When we bought our house several years ago, we ended up getting a pretty good deal. That’s what having an amazing Realtor, patience and nerves of steel (wine) will do for you. Because it had so many things I loved, I compromised on one thing I thought was important to me at the time- a more updated master bathroom.
However, once we moved in, the bathroom became less important to me. Sure it was pretty clear that the builder of our house loved mirrors…
and couldn’t quite make up his mind between silver and gold…
but it was incredibly spacious, despite its odd angles, and David and I did have our own sinks which was really nice and shoot, it was fully functioning and got us all clean, so it did its job!
However, when we started playing around with the idea of renovating it, it only took a half glance at my shower walls with the soap scum that just won’t quit and my corroding tub faucet for me to jump on board.
So without further adieu, let me take you on a ‘before’ tour.
This is the view into the master bath from our bedroom.
We are gutting it (AH!), meaning all new tile and we are switching out our jet tub for a freestanding pedestal.
We’re tearing out the shower and replacing it with a larger, tiled shower with two shower heads and a handheld shower.
We’re pulling the glued mirrors off the wall and Habitat comes today to take our vanities.
We are going for wooden cabinets, snazzy new quartz countertops with new faucets, lights and mirrors.
I’m a little nervous because design vision isn’t my forte, but I feel pretty excited about the decisions we’ve made and ready to see it start coming together. I’m also incredibly grateful and excited that Moen offered to partner with me and is providing us with our faucets and shower heads. They were at the top of our list from the start and so I’m obviously over the moon that we’ll have that kind of quality in our master bath!
There were so many choices to make before getting started, but I think we made good ones, which is great because there is no turning back now. Demo started yesterday and already the mirrors are gone, the shower is deconstructed and the tile is mostly ripped out. Here goes nothing!
If you could redo one room in your house, which one would it be?
What features are most important to you if you were house hunting for a new home?
Tiff @ Love, Sweat, & Beers says
Haha – our master has those silly chrome and gold faucets too. If I were hunting for a new home (and I really wish that I was), I’d be more interested in an open floor plan. I like my house now, but Id loooove a better layout.
emma @ be mom strong says
I’m so wanting to renovate our kitchen… but we didn’t win the lottery! Can’t wait to see the after!
Lee says
That’s going to look awesome! You have a ton of space. I think about what I’d want in a new home all the time – a better floorplan (my house has a weird flow and we have several rooms that we don’t know what to do with. ) and natural light top the list.
Whitney says
Hubs and I start construction on our custom home in a couple weeks!!! I am excited and nervous at the same time. I know it will be awesome to see all of our selections come together! Good luck with your bathroom! 🙂
emily says
I think every room but the kitchen/living/dining room, which we’ve already done, is on my list haha our #1 priority is finishing off our basement, maybe sprucing up the laundry room down there.
Brynn says
How exciting!! I love home renovation projects, however my husband always winces a bit when I have a new “plan.” Ha! If I could do anything in my house it would be to renovate our master bedroom closets. They are so inefficient with the way the walls were built. I want to knock down some walls!!
Rebecca says
Living in the UK where lots of people only have one small “family” bathroom, a big master bath like this is something I dream about! We thought we were lucky to find a house with room for an additional toilet. Trade offs you make to live in a house that is 200 years old 🙂
Looking forward to seeing the big reveal!
Monica says
Your before photos look gorgeous to me, so I’m sure your finished master bath will be amazing! Good luck! I hope everything goes smoothly. 🙂
Christina says
So exciting – I can’t wait to see the after pictures!! When my husband and I were house hunting, we decided that “his and her sinks” were on our must-have list. We ended up buying a 1935 house with just one bathroom (forget the double sinks, hah!) But in the crazy competitive real estate market of suburban DC, we had to make do. If we ever move, a master bath is definitely at the top of my list!
Liz @ I Heart Vegetables says
I would love to redo our yard! Does that count as a room? We just move in November and the backyard is disaster haha. I thought it was just patchy grass… but it’s actually just weeds everywhere 😉
Carol says
The mirror over my sink….double the size of yours has broken !!! It had a small crack on the corner when we moved in, I never thought to get it fixed. Later that crack moved across the huge mirror.
Can’t wait to see what you do over the sink, someday I will replace this massive “art work”.
Jess M says
Long time reader, first time commenter.
Love renovations & seeing how other people chose to style things in REAL homes, not magazines & Pinterest.
Hoping you’ll keep it real about what goes wrong & right, as well as any issues you run into during reno.
We just re-did the kitchen. Doing 95% of the labor ourselves.
Boy, was I glad for that to be over.
Also, overjoyed that you all have chosen to donate your old vanities to Habitat for Humanity! 🙂
Wish more people would do that as they get ready to renovate.
