Cottage Bathroom Renovation

Today I would like to share a Grand *Before and After* story 

about the bathroom in our little cottage in Michigan.

I'm starting with an "After" picture 

because I don't want to scare you away with the "Before" pictures...

 

This was the bathroom in our cottage in Michigan before the renovation.

Some of the fixtures were original, 

but all were neglected and outdated and basically disgusting.

 I don't know how long they had this toilet or why the sticker was never removed, 

but it looks pretty good, right?  Love the plywood floor, too...

and the commercial doormats for area rugs. Sweet.

At some point, someone had some taste, because the wall color was good, 

but the rest of the room was seriously awful.  

And before you start to tell me, oh that claw foot tub is so great, 

how could you get rid of that?

I want you to know that we did find a good home for it!  

Our neighbor lusted after it and we were more than happy to let her have it.  

It was cleaned up and re-plumbed and is nestled nicely in her cottage.  

We felt that we really needed a shower instead and so it was a win-win situation.

My brother, Paul came for a "visit" and we spent some quality time together working on this room.  

I am gonna brag a little here - TOOT!- and tell you that I cut every single piece of tile in this bathroom, so keep that in mind when you are marveling at the tile work.  

Paul would call out the sizes and I would run outside and cut the tiles on our trusty wet saw.  

He would then set the tiles while I was cutting the next ones.  

We did some serious bonding in that bathroom.  

And on the beach at night....

Here are some pics of the bathroom in progress.

The new shower - one wall done, two to go.  

The cutouts are for the soap dishes.

Here the wall tile has been grouted.

I have to tell you that scrubbing tile after it has been grouted 

to remove the film is not my favorite thing. 

 Especially since I insisted we tile the ceiling of the shower...

New toilet and pedestal sink installed - yay!  

After six months of renovations, we can finally sleep in the cottage overnight!

Floor tile before grout:

I love to set tile on the diagonal, especially in a small room 

because I think it expands the space visually.  

And if the walls are not perfectly square, it is much more forgiving.

And this room was definitely NOT square.

Here's the floor tile with grout:

If the tile looks familiar to you, it's because I have used this color and combination before.  

Why should our hall bathroom have all the fun? 

Here's a picture from our hall bathroom at home:

Here are some pictures of the finished bathroom...

It is very, very tiny and hard to take pictures of the whole room,

 but these will give you the idea.

I love how it turned out.

and some decorating details:

The shower curtain is made from the same indoor/outdoor fabric I used here and here.

It was my inspiration fabric for the color scheme for the entire cottage. 

This cottage has such good Karma now!

So many great people have had a hand in helping us restore it.

You can read about them here (kitchen renovation) and here (furniture from salvaged wood).

Here's Paulie, relaxing with me at the beach after a very long day tiling...

This was in April!  No coats!

Sunsets.  Lots of drama in the sky that night!  

Perfect. 

Absolutely Perfect.



Linking to:
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence
Metamorphosis Monday at between Naps on the Porch
DIY Project Parade at DIY Showoff
Show Off Your Cottage Monday at House in the Roses
Nifty Thrifty at Coastal Charm
Masterpiece Monday at Boogie Board Cottage
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style