La Salle De Bain C'est Fini!

The bathroom is finished! Yes it is. The last piece of the puzzle, the door, is in. And I am so excited, I must speak en français! You see, HandyMan and my most favourite city in the world is Paris. We love the Parisian sense of style and we try to imbue a bit of that in our designs. So here is our take on a Parisian bath... touches of marble, mirror, black and white, and vintage signage.



But this door wasn't always so lovely and we had quite a bit of trouble with it. HandyMan doesn't do doors (they are troublesome creatures!), so we waited to get someone to install this one. And when I say waited, I mean we bought the door and had it sitting in our garage for the last six months ;)



Opportunity finally came knocking and we asked the folks who installed our front door (which we love by the way) to install this interior one while they were here. It would have been fine... if it was the skilled young guy who did it and not the old-and-didn't-know-what-he-was-doing, barely-spoke English, never-seen-these-type-of-hinges-or-door-lock guy. So that's how we ended up with a butchered door that didn't close properly, chopped up trim, ugly wood putty patches - and a door installed BACKWARDS with the frosting side out!!!

Argh. Goes to show that not everything runs smoothly in the world of renovations. Being the kind of people that HandyMan and I are, we knew we couldn't live with this pimple, this blight, on our pretty bathroom. Plus, the decal wouldn't stick on the frosting side - and that is one reason why we got a frosted door in the first place, so we could have a pretty decal! So we had to get it fixed. And in our moment of desperation, we told the fix-it guy something you never ever want to say to a contractor -- "I don't care how much it costs. Just make this problem go away." Lucky for us, Mr. Fix-It is a good guy and did a great job at a reasonable price.

And now it is lovely. C'est magnifique!

Swim Model

When we finished the bathroom reno, I was looking for some art to hang on the wall. Some of you mentioned that you had put up pics of your little ones in the bathtub. Well, now that I have my own little one, what better art than photos of my tiny swim model. I thought about making them black and white, but I'm craving a bit more colour in the bathroom so I've done a bit of Seventies styling in photoshop.



And here's a mockup of how it'll look in the bathroom... because this little one does not like to nap so it will be a while before I actually get a chance to buy the frames, print the pics, and get them mounted! :o\

Blinded

Soft and feminine. That’s the pattern of the roman blind we finally installed in the bathroom. We had a bit of a problem deciding what type of pattern to have on the blind. The room has a spa-like palette, all whites, soft greys, and watery blue-greens. We could have gone with a bold or modern pattern to punch things up but in the end chose this floral with a slight oriental feel.


The only question now is whether to keep the vinyl film we had installed temporarily on the window or remove it. What do you think? We have a big maple tree out front which is now full and leafy so we really don’t need the film for privacy.

Bathroom Bliss

Bathroom blight...to bathroom bliss:


There are still some bits and pieces missing, but I thought it was time to reveal the bathroom. HandyMan and I are juggling a lot of balls in the air right now (baby's room, Mama HandyMan's care, demands of our fulltime jobs) so getting those last few bits done may take a while. Or longer :o\ Hope you enjoy what we've done so far.



While we weren't able to expand the size of the room, we've managed to make it look and feel a bit bigger. Its amazing what white tiles and letting the sun shine in can do. Functionally, the room works better too. I can now get in and out of the tub without a stepstool ;) We also have storage in the vanity and have room to add another small storage tower. And the new fixtures are divine...I'm loving the adjustable rainhead/handshower.



Finishing touches are coming soon - the half-frosted door just needs another coat of paint, we have to find some door hardware, and the curtain is being made. I'm just glad we've finally traded the eewy-yucky carpet floor for heated floor tile! Bathroom done :)

Tile Carpet Triumph!

Is it possible to fall in love with an inanimate object? Because I do. I LOVE THIS TILE FLOOR! The hard texture of the stone and the heat from the radiant heating underneath...its enough to make this pregnant woman swoon.

The bathroom is looking all schmancy - even better than we expected.  The vanity is going back in today.  We picked up the door yesterday and just have to prime and paint it, paint the hinges in a nice matte black, and install the door.  And then, then, we can do a proper bathroom reveal.  I know you've all been waiting patiently for that :)

Lessons Learned: The Bathroom

With the bathroom renovation almost done, its time to reflect on some of our Lessons Learned. There’s not much I would have done differently with this project as all in all it went fairly smoothly. But here are some tips which you may find useful in planning your own bathroom renovation:

Space planning is key. The more rooms we renovate, the more important I find this aspect to be. With renovating, its very easy to get caught up in the décor and frills, but really, all the luxe fabrics and stellar finishings in the world can’t cover up a poorly planned space. Focus on function first. Think about traffic flow, sightlines, efficient use of the space. How can you lay out a space to make it feel bigger? How can you make it feel open and airy without resorting to taking out a wall? What do you want to stand out in a space (the awesome view out the window?) and what do you want to hide and minimize (the toilet?)? The answer to these questions can greatly impact the design and layout.

