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Master Bathroom Reveal

A few weeks ago we revealed our master bedroom and showed a floor plan for the bedroom:

You may have noticed there was a bathroom strangely absent from any of the photos.  We've got nothing to hide in there, we just knew the bedroom reveal was already super long and to be honest, we needed to add a second coat of paint to the vanity and we've been putting it off for about 6 months!  Since then, we added that coat of paint, took some photos, and now we're ready to show it off!

Before:

After:

Along the way

We love a dramatic before and after where the room looks terrible to begin with and becomes magically transformed into a magazine worthy room after.  Fortunately for us (because it meant a lot less work), the drama-meter is low on this before and after because the room was actually nice to begin with.  In fact, this room really helped sell us on the house.  Everyone (including us) who saw the house in it's newly closed form had a kind of gross "are you sure?" look on their faces as they walked through the forest green master bedroom (pictures here) but that face turned to total surprise as they turned the corner to the bathroom and saw the big jacuzzi (or as Mike calls it, "the hot tub"), full shower, and airy space.  When we first saw the bathroom we knew there was hope for the house.  The only thing wrong - there was a phone mounted next to the toilet... awkward!

We were even more excited because this is the second bathroom and older homes of Minneapolis houses just don't have two bathrooms.  Most of the houses we saw either had 1) a big master bedroom on the second floor with 1-2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the main floor or they had 2) small bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and living space on the main level.  In option #1 we'd have to walk up and down the stairs when getting ready in the morning or if nature calls at night and in option #2 there's no bath on the main floor so anyone visiting has to go upstairs.  With all that said, when we found a house with a bath on the main floor AND a bath upstairs with the master, we were super excited.  A jacuzzi was not on our needs list but once we saw it we couldn't wait.  When our house inspector filled it up and turned on the jets to make sure it worked, we nearly jumped in right then!  His safety check was like filling a big bowl with ice cream, taking a lick to make sure it's good, then throwing it down the drain.  So unfair! 

The bathroom was already in pretty good shape but we still made little changes to make it ours.  We gave the walls and ceiling a fresh coat of paint, painted the baseboards white to match the bedroom, added some shelves for storage, changed out the towel holders, and added some special details like the baskets, canisters and other bath items.

Paint
We didn't mind the original paint color, but Katrina already owned a lot of matching bathroom decor (fabric lined baskets, shower curtain, etc).  All the decor matched each other but it didn't match the wall color.  Since we love painting anyway, it was a good excuse to change things up while making everything feel fresh.  We almost always use eggshell or flat paint but we went with semi-gloss for the bathroom since it's more resistant to moisture.  The wall color is Thistle Blue by Martha Stewart.  We also painted the orange/brown trim a crisp white and gave the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint (Moon Rise by Behr) as well.

Shelves
There was originally a small cabinet mounted over the toilet but it was quite ugly and very shallow.  We wanted a place to store these baskets and like the open concept (built-in cleaning accountability!)  We moved the cabinet to our laundry room where it could be better utilized and installed 3 Ikea shelves above the toilet.  We had seen these short shelves displayed at Ikea but we couldn't find where to buy them anywhere.  Every time we looked we could only find the long version which is almost double the length and would never fit on our wall.  It must have been the third or fourth time looking for these shelves that we finally realized the display shelves were really just the long shelves cut in half to make the display more compact.  Wow, we felt dumb.  We bought the "long" shelves and cut them to length with a circular saw.  Bada bing, bada boom, custom length shelves!

The baskets are all organized by use so we should only need to grab one basket and everything we need will be there.  For instance, when I travel for work, I know all my 3oz liquids and travel cases are in one basket so I don't need to tear the bathroom apart to find everything!  One contains lotions and skin care and the others are for Katrina's hair products.

Hardware
Some of the bathroom hardware had a faux copper paint job over wood or metal.  It was mostly cohesive but it didn't match the sink faucet and I guess we just have different tastes.  So we changed it out as much of the faux copper as we could.  Our frugal senses hates getting rid of things that work but part of moving into a new house is changing small things just to make it yours.  So we donated all the old hardware and added new brushed nickel hardware to match the brackets on the ends of the new shelves.

Before

After

Unfortunately we still could not replace the fixtures surrounding the tub (light fixtures and tub knobs and faucet).  We may eventually try to re-'paint' them nickel or may eventually replace them, but for now we're pleased that we contained the copper finish to the tub area and changed everything else to match.

Decor
Some other additions to make the master bathroom personal included glassware, a small chair, a fun mirror and some bath accessories.  We added a few glass canisters to the shelves above the toilet for balance and more storage (and because we couldn't get two more baskets since Target stopped carrying them!)  We found a magnifying mirror from Ikea that we mounted to the wall so we can check out the back of our hair or contemplate our beauty close-up! Two plush rugs from Bed, Bath & Beyond keep our feet cozy and dry now.  Katrina had one lone wooden folding chair that we added although I was skeptical at first.  I thought it was creepy odd that she'd want to sit there while I was in the bathroom, but I guess it's not as bad as this waiting couch!  Katrina occasionally sits there while drying her hair, but we added a basket on the seat so it's mainly decorative.  Two more matching baskets and a wire basket sit on the bathtub ledge with towels and bath products (salts, bubbles, sponges, etc.) making it easy to create a relaxing spa feel!

Cost Breakdown 

$90 - Ikea Shelves (3 wood planks, 3 sets of 2 end anchors)
$5 - Ikea magnifying mirror
$60 - 2x3' and 2x4' rugs (Bed Bath & Beyond)
$38 - Target towel rods ( 18 inches and 24 inches)
$20 -  Target robe hook (we're estimating this since we can't find it anymore but it was part of the towel rod collection)
$16 Target toilet paper dispenser
$17 - Ikea toilet bowl brush
$15 - Brushed metal garbage can (Home Goods)
$40 - Paint - Behr Moon Rise and Martha Stewart Thistle Blue
$0 - Toilet paper holder (previously owned from Target)
$0 - Chair (previously owned)
$0 -Towels (received as gifts for our wedding; from Target)
$0 - 3 baskets for towels (from Home Goods, bought for the wedding)
$0 - Shelf baskets (previously owned)
$0 - 2 Canisters for cotton balls and sponges (previously owned, bought from Walmart)
$0 - Glass for q-tips (favor from a friend's awesome wedding!)
$0 - Canning jars with buttons and wedding matchbooks (leftover wedding decor)
$0 - Curtain valance (leftover fabric from bedroom curtains with rod from another room)

Total = $301