little black door: one room challenge

Showing posts with label one room challenge. Show all posts

May 7, 2014

one room challenge - the bathroom reveal

The moment of truth has arrived! After six weeks (catch weeks 1 - 5 here) of hard work, several changes and more than a few cocktails, I'm proud to report that I have one completed bathroom ready to reveal.

I'm one to rip open my presents, I've never been able to gently unwrap anything, so I won't waste time with a lot of chit chat - let's get to the good stuff.

As a reminder, the plan was to make over my sister's guest bathroom. A room that had begun the construction process long ago but then stalled and became a dumping ground for other projects. Our inspiration for the space was simple and classic. Blue and White with some gray thrown in for good measure.

Here is the painful reminder of where we began. So grateful to not look at this picture any longer. Instead, let's look at...

the after. MUCH better. Let's be honest, there was nowhere to go but up with that before situation. Simply removing the multiple vacuums (why are there so many vacuums Rachel?) was a good start but my multi-talented uncle Rodger was willing to go a few steps further with me and we demoed the whole thing. And when I say "we" I mean he did it and then would call me and give me updates.

That horrible faux marble tub was removed and a new soaker tub was installed. And since the tub is just a hair shorter than the room (poor planning condo people) we moved the extra 'space' to the other end of the tub.

This gives room for shampoos and other goodies for all of your bathing needs.

The sink wall had a light/builtin medicine cabinet combo that we promptly ripped out. That horrible lighting was not doing anyone any favors.

Since this is a guest bathroom, storage isn't as important so a medicine cabinet was nixed for a fab oval mirror and pedestal sink. The oval mirror is the perfect height to accentuate the height of the room and breaks up all of the squares and rectangles that surround it. This room is NOT big, so it is wise to reinforce the positive, the vaulted ceiling, rather than wallow on the negative. And although our original sink choice didn't work out, I think this one works perfectly and offers a lot of counter space for a pedestal.

One of my favorite details is that the gooseneck in the sconce that we found at my dream estate sale repeats in the gooseneck of the sink faucet. Its all about the details, especially in a small space.

Sherwin Williams was generous enough to provide paint for the room and I am loving the color we choose for the bathroom, Passive. This color rivals the very popular Gray Owl (BM), which I've also used, but Passive is a bit crisper to me and looks excellent with blue.

The floor is also a massive improvement, especially considering we didn't have one before.

Another favorite trick of mine for small bathrooms - since you don't have much square footage to cover, go for nicer flooring. This marble basket weave is certainly more expensive but since we have so (very) little floor to cover, the price was small. Oh, and it looks damn good.

Another place to get a bit creative was with the lighting. Every bathroom needs good lighting, so why not have some fun with it?! Bathroom lighting is such a big yawn that I like to choose things that weren't necessarily intended for bathroom use (but can hold up to bathroom elements - wait, that sounds gross.) The lantern we hung was found at my favorite antique store and was dirt cheap...because it wasn't electrified. It was an easy fix to take it to a local lighting store who not only electrified it for us but also painted the new parts to give them the same patina to match the lantern.

It looks great during the day.

And smashing at night.

I also decided the hall'ish area outside of the bathroom needed to be spruced as well. My sister picked yellow originally, and then apparently thought better of it, as she never finished painting.

Sherwin Williams Loyal Blue, went in the hallway and we were able to hang that wonderful pagoda shelf I found. That wonderful pagoda shelf that I bought when I was foolish enough to imagine it would fit in the bathroom. Silly girl. But the size is just right for the hall.

The needlepoint is from Furbish and is perfect for a long running inside joke my sister and I have. It makes me laugh out loud each and every time I see it.

We had a bit of extra fabric leftover from the shower curtain so I recovered some old stools to sit underneath the shelf. Trimmed out in hot pink. Of course.

So that my friends is my sister's new and improved bathroom! And I for one am spent!

A huge thank you to Linda for inviting me to play along on this crazy challenge. As always, I had a great time my dear. Thank you to Sherwin Williams for providing paint for this project. Thanks to my Uncle Rodger for going above and beyond, and to George for your excellent tile work. If you are in the St. Louis area, I'll be happy to share their information. Thanks to my sister and my mom who not only let me take charge (per usual), but also pitched in to help in a million different ways. And my biggest thanks to all of YOU for following along (and thank you to Carrie for not running in fear when I met you at the height of my ORC sweaty stress).

Now carve out some quality time to feast your eyes on the best eye candy on the internet today and check out each and every one of the amazing participants. I was lucky to be in their company.

Chez V

Mimosa Lane

Have a space that you would like to change? Contact me and lets create together!

April 30, 2014

one room challenge - the bathroom edition week 5

I'm not going to lie, I had a bit of trouble typing '5' in the title there. Week five? Really? Oh good lord. (Catch up on weeks 1 - 4 here) That means I have six short days to wrap this sucker up. 140 hours. Enough numbers, lets talk about progress.

