Coastal Powder Bathroom Reveal

I spent a couple weeks in California in September to visit my family and meet my new niece (my first on my side of the family!) If you remember, my parent's just recently moved so I've been helping them design their new home. One of the most fun projects we've been working on is their powder room. I shared the design plan with you here and since then, it's been completed! 
Here's where we started! This is how it looked when they bought the house:

This was the design plan:

And this is how she turned out!

vanity / mirror / faucet / light fixture 

We are all SO happy with how this room turned out. The style we're going for throughout the home is a coastal-farmhouse look, so we wanted to carry that into the bathroom as well. We started by removing the old vanity and sink (I've never loved above-counter sinks), removing the light fixture and putting up the most beautiful wallpaper. We went with gold accents in the lighting and faucet and one additional element that wasn't in place in these photos. We found these mother of pearl/brass knobs for the vanity and they truly tie everything together!!
My parent's had this gorgeous piece of art from their old house, so we hung it in here and it just completes the coastal look perfectly.
What do you think?! Hope you have a great week,xoxo



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Our New Bathroom Rug & Hardware

Hello friends! I hope you had a nice weekend. We finally had a really warm, sunny weekend which meant we got lots done outside! We are building our deck this next weekend (and by "we" I mean McCann ;)) and so my husband prepped the area by doing the footings for the structure. I also built a little flower bed on one part of the lawn and we power-washed our front porch step and path, garage and shed. Sooo satisfying!! 
Today I'm super excited to show you an update we recently made to our bathroom. If you remember, we have a powder room as well, but this is the main bathroom for all the bedrooms. We don't have a master bathroom, so this is it for us! You can take a look at where we started here. From taking out a bulkhead over the sink to putting into two sinks, changing the vanity and countertop, getting a new mirror and lighting, we've come a long way! (PSSST! All sources are at the end of the post!)
Today's update is the new rug we just got. I have been looking for a Persian style rug for in here for months, but the size had to be pretty specific. It's a really narrow area, so it had to be under 2'6" wide. The vanity is 60" wide, so that's what I wanted the length to be. I couldn't believe I found this rug sized at 5'x2' AND it had the colors I wanted to pull in-- navy to tie in with the striped shower curtain. I also loved the warm colors in the rug to bring in some of the warmer golds and basket tones. 

One thing we'd still like to change in the future about the bathroom is the ugly floor. Ha! I can't stand it, but it is low on the priority list right now. I'm hoping to do a marble or white hexagon tile someday.

Another thing I'm hoping to update soon is getting some fun art to go above the toilet instead of this little shelf.

 Rug / Hardware: knobs (1-1/4"), pulls  / Mirror frame / Shower Curtain / sconces / faucets / hand towel bar / towel bar / hook / toilet paper holder Thanks for peeking around! Hope you like the new update. 
xoxo
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Our Bathroom: How to Frame Your Large Mirror

As you might remember, we had been renovating our bathroom in our new house for the last couple months. Check out my inspiration for the room here. I love making an inspiration board for the rooms I design so we have a bit of a design direction, but I also give myself some creative freedom to stray a bit from the original design.

 For example, I originally thought I'd do two mirrors to replace the one tall skinny (floor!) mirror the previous owner used as the bathroom mirror, but when it came down to it, it was more cost effective and would open up the room more if we did one sheet mirror, then figured out a frame for it. I would have just bought a mirror with a frame, but couldn't find any under $500 that was appropriate for the size space we had.

One of my sweet readers suggested checking out Mirror Mate to get the mirror framed and I'm so thankful for the suggestion! They are so awesome. Instead of buying trim from a store and making one ourselves, you can actually choose from tons of mirror styles, colors and options at Mirror Mate and get it custom made to fit your mirror. I ordered 3 samples and then chose my favorite frame from there to order. I was so excited that Mirror Mate wanted to partner with me to bring this post to my readers. I have already recommended and used this product for my interior design clients and I can't wait to continue. It's such an awesome solution to dressing up a standard / builder grade mirror.

THE BEFORE:

The original vanity was sitting on the floor (no toe-kick) so it was really low to the ground and that just wasn't ideal for my 6'3" husband ;) I found a very affordable vanity at a local discount store and picked out a quartz countertop that's white with some gray veining to replace it. It's simple and clean.

We also took out a huge bulkhead that was above the bathroom vanity, making the space feel so small and crowded. We have no idea why it was there, as it wasn't covering anything important, so I'm thrilled it's gone!!

Once we got the dry wall repaired, we placed the vanity and then hung the large mirror. Then we measured the mirror and ordered the frame we wanted from Mirror Mate. We ended up going with the Cherokee Montauk Sand. I thought it would bring some warmth to the room and would tie in with the baskets I'm eventually going to get to fill the built ins on the right side of the vanity.

The mirror frame comes in 4 pieces for you to easily put together yourself. We did it in just a couple minutes! You just use the provided glue and then hammer in these little pieces to keep the angles together.

Next we peeled off the paper on the adhesive so we could get the frame stuck on our mirror.

  

My husband had the genius idea to set our level on the inside of the frame so that when we were holding the frame up about to press it to the mirror, we could tell for sure if it was straight or not. We got it on the first try, thankfully ;) The adhesive sticks right to your mirror, so you don't need any other tools for the project!

THE AFTER WITH OUR NEW MIRROR FRAME:

Mirror frame / faucets & towel bars / shower curtain- sold out, but this is similar / sconces

I love how it turned out! I think if we'd done white it'd have been a little to white in the room. This offers a bit of warmth and I think once we get the baskets in the builtins, it'll bring it all together! I'm thinking these baskets for the shelves. 

