Guest Bathroom and Laundry room renovation
We made it! Finally this space is done. Or at least done for now and we couldn’t be any more happy about it.
The space is small—the bathroom, in particular—and I wanted to make it feel grand, but not by adding more square footage but by adding character and personality.
Guest Bathroom
Before this bathroom was just a bland builder grade space, blue countertops and outdated finishes. On top of all, it had the most disgusting smell from a broken toilet. By being next to the hallway and entry door and adjacent to the laundry room. Not the most pleasant welcome to the house we wanted. This space NEEDED to be remodeled before the other two bathrooms in the house.
The BEFORE.
We started this project in early July. After 4 months living in the house, I had a better sense of how this space will function better and what I wanted to do here.
View of the laundry room from the hallway.
Our budget was a max of $5000 for the whole renovation. I knew it was a tight budget, but I am always up for the challenge!
We wanted to hire out some parts of the renovation that we don’t feel comfortable doing and that we preferred not investing our time in since we were doing a bunch of other projects at the same time. We ended up hiring a friend of ours to do the installation of the gorgeous handmade glazed brick from Fireclay tile and to do the plumbing and electrical work as well. Time-saving to the max! All of those things got done in less than 15 days.
Handmade thin brick from Fireclay tile color Black hills. As part of Fireclay Tile's commitment to protecting and honoring our planet, they are donating 1% of all Brick sales to National Parks Conservation Association.
After that it was my time to make this space shine. Basically, I had a fresh blank canvas to work on with the newly installed brick floors, shiplap wall and vanity.
Now, let’s go back a little and talk about how this space got put together, it is my favorite part of all.
Simple and affordable sink I found on Amazon.
Vanity
Originally, I had a different idea for the space. I wanted a floating vanity with a chunky piece of wood as the countertop and a vessel sink on top.
This idea derailed once I found the perfect piece of furniture on Facebook Marketplace for $50! It is the perfect height and depth. Coco, our friend in charge of the installation, drilled a hole in the plumbing and adjusted the drawer so it would still be functional.
How the drawer looks from the inside, after the adjustments.
Backsplash
Another great Facebook marketplace find! I didn’t want to purchase half a slab of quartz for this project, so after some time searching daily on Facebook Marketplace, I found a local person selling a piece of Quartz remnant from their renovation project. SCORE! It was only $40.
Once we had the stone home, we just had to hire a stone fabricator to come to the house, measure, and shape the stone to the desired size.
The AFTER.
Paint colors
This part is quite the story. Usually, I know from the go what colors I want in a space, and very frequently, I get them right from the start. Did I get it right this time from the start? No!
First, my mood board included a terra-cotta shade for the walls, but once I tried it in the space, it looked way too brown because of the lack of natural light. Brown walls and bathrooms are not good from my personal view. What do you think?
The moodboard.
So, I went back to the start and got a bunch of greenish-blueish paint colors to try; I went crazy about it and painted a rainbow to sample all the “different” shades of -basically- the same color! None where right, again.
Decisions, decisions.
Finally, I decided to use the gorgeous Figeroa by Portola paints that I could color to match the Behr paint at Home Depot. This bone color is exactly what this tiny space needed. It adds so much warmth to this romantic space.
Also, to bring color to the guest bathroom, I added this beautiful art print from Juniper Print Shop and left the other accents and finishes, such as the brick, brass light fixture, and wood vanity, shine. The art print brings the green tones of the board and batten from the laundry room to the guest bathroom, and the light fixture in the laundry room pulls the bone color from the guest bathroom. It was all meant to be.
Laundry Room
It’s safe to say that the “picking the wrong color” saga continued in this part of the project.
I remembered one color I sampled on our past bedroom accent wall: Sonora Rose by Behr, and I went for it. It is a beautiful shade of dusty rose, deep and full of character. So, I took the risky route and purchased a full gallon without trying a sample before. I know you are supposed to sample a color before committing to the full gallon, but I am a rebel sometimes and I like taking risks.
Did I love it? Yes! Did it work in the space? No. (Insert crying emoji.) But, hey! It is okay. It is just paint. I just had to re-paint the whole space that I recently finished painting. It's not a biggie…
Tried to make the color work by painting the whole walls.
Went back to white on top and the Sonora rose on the other half. Still not right with the adjacent spaces in our home.
Days went by, and then it hit me. I was determined to find the perfect shade of green, my all-time favorite accent color! This space was particularly difficult because of the lack of direct natural light. All colors look completely different in these walls.
What did I do? I grabbed my favorite green paint sample jar from all the 100 samples I got and started adding the Figueroa color by Portola Paints little by little until I got the perfect shade of green for the space.
Not too much cool undertones, not too warm, not too dark, not too light. GOT IT! According to the latest poll on stories, we should name it Aloe-Valeria lol.
Want the color code? Go check this Highlight reel :)
Final view of the laundry room and powder room from the hallway.
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