For our bathroom, I wanted it to feel light and open. This meant emphasizing the window; using open-legged furniture; not ‘blocking’ the view from the entry door; and keeping to a simple, clean cohesive palette. We tucked the toilet in the back corner, and put glass above the half-wall so light bounces around the room. We’re also putting in a half frosted door so light spills from the bathroom out into the hallway.

Don’t be afraid to bring in the pros. HandyMan and I are DIYers, always eager to tackle things on our own. But for this job, I’m glad we called in the pros. Yes, we were motivated by a tight timeline, but even we had to admit there were things in the room that even we had no idea how to do. The plumbing was a bit tricky and installation of the new dual-flush toilet was a pain in the butt. We’ve never installed a tub or hooked up a tub drain either. We even had a tile guy do the floor – the room wasn’t square, we were dealing with expensive large marble and basketweave tiles requiring lots of cutting – so yeah, best to get the pro in!

Tile design is harder than the installation. Even though HandyMan has tiled bathrooms, entryways, kitchen floors, and walls before, we approached this tiling job much more differently. Because we were using a very simple white subway tile, the challenge was to keep it interesting. I learned from the pros that mixing sizes, shapes, and a little bit of colour would do the trick. We spent time putting together a mockup board. We figured out the tile carpet design (again, another key feature in the space) and wall tile options. In the end, I think we ended up with something much more thought out, interesting, in keeping with the period look, but still simple.

One other thing to think about before you grab that first piece of tile: determine your starting point. For us, it was the tile that sat right above the tub. We wanted it to be a full piece of tile (we didn’t want any rough cut and possibly uneven edges visible right from the door) so that determined where our rows fell horizontally around the room. To space things vertically, HandyMan took a bit of trial and error to make sure we didn’t ended up with small slivers of tile at the corners. Because this first row of tile determined all the rows around the whole room, it was important to get it right! Funnily enough, we ended up with a problem where the wall tile meets the floor tile – we planned for just one 1/2x6 grey strip atop a 6x8 tile, but that left a whole 1.5” gap to fill. We solved it by adding two additional rows of 1/2x6 white strips… using the white instead of grey kept the bottom from feeling too heavy, and provided a nice change in texture. With tiling, sometimes you have to plan on the fly!

Not everything is a showstopper. This is especially true in a small space. Pick a few highlights and spend money on them! For us, this was the window and the floor. So we tore out the old ledge from the window and replaced the trim. We’re also going to prettify it with a new roman blind. For the floor, we splurged on marble tile and marble basketweave. They’re sure to grab your attention now!

And that’s the bathroom in a nutshell. It’s a small space where so many things can go wrong and small changes can have a big impact so take the time to plan and end up with the bathroom of your dreams :)

Time For A Bath

And so we wait. Progress on the bathroom has stalled. The basketweave tile will take another three weeks to come it (its on the slow boat from Italy!), the glass guys just came in to measure and will be another two weeks to install, the door hasn't arrived yet, and my seamstress is away on vacation so the window curtain will have to wait. But I couldn't wait to use the bathroom so for the meantime, I've put up some film on the window temporarily for a bit of privacy. With the baby belly growing by leaps and bounds these days, I am looking forward to enjoying my first soak in the new tub!

Picture This

With the light at the end of the tunnel now visible, I’ve started to think about the final touches for the bathroom. Like what art to put on the walls. I’ve always loved art in a bathroom. It can bring liveliness and warmth to a sometimes clinical space. Seeing as I love taking photographs but have very few displayed in our house (that’s what happens when most rooms are still in some state of ‘renovation’, lol), I thought I’d put a few in the bathroom. But what mood to convey?

Fresh and colourful?


A far-flung escape?


Architectural and graphic?


Or Textural and Moody?


Which do you like best? What art do you have in your bathrooms?

Sneak Peek

A few pics of progress in the bathroom. We're still waiting on a few pieces - glass for the shower, the basketweave tile, and the frosted door. So this is all you're gonna get until the final reveal - hopefully in about two weeks!

Let The Sun Shine In

Here's where we started:

And here's where we're at:

Grouting and fixtures to follow!