Kiki says
We renovated our master bath about 5 years ago. One thing I wish we had done was radient heating in the tile floor. The tile gets pretty cold in the winter. Also did a steam shower which at the time I wasn’t to excited about ( my husband wanted it) but I am now happy we have. It is a nice feature and wasn’t to expensive. You have such great space and light, your bathroom is going to turn out great!! Can’t wait to see!
Marnie@SuperSmartMama says
We bought our home last year (3 homes in 10 years thanks to alot of moving) and the one thing I didn’t like about our house was (is) the master bath. Oh wait, and the kitchen. Two major projects we have yet to take on!
Katy Mc says
TWO shower heads and a handheld one will change your world…..I stick both girls in the shower every night! They love it and there is enough space between both where I can soap them up without getting wet…while using the handheld to rinse them off. Win for the whole family!!! Have fun renovating….its worth it in the end!
Hannah @ CleanEatingVeggieGirl says
I can only imagine how AWESOME it is going to look when it is finished. You already have a great foundation to work with. I’m excited to see the results!
jodie says
Ugh my old place had mirrored closet doors and one wall in our living room had a mirrored wall.
I’m sure the redo will look amazing. I always love your style!
Heather@hungryforbalance says
Kitchen, hands down, is my top priority. We are staring it this summer!
Good luck on your project- I can’t wait to see the After pictures!
Erin @ Her Heartland Soul says
How exciting! It’s going to look gorgeous!!
Monica says
Our first home was a major fixer-upper! We redid pretty much everything… the kitchen, bathroom, roof, electric, heating, yard… you name it, we did it! We are currently in the process of purchasing a house in which ONLY wallpaper boarders have to be taken down. Such a nice feeling to have it all done already!
Julie says
We bought our house a year ago & completely gutted it before moving in. Over the course of about 6 weeks, we replaced ALL the flooring, painted EVERY wall, replaced ALL the countertops (in kitchen & baths), replaced every sink, faucet, light fixture, doorknob, cabinet pull & window treatment. We extended the master closet & got rid of the drop ceilings in the basement. We knocked out a wall & added one to close off the furnace/storage areas. Both of our favorite change was the new tiled shower in the master bath. You are going to LOVE your new bathroom!!!
Maria says
So funny, we’re currently undergoing a reno ourselves! We are knocking down a half wall that blocks the sight line from the kitchen to the family room and then creating an opening in the wall that divides the living room and family room. We’ve already removed floating cabinets in the kitchen and installed pendant lights above the kitchen peninsula. After hearing the cost of this reno, it’ll be a long time before we try doing anything else. The master bathroom is on our list too but it’s pretty far down. Best of luck!
Char says
Can’t wait to see the after (and for you to get through the construction!).
Ruby Perry says
Hi Brittany! Congratulations for finding such a lovely home! I hope that the whole move was nice and smooth. The bathroom looks fantastic! I really love the design and I personally find it perfect! I’ve moved to heaven! If I see how lovely is the bathroom I can only imagine how wonderful the rest of the house is! I think that your renovation plan is also great! Good luck with making it the way you like it! We have also moved to a new house recently and we are planning a major renovation of the kitchen. This what I am into now and I am looking for some ideas on the Internet. Thanks for sharing!
Dean says
Sounds like you have a quite a project ahead of you. You are off to a good start having a plan of attack. I would love to see how this remodel turns out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Jordan Tomkinson says
If I could re-do any room in my house, it would probably be my living room and kitchen, which flow into each other. We live in a townhome so our home is really narrow. We also live in an end unit, so we have VERY tall, VERY wide windows surrounding the east, south, and west sides of our home. I loved that at first. But then it restricted our options for our over-sized furniture and electronics. There was only one wall that made sense for mounting the TV, which we figured was the best way to prevent our son from damaging the TV with a pen (which happened to a friend of mine… ouch). This means we have a couch in the middle of the room, facing the wall with the TV. But it also has a C shaped stairway that opens up in the middle of the room behind the couch, so there has to be a 3 foot gap behind the couch, so you can access the stairs and closets on the north wall. We have two couches, so one of them has to be perpendicular to the couch in the middle of the room, at a weird distance away from the TV. And the stupid window above our front door is in the PERFECT position to let a bunch of light come through at prime TV time, so there’s a huge glare when you’re sitting on that couch. I’d probably keep the bay window in the front, but make the two windows on the south wall a little less tall. They’re so low that we can’t really put furniture in front of them without blocking out a ton of light and it looks weird. As for the kitchen, we’d add an island and raise the window up about two feet.
Cindy Hoffman says
Hi there Brittamy, even before I look at the after, which I hope you shared here I already love your approach in renovating your bathroom. I have been having lots of ideas and was thinking of inviting an expert over to come help in the situation. Sometimes it can be hectic doing this stuff, last time we did it, it went beyond our budget expectations. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Cindy
Sarah Anderson says
This is a decent looking bathroom, but definitely needs an upgrade. That faucet on the tub looks really cool, it’s to bad that is is so gross you can’t really hold onto it. Whatever you get to replace it will probably look just as cool though.