Bathroom Vanity

I have been wanting to upgrade the bathroom off of our rec room for quite some time now.  You see the rest of the house has seen some changes, some more drastic then others.  Our upstairs bathroom saw the biggest transformation I think and it makes the bathroom downstairs look so outdated.

The shower has been leaking for some time.  Steve I think has gotten tired of changing the handles and I think this time the shower itself is leaking and the only way to fix it, is to replace the tap for the shower.  

While I was thinking of what I could do to the bathroom to spruce it up a bit, the Home Depots flyer came to my door on Friday morning.  It must have been reading my mind, as they had a deal for no interest on any purchases of $450 or more before taxes on the Home Depot (HD) card for a term of 18 months. YES 18 months.  Steve has a HD card from when he used to own his own business.  It has come in handy over the years during our various home improvements, as we take advantage of these deals.  No credit card will give you 0% financing and it makes it much easier to budget, as I make a monthly payment that will pay off the card in the 18 months.

So off to HD I went on Friday with Steve.  We picked out a new shower and faucet, so we can get rid of that ugly leaking shower.  Then we picked out a toilet that they had on sale for $99. The only thing left was the floor, the vanity and counter top and we would have a fully renovated bathroom.  

I decided that I wanted to tile the bathroom floor, as this is the most durable finish for flooring. The bathroom is on concrete, so that also provides for less material as we don't have to install the backerboard before installing the tiles. 

Once again HD must have read my mind, as I had my eye on the hexagon marble tiles.  Yes, they were reduced by $2 per SF.  I know not too much, but it all adds up.  Marble is quite expensive and adds up very fast in terms of cost, even in a small bathroom.  So I decided that I would do the marble on the floor and that I would spice up the vanity and the counter top, that way I did not have to replace it.

So this is what I did this weekend.  

BEFORE

AFTER









I added trim around the doors of my boring vanity and painted it a dark gray.  I kept the inside as it was, as no one will see the inside.  I plan to find some cheap peel and stick tiles that I will put inside the cabinet to cover up that ugly damaged melamine.  Steve drilled new holes on the doors and for now I put on the existing knobs. I plan to change those to something more fabulous.  Probably more along the lines of the ones that I used for my daughters desk.

The next project is to paint the counter top and replace the sink.  The taps in the sink will have to wait for now, but they will do for the time being. 

I will complete a blog on how I went about completing the vanity remodel.  If the outside is in good condition and the budget is not there to replace the vanity, just use what you have and make it look more modern for a fraction of the cost.  A new vanity the size of mine would have cost me around $500.  The material alone that I used, not including the knobs (as I have not purchased them), was around $70.  Paint, glue and wood trim.  The rest like brushes, wood putty etc I already had.  

This project was easy.  The cutting was straight lines, no mitered corners.  I completed the entire project myself without the help of Steve.  Well except for drilling the holes for the hardware.  

Stay tuned for the tutorial on how I accomplished this make over.