As I mentioned yesterday, this past week has been a huge challenge for me, and not just of the One Room variety. So what do you do when you are up against a big deadline and you're behind? That's right, you go out of town. The hubs and I had actually had this trip planned for months, but it couldn't have come at a better time. I left my world of chaos behind and enjoyed a few great days with friends. But before I left town, I was able to convince one of my contractor contacts to take pity on me. Thank god.

So this started. Yesterday. Afternoon. Nothing like cutting it close, hey? I've been assured it will be finished by Friday and he's seen the crazy in my eyes so I believe him.

I picked this up yesterday as well (Tuesday was a big day for me) and I'm feeling good about it. Now I just need to round up accessories that we've been accumulating over the past several weeks that are in no less than three different households and start to put this puzzle together.

And lest you think I'm holding back on all the good stuff and just not showing you everything, there is nothing else to show. The sink, toilet, lights, faucets, light switches, everything else is sitting in my poor sister's dinging room just waiting to be installed. 140 hours people.

This will indeed be a cliffhanger. Will I finish? Will there be anything to show? Will I be laughed off the internet? Come back next Wednesday to see just what will happen.

Until then, check out what all of the other talented ladies have done since last week. And light a candle for me.

Chez V

Mimosa Lane

April 23, 2014

one room challenge - the bathroom edition week 4

Week 4 of the One Room Challenge (you can catch up on weeks 1 -3 here) beat me down. The challenge was Ike and I was Tina, only without the fabulous legs. We are running into some tile issues with the shower and I'm looking high and low for someone to help my hard working team. But so far, no dice. I'm not a "I didn't finish person" so hitting the ORC finale sans tile on the wall is not an option. Keep your fingers crossed contractor #3 calls me back and takes pity on me.

My saint of an uncle has been working his saintly tail off (I would guess saints don't have butts) though and he has done some amazing work. He's painted the walls, the sink and toilet are ready to be installed and the lights are going up. Check out what I shared on Instagram late last week.

Bam. So good, right? I was close to laying on that floor and giving it a little kiss, okay a big kiss. But then someone mentioned shopping and I was out the door. Aside from that blasted shower we are ready for the pretty to enter the room. I even got a call from the shower curtain lady that the shower curtain is ready. Happy Day!

And speaking of shopping, we've acquired a few goodies for the soon to be world's best looking small guest bath, condo edition.

I know you've been thinking, "what this bath needs is a bamboo pagoda shelf thingy" and you are right. I picked it up in a store I always claim 'never has anything good'. That'll show me to make those kind of statements.

We also picked up this lovely lady, and her husband. Their colors in person are blow-your-mind amazing, so I'll be giving tours on reveal day so everyone can see them in their full glory. Who's bringing the drinks?

So that's all I have to share this week. Not much progress but damn we're close. I can feel it. Mostly in my lower back.

Be sure to check in with all the other great ladies to see how things are moving on their rooms.

Chez V

Mimosa Lane

April 16, 2014

one room challenge - the bathroom edition week 3

We are already at the half way point of the One Room Challenge people. (You can catch up on week 1 here and week 2 here) Let's say it all together - where does the time go?!

Progress is happening at a good clip in my sister's little guest bathroom

and we've gone from this

to this. Tiling is in progress and the hall is being painted as we speak/type/read.

So this week I thought I'd share some scores and a major bomb. Namely what is happening on this wall. As I had said before, a bathroom is a hard place to have much originality, so I was on the hunt to add some sort of...something to make this little spot shine. Great idea, in theory.

One area I thought I could do this was with the sink. This bathroom is so petite that there were hardly any vanities that would fit. Also, have you looked at vanities lately? Not very exciting unless you want to spend the earth. Since this is a guest bathroom, storage wasn't a must so I was able to convince my sister to ditch the vanity idea and go for a stand alone sink. I envisioned a sexy wall mount number but those can also be a pretty penny, and without an IKEA near by my options were limited.

So I went to the best place for unique bathroom supplies, ReStore, and was thrilled to find this little number. She was very cool, very shallow (which meant she wouldn't swallow a lot of space) and she was $19. Ding Ding. Yes, she was yellow, but that was nothing a bit of reglazing wouldn't take care of.

Wall mount faucets are a bit more than regular ones but I quickly found one I liked, got that ordered and started calling reglazing people. Crickets. I couldn't get anyone to call back. After finally cornering one guy on the phone he flipped out that the sink wasn't already attached to something and said it would be about $275 to reglaze. Really? I love a good deal as much as the next person, but the faucet and reglazing were blowing my margin and this deal of a sink was fast becoming not much of a deal.

