with lovely tile. Framed the mirror, and replaced the light fixture, sink and faucet


Before


Retextured the entire room and painted it a gray/blue. Replaced the window. The floor was Pergo (in a bathroom? really?) so we tiled it.


Before


Replaced the door.


Before


Ripped out the tiny fiberglass tub and shower surround, replaced with an extra deep tub, and tiled the surround. We did a river-rock inset pattern that turned out lovely!


Before


Stripped, sanded stained and varnished the built-in and the vanity. We also put some river rock on the floor and as a baseboard. I love the end result!


<3 AmberLou


Update : I had a few questions about how we did the river rock inset, so just a quick summary... 


I freehanded the shape of the inset, then tiled from the top of the tub to the bottom line of the inset. (A tile saw was very handy for making the odd cuts) 


Then I started the next level of tile above the inset. I drove two nails beneath the new line of tiles to support them, since they were basically hanging in thin air. I let the whole mess set overnight and then finished tiling the top half of the surround. 


The river rock came from Home Depot ($4.99 for 20 lbs, vs. $14+ per square foot for river rock glued to mesh) I sorted out the flat rocks and kept the bigger ones for my garden. I troweled on a thick layer of thin-set, and stuck the rocks in and let them dry, then grouted around them. 


I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures! I started this bathroom before I was blogging, and I didn't think I'd ever want pics! 



this is my entry for 
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beautiful bathrooms contest

sharing at some of these parties

11 comments:

  1. I really like this - so different, but eye-catching. Was it hard to get the insets in like that?

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  2. That's amazing-- can you post more of a tutorial? I am sooo non handy I can't imagine replacing a window! Wow! I am impressed! I love the river rock--was it hard to redo the bathtub?

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  3. So pretty!!!! You want to do my bathroom!! Lol!! J/K!!

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  4. I love the river rock idea! Very original. Your bathroom turned out so much nicer. I am sure that must have been a lot of work to cut those tiles to accomadate the rock. I love it.

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  5. I can only imagine how tough that river rock detail was-but it's beautiful!

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  6. looks so nice! bathroom updates make such a huge difference! you did a great job!

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  7. I love this makeover! It's AMAZING! I missed posting Topsy Turvy Tuesday's this week, but I'll be featuring this next week! It's just gorgeous. Thanks for linking up to Topsy Turvy Tuesday's!

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  8. Really nice! I love the river rock.

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  9. I too used river rock but used a 12 x 12 strip with wavy edges down each end of the shower so looked like a waterfall. The tile setter had to grind the tile to fit up to the scalloped edges of the river rock. Used a 12 x 24 inch tile with wavy color pattern set vertical. Gives a much more updated look.
    A one piece shower/tub was in place before. Now working on the hall bath getting rid of the out dated smooth square tile.

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  10. Aww. I’d love to see the picture of how you did all of these, but, anyway, your new bathroom looks BEAUTIFUL! It looks cleaner and more organized. The river–rock is mesmerizing. All your visitors and readers will remember this amazing pattern. It looks great. How long did it take for you to finish this?

    Herb Koguchi

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