MASTER BATHROOM Remodel

Phew…I just barely finished this bathroom before baby girl arrives (mind you, she still isn’t here as I type this but I’m expecting her arrival any day now)! Paul and I weren’t really even planning to tackle this bathroom for a minute but somehow I started the remodel days after the guest bathroom was done. Call it nesting or whatever, but Paul handled a pretty major backyard revamp while I handled this bathroom. Simultaneously. Not exactly the most fun when you have people in and out of your house 7 days per week, BUT well worth it in the end. We kind of just had this urge to “get it over with” so we can fully enjoy the house, especially once baby girl is here and we just don’t have the energy to deal.

This bathroom took about one month from demolition to finish. Honestly, it could have been done A LOT faster if I had hired a contractor and everyone worked everyday, but you know me, I like to take on projects well outside of my wheelhouse to save a few dollars (read: a lot of dollars $$$). I went into detail about not using a contractor in this post here if you’re interested.

A lot of you have been inquiring about my hardware, vanity, mirrors, etc. and I hate to break it to you but much of it is custom and / or sourced from local plumbing supply stores. I will of course link anything that is shoppable in this post and do my best to find similar items, but for my master I really wanted good quality hardware so I spent a pretty penny versus just finding something aesthetically doable on Amazon. I went that route in my guest bathroom in my last house…not the best quality but didn’t want to spend a ton, either.

Also, in terms of the people I hired to do the work, many of them are local and don’t have social media or the capacity to take on more work (aka they’ve asked not to be mentioned in my posts). I did, however, convince my dad, who owns a plumbing company (Vardi Plumbing), to finally create an Instagram account so we are making some progress. My countertop guy (Rose Gold Builders) also has a cute IG account and you can see more of his work here. They also did my kitchen marble, TV room counters, laundry room counters, and fireplace.

A few notes on this bathroom remodel. It was all cosmetic changes, nothing really too structural. The vessels (sinks that sit on top of the countertops) allowed me to have in-wall faucets, which not only conserved more space inside the vanity drawers, but did require a slight lift of all the plumbing. It required us to open walls but nothing too major. The shower was a little tricky. I wanted a linear drain (sleek, rather than the typical round ones) so we had to slope the shower floor slightly so the water would drain. While doing this, we expanded the bench and created a nice wide niche since there wasn’t one. In addition to the rain shower, I also added a regular shower head (for me) and a handheld (for the dogs). I enclosed the glass so it would hold in heat and no water would escape the shower. I kept the same bathtub but swapped out the hardware. I’m still waiting on the handheld to be installed in there and will share pictures once it’s done.

Here is the order of everything that took place in the bathroom:

-Demolition. Ripped out the tiles on the floor and shower. Removed vanity, sinks, faucets, toilet, mirrors, everything.

-Plumbing. Moved the pipes for the sink faucets, prepped the shower heads and niche.

-Electrical. I had to move the pendants to be centered over the sinks so an electrician came in and adjusted those. He also placed the outlets over the vanity.

-Hotmop. This is a layer of tar that seals and waterproofs your shower. We ran into some issues with this, as we needed a slight slope and it took a couple tried to get it right.

-Tile. Retiled the floors and shower walls. I went with a grey Italian porcelain that floated into the shower and a simple white subway tile with black grout for the shower walls.

-Drywall & paint. The drywall guys came in and cleaned up the walls where we had opened them up, followed by pure white paint.

-Vanity. I had this custom built to accommodate all of our stuff. The drawers are SO spacious it’s incredible.

-Countertops. Pure white quartz countertops went in next. It took them less than an hour to get it installed.

-Plumbing. Sinks, faucets, shower heads, toilet, and bathtub filler all got installed.

-Mirrors & pendants. The mirror was custom built with a matte black steel frame and then I hung the pendants so I could see where it would hit in the mirror.

-Finishing touches. Hardware on the vanity went on, towel hooks, toilet paper holder, and lastly I’m waiting on my floating shelves above the tub for towels to be installed. I also had an additional mirror made with a wood frame that matches the vanity so I could reflect the natural light from the window into the bathroom.