Projects left in the bathroom: - Art for above the towel bar (this butterfly one is just a placeholder!) - Floor rug that spans both sinks - Baskets for builtins - Pulls for the drawers 

It feels so good to have the bathroom mostly done!! It's a far cry from what it used to be.
xoxo

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* Mirror Mate sent us the frame for our bathroom. I'm happily sharing my honest opinion with you, as we genuinely loved our experience and the final product. Thank you for supporting companies that keep MND door's open!

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Master Bathroom Renovation Story & Reveal

You might remember me mentioning a couple months ago that I was helping my parent's with their master bathroom remodel. Well, after MONTHS of living in a construction zone because of a very unfortunate contractor (more on this below), they finally have a finished, beautiful bathroom! Before we get to the reveal, first you have to check out the BEFORE:

 The main reason for the reno was because the shower was leaking, which would require it to be ripped up and a new shower pan installed. The second reason was that it's clearly dated and we wanted to give it a facelift! You will notice lots of problems with the grout, uneven tiles, the countertop was tiles which is always hard to keep clean, not a lot of space to put bottles in the shower, etc.

The AFTER took a lot of time to get to because while we were in Hawaii with my parents back in April, we thought it'd be the perfect time for the contractor to start the job. My parents were out of the house, but had someone watching their dog, so it was a good time to get going while they weren't home. This contractor came recommended to my family and since I don't live in the area, I had no input or knowledge on him. When we got back from our trip, he was "done" with the shower tiling and laying the river rock floor. 
It was still drying when we got back and saw it, so we couldn't really inspect it very well, so we all just glanced before we headed to bed and then took a flight back to Michigan the next day. When we landed I had text messages from my mom of the shower and all of its many imperfections! It honestly looked as if this guy had never laid tile before. There were so many rookie mistakes, I just have to show you:
First of all, the tile store ordered a shade darker of the grout that we selected (ugh! so frustrating!) But what the contractor did was not wash out his sponge well enough when he switched from grouting the floor to the walls, which had a lighter grout. Like WHAT?! Rule number one when grouting, people! So you can see some darker spots throughout the subway tile.

Secondly, he didn't space the tiles evenly when he laid them. You can see some of the spaces have WAY more grout than other areas.

Thirdly, and to me, the worst offender was the way he laid the niche tile. All tile professionals should know to start in the MIDDLE of the niche and work out when trimming it. This guy clearly started from the left side and then realized he ran out of space for a full-length tile there, so just filled in with a tiny one. I couldn't believe it! See how awful this looks?!

My parents were so upset. And of course, so was I. I've never had a job turn out like this before! I showed it to my tile store in Michigan and they said it was amateur at best and they would completely rip it out to redo it. The problem was, this was an independent contractor and when my parents told him there were some things not to their liking, he was rude, didn't see the problem, wouldn't fix it, and wanted his money.

This is why I always recommend getting a professional tiler sent out from a store so that the job is backed by the store in case of issues. Had we gone through a store, they would have paid for the job to be redone.

ANYWAYS, we parted ways with that contractor after he also messed up the trim on the countertops, and my parents called in their friend who is a trusted contractor (he actually designed and flipped their house back when they bought it 18 years ago so we should have just gone with him from the start!) He sent out his tile guy and he worked on fixing all of the first guy's mistakes. Now it looks stunning and they love it so much!
These pics were taken before the towel bars and wall art got hung, but it's better than nothing!
Starting with the vanity, it got a fresh coat of white paint, new quartz countertops in Cirrus (LG brand) and a gorgeous new marble hexagon pattern backsplash with marble pencil trim. The vanity also got new knobs and a new undermount sink with pretty fixtures.

The shower also got a much-needed facelift (and a lot of fixing from our new tile installer!) Look at how perfect the trim on the niche looks now! Perfectly even all the way around. We took out the little corner shelves and installed this niche because it provides more space for bottles but also more space inside the shower. It's a small shower and having to worry about corner shelves wasn't working well. The footprint of the shower stayed the same, so it was important to maximize the space we did have to work with.

Also notice all the grout lines are even! Praise God! (Again, how it should have been in the first place)

The shower door was also replaced with a Euro style door that doesn't have seams. It's such a more clean look!

Hope you liked this little tour of iPhone photos and hopefully this is a warning to everyone who's looking to renovate a room in their home! Like I said, I'd be sure your tile guy is backed by a contractor or tile store for quality control. I'd also make sure you've seen multiple pictures of their work before trusting the person to do a good job. And of course if you hire an interior designer who could be onsite checking in, that's always a great idea :) If I wasn't in Hawaii and didn't live across the country from my parents, I would have gladly done this for their job!
To see a little video tour, check out my instagram stories today where I'll be showing it to you!

Happy Wednesday! xoxo interior design website / services / portfolio

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Master Bathroom Update

Over the last few months, I've been helping my parents redo parts of our house. I can't believe I forgot to snap a picture of the bathroom in all it's floral wallpaper glory before it was removed in October, but alas, I did. Bad blogger! You'll just need to trust me…it was really something!  There's now a soft gray/beige in there, which really makes the white woodwork stand out.

We added shelves above the toilet, some cute accessories, a basket to hold toilet paper and a new piece of art above the towel rack will be going up soon (they're in the mail and hopefully we'll have them next week.) Little updates like this are so easy and relatively inexpensive. My mom told me she loves her bathroom now!

DETAILS |  Shelves / red clock / butterfly print (similar) / clear jar (Home Goods) / Gold polka dot bud vase / candle / basket (Home Goods) 

What do you think?!

Happy Monday! I can't believe Valentine's Day is this week. In case you need some last minute crafting ideas, here you go:
- heart jar
- DIY valentine's day cards
- DIY Calligraphy
- DIY Floral Wreath
- DIY Valentine Cake Topper

Enjoy your day!
xoxo

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