Half bath progress

Recently we have been focusing our attention on the half bathroom on the main floor.

Here's what it looked like when we moved in:

Here's our progress:

The first thing we did was paint.

I tried to pick something that complimented the floor, which as you can see below is a dark green with some white mixed in. 

We originally thought we could just pop these tiles right out and replace them with something like this penny tile:

But our much wiser fathers pointed out to us that these tiles are set in concrete (see below) and will not just "pop" right out.

Getting them out would require a professional (which we are not)

 and probably a jackhammer (which we do not currently own).

So once we learned of this, we decided that this tile maybe isn't so bad and we would make it work for time being.

The color I chose for the walls to compliment the existing tiles is Halo by Benjamin Moore.

Next, we turned our attention to the gold faucet...

...which we replaced with a new satin nickel one.

I can't take any credit for installing the faucet. Chris did it all himself.

And for a guy who works in finance and has no background in plumbing, not too shabby!

Here's a few pictures documenting the process.

Gross.

This project (from what he tells me and judging by the number of expletives I overheard) wasn't the easiest.

I personally was nervous while he was working on it as I foresaw pipes bursting and water spraying everywhere.

Clearly I should have more faith in him because he was able to do it and the faucet is working great so far (fingers crossed).

Another change we made in the bathroom was install a new mirror.

I really liked this Pottery Barn mirror but went with a more affordable version from Home Depot.

By the way, the Home Depot mirror came with this template below to make hanging the mirror easier.

Genius?

Is this something new or is it just that I have been buying used stuff without instructions from garage sales for too long?

I also added this towel hook (also from Home Depot).

Lastly, I replaced the curtain with slat blinds.

What is left to do is hang some things on the wall like this picture.

We are also thinking of building some kind of shelves above the toilet...

...like these ones that I saw on Pinterest.

Lastly, we might switch out the current light fixture...

...for this fixture below from Shades of Light. 

It has been in my "shopping cart" for weeks now and every time I go to buy it, I back down.

I really like it but I want to be sure the size isn't too big for the space and that it isn't too modern for the look of the house.

One more look at the before and the progress:

 

We may do a real re-do of this bathroom (as in professional) down the road, but for now, I think the small inexpensive improvements make a difference.

TGIF!

-Caitlin