Half-bath Makeover Part 1: The Beige Box

An alternative title for this post would be “How A Leaky Faucet Led To A Bathroom Makeover.” When we moved in, our entire townhouse, with the exception of two rooms, was painted a builder-basic beige. Or maybe it’s greige. Whatever it is, it’s awful and provides very little contrast between the walls and the off-white trim. The builder also outfitted all three bathrooms with hideous chrome faucets – the same ones that are in my office’s bathrooms. The overall effect is incredibly bland and boring.

When the faucet in our half-bath sprang a leak a few weeks ago, I convinced the hubs that it would be “better” to just buy a new faucet than try to fix it. But why have a pretty new faucet in a bland, boring bathroom? Might as well paint the room while we’re at it!

Here’s the tiny half-bath before we got started:

The boring walls were matched by an equally boring faucet.

Our toilet also had a very slow leak. Even though the toilet is only five years old, the bolts that attach the tank to the bowl had completely rusted through, slowly dripping lovely orange rust onto the tiles below. Nasty! Fortunately, following the directions on a can of Bon Ami cleaning powder removed all of the rust from the tiles and the toilet. It didn’t work so well on the grout, but I will try scrubbing the area again with Bon Ami and an old toothbrush.

My hope is to polish off the bathroom this weekend. After weekend #1, here’s what we (okay, Mr. JC) accomplished:

• Painted the walls a rich shade of blue
• Installed new satin nickel faucet
• Installed new satin nickel knobs for the vanity (this was my sole contribution to this part of the makeover)
• Installed new satin nickel toilet paper holder and towel ring

I thought this would be a one-weekend project, but things never go quite so smoothly:

• We had to buy a hacksaw to remove the old sink drain so that Mr. JC could install the new one (the alternative was to cut through the PVC piping and create a whole new set of pipes, which would have been more difficult).
• Painting got delayed because I called the hubs from HomeGoods and informed him that he’d need to fill in the old hardware holes because I found a fabulous toilet paper holder that required fewer holes. The putty’s drying time delayed painting, and the poor guy didn’t finish until 10pm. (Love you, babe!)
• Home Depot’s lumber department won’t make angled cuts (company policy), so I had to drive 45 minutes to my parents’ house so my dad could cut the trim for the mirror, causing me to get home late and not have time to spray paint the trim.
• Spray paint doesn’t work in 36 degree weather, which is what I had to deal with this past weekend.
• We like to sleep late on the weekends.

The goal was to keep the costs to around $200. Cost of Part 1:

• Paint: Van Deusen Blue by Benjamin Moore, $34
• Faucet: American Standard at Home Depot, $88
• Drawer knobs: Home Depot, $11.88 for four
• Towel ring: HomeGoods, $7.99
• Toilet paper holder: HomeGoods, $7.99
• Towel: Target ($7.99, I think. I first spotted it on Young House Love.)
• Faux flower arrangement: Free, already own (HomeGoods)
• Ceramic soap dish: Free, already own (HomeGoods)

Part 1 total: $157.85

The bathroom looks so much better, but we’re not done yet. My mom and I (okay, my mom) made a valance this past weekend, and since this weekend’s weather is supposed to be warm and sunny, I will paint the wood trim we’ll use to frame out the big mirror. Lastly, I’ll hang some new and updated art.

I’m always amazed by the impact color can have on a room. Not that it’s terribly fun and exciting to use a half-bath, but at least now I don’t mind spending time there when I need to!