To make me feel better I took the sink over to dry fit it and see how fab it would look...and it was 1.5" too wide. Who measured this damn thing anyway? Or right, that would be me. Strike #3.

The cherry on top was when the faucet came and the spout stuck out too far, meaning the water would have gone over the sink rather than in it. It was time to call this sink a bust. I hate busts. So frustrating.

Luckily I've had the lighting to make me feel better.

I found this lantern for a steal at my favorite antique store a while back. I don't know about you but vaulted ceilings in a bathroom mean one thing - wonderful overhead lighting. This lantern wasn't electrified but we took it to a local lighting shop who was able to do the job, make the new pieces look as old as the rest and all in it was still cheaper than a new lantern. Now that's a deal. (If you need a good lighting shop in St. Louis let me know and I'll pass on their name.)

The patina of the lantern reminded me so much of the great gooseneck light I got at this sale. At the time I had no idea where it would go, just that it was too cool and too cheap to pass up. I love it when the lighting stars align. With more scores than bombs I think we are headed in the right direction (knock on wood).

Be sure to check in with all of the other great ladies to see how things are moving.

Chez V

Mimosa Lane

April 9, 2014

one room challenge - the bathroom edition week 2

Welcome back to week 2 of the One Room Challenge (you can catch up on the plan from week 1 here). We are only seven days in but we are off to a good start.

You may remember we started off with this; we had nowhere to go but up, right?

Demo was swift, thanks to a small bathroom and a hard working contractor. A contractor that also happens to be my very generous uncle. That's right, I'm either a genius or in the process of creating the most awkward Thanksgiving ever as I'm working with my sister and my uncle. I like to layer my stress, just like I layer my patterns. It adds a bit of spice to life. So far though, we have worked together like a well oiled machine. It must be in the genes.

Plumbing fixes have been made and we took advantage of the open walls to move things ever so slightly, scootching the toilet over just a smidge to give a bit more elbow room for a new sink.

The backer board has been laid on the floor, the new tub is in place and green board is going up. We mean business in this family. And now that the tub is in place, you can get a better perspective on the size of this bathroom. Petite.

With such a small space though I am often staring out of the bathroom into the hallway. The unfinished hallway. Obviously my sister got halfway thru painting before realizing yellow wasn't her bag. So I've convinced her that we need to spruce this little spot up as well. After all, you can't have a fab bathroom next to a half painted hallway. Not on my watch.

This next week will be putting in the rest of the dry wall and maybe, fingers crossed, start tiling. If there is one thing I've learned about bathroom renos, it is that finger crossing is a must.

Be sure to check in with the other lovely ladies to see their progress for the week. And come back next week when we talk lighting, fixtures and fabric.

Chez V

Mimosa Lane

April 2, 2014

one room challenge - the bathroom edition week 1

Spring has sprung, flowers are blooming and the One Room Challenge is back! That's damn good news people!

Twice a year Linda rounds up a group of 20 bloggers to design and put together a room in six weeks. Each Wednesday we all give updates on our progress and six weeks from today (fingers crossed) we unveil some pretty cool spaces. I'm lucky enough to be participating for the third time (see the first two rooms here) and I'm blown away by this group of participants. I mean, c'mon. Just take a look...

Pretty amazing, right?! Needless to say I've got to bring it people. The pressure is on! And what better way to alleviate pressure than to ~~drink~~ take on a huge job in a short time frame? Wait, that doesn't sound right.

No matter, I'm in the thick of it now. So what am I doing?

Welcome to my new home away from home for the next six weeks. Now you could be thinking - "What in the hell? She's doing a horder's bathroom?!" but let me explain.

This is the guest bathroom in my sister's condo (needless to say she doesn't have many guests these days). The whole condo needed A LOT of work when she move in and slowly over time she's been tackling each room as she could. Since she has another bathroom this room became the catch all for supplies, leftovers and castoffs that accumulate when you are under construction.

Well the good news is the rest of her condo has made some big headway. The bad news is that her guest bath looks like that. It is high time girlfriend has a place for guests to splash some cold water on their face after drinking a few of her tasty mojitos.

When we started to think about what was going to happen in this bathroom it took about sixty seconds to come up with blue and white. If y'all think I've got some collections, you should see my sister's place. She has more Chinoiserie in her house than....well anyone else I know (and that's saying a lot).

Realizing that particularly in a bathroom many fixed elements are just that - fixed (unique is not really a word that comes to mind when you think of toilets), we've done lots of hunting to find unique things to make this not just another bathroom. Good things are coming people. Believe it. I'm super excited for this one, it is going to be one major 'after'.

Now that you know my hair-brained scheme, let's see what the others have cookin.

Chez V

Mimosa Lane

Be sure to check for progress on Instagram, join the linking party tomorrow over at Linda's and come back next week when I hope to show a few less vacuums in the bathroom. That's a good goal for the first week, right?