bathroom | This Old Colonial Home

August 13, 2015
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Bathroom Reveal

I’ve been talking about it for months, and now the day is finally here! Our renovated bathroom is done! Are you ready to see it?! (Drum roll, please!)Come on in!

It’s such a rewarding feeling seeing the classic black and white bathroom that we had envisioned for our 1930s house actually come to fruition.This is the first major renovation that we took on. And while yes, we had contractors do the work, the design was all us. That is something I am extremely proud of!

Let’s take a look around.

For the shower, we chose white subway tile and charcoal grout. To me, this is a look you can never go wrong with. It’s timeless and affordable.The same goes for our black and white floor!Even though our window and door trim is wood (which still needs to be stained or polyed), we chose black bull nose tile to go around the floor base for something a little different and I love it!The vanity was definitely a splurge. We needed one with a narrow depth, which is hard to find right off the shelf, so we ended up ordering a custom one.We chose white shaker style cabinets and a black granite counter top. I think it adds such beauty to the room. And talk about an upgrade from the pedestal sink that used to be in here! I don’t know about you, but I hate pedestal sinks. There’s no storage and no counter space. Now we have both!Where did we get the extra room from to put in a real sink? That’s where the new pocket door comes in super handy. What a space saver! Before, the door used to swing in leaving an unusable, dead area behind it. We used the same door that was there before. Jamie had the awful, tedious task of stripping the paint that had been on the one side, and then our contractor cut it to fit the narrower doorway.

Of course, we also have new lighting, a new medicine cabinet, and finally an electrical outlet! (It’s the little things.)To save some money, we kept the same toilet since it was in perfectly fine working condition. And believe it or not, pretty much everything in here — from the vanity, to the tub, to all the tiling and faucets — came from either Home Depot or Lowes! Not bad, right?!

We still have a few minor things to add — like wall decor and accessories. But look how far it’s come from the time we bought the house to now:So I may or may not have been freaking out a bit about the timing and duration of this renovation, but like anything else, it eventually came together. And it was definitely worth the wait!

July 20, 2015
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Bathroom Renovation Progress

Living through a renovation can be tough. It’s even tougher when you’re 9 months pregnant! I had mentioned in previous posts that our upstairs bathroom was getting a makeover.Work started nearly two months ago and has been painstakingly slow. But we might (fingers crossed) actually be turning a corner. So I thought I’d share some of the progress.

Gutting the bathroom was done fairly quickly. I think it took less than 2 days.Then came the extremely slow part — patiently waiting for the plumbing and electric work. Since we’re changing the layout of the room, the pipes and wiring all had to be re-routed. (Upside: we’re finally getting an outlet!!) Once that was done, the subfloor could then be put down, and the closet re-framed. We had decided to take some space from the closet of the adjoining bedroom — and still soon-to-be nursery — to make a little more room in the tight bathroom.The plumber had a little more work to do and even had a new apprentice one day! 🙂 So now the tub has been installed, the window moved, and the pocket door framed in. A few different inspections were needed before the contractor could move forward. So again we waited.

But luckily it all passed inspection and drywall is finally up! The room is starting to take shape once more!There’s still a lot left to do, like painting and tiling, but it should start moving more quickly at this point.

I’ve been a nervous wreck this whole time because things haven’t been going the way I had hoped. (Honestly, I think I watch too many edited reno shows on HGTV and expected everything to go just as quickly. Hah!) It also caused work on the nursery to get delayed. The house is a mess from the construction and there’s baby stuff sitting in the dining room waiting to be put away. So my vision of everything being perfect for baby’s arrival has pretty much been thrown out the window. It’s certainly frustrating, but it’s also out of my control. I guess we’ll see which comes first: the baby or the bathroom!

May 18, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 4 Comments

Upcoming Transformations

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t. But the posts have been slacking as of late. (I apologize.) That’s not to say we aren’t still busily working on the house — we are. Well, Jamie is. I’ve had to take a backseat approach … because in just a few short months we are expecting our first child!I guess you could say we are undergoing our biggest home transformation yet! We are so overjoyed!

So as you can imagine that has been keeping us plenty busy. And Jamie being the good husband and future daddy that he is, is making sure I stay away from projects that involve a lot of physical labor (no pun intended). He is working so hard to get some of our outstanding projects crossed off the list. He is currently in the midst of building two nightstands for the master bedroom.Isn’t this great?! He’s still working on sanding and staining them. I’m working on finding knobs and new lamps. Decorating is pretty much what I’m left with 😛 We also just ordered a new headboard. I can’t wait until it’s all put together and I can show you the reveal. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Instagram at @oldcolonialhome for sneak peeks along the way!

We will also, obviously, need to start working on the nursery. What was the guest room will be transformed this summer into a room for our little one. I can’t wait to get going on that!

And because we don’t have enough on our plate, we will also soon be undergoing a bathroom renovation!Yes, I’ve been saying that for months, but we can thank town bureaucracy for holding up the permit approval. And of course now the timing kind of stinks since a certain someone needs to get up a few times a night to use said bathroom, but it’ll be worth it in the end! I hope to show you a fantastic before and after once it’s done.

So we certainly have a lot to do, but also a lot to look forward to … in more ways than one!

Luca, however, isn’t quite sure yet 😉

January 19, 2015
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New Year, New Projects

So far the new year is off to a slow start in our house. I keep reading about other bloggers’ projects and re-organization tactics. And while inspired (and somewhat jealous), I’m having a hard time getting myself motivated after the holidays. We only just took down all of our Christmas decorations a week and a half ago!

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have some plans lined up.

One of my goals for the new year is to finally finish decorating the master bedroom.Our furniture is all mix matched, but not in a good way. We don’t have window treatments other than blinds and there’s still nothing hung on the walls yet. It’s time.

So far we have managed to get two new dressers.I think just about everyone has these Hemnes pieces from Ikea, but they’re so affordable and look great! I think they have definitely helped improve the room.

On the to-do list is replacing the headboard. Even though I like our current one, I think with the new dressers and the wood floors and trim in the room it’s too many different stain colors. I’m hoping to switch it up with a tufted headboard. I think having fabric will help break up all the wood. I love this one!

From Amazon

We also hope to eventually make two nightstands. I love our yellow one, but I think we plan to move that into another room. Once we have the nightstands, then I can add new lamps and artwork. I’m also working on styling the long dresser and the big blank wall behind it.

The other major goal for the new year is having our upstairs bathroom completely renovated. We’re talking a gut job!But why you may be asking. Because it’s an incredibly small bathroom that has had (original 1937) plumbing issues, surface mold, and peeling paint in the tub. So we figured let’s start fresh — give it a new layout, take a little space from a bedroom closet and hopefully incorporate a pocket door to give us more elbow room and to make it more functional. This is a job for the professionals. We’ve already got our contractor and will hopefully see work begin in the next few weeks. Think classic subway tile and black and white floors. Something like this perhaps.

From Houzz

We are super excited about this! Aside from having our hardwood floors redone and our driveway widened, this is the first major renovation we’re undertaking. I can’t wait to share the progress and end results with all of you!

Here’s to improvements in the new year!

September 2, 2014
by This Old Colonial Home 8 Comments

Bathroom Improvements

Our downstairs bathroom is finally getting a little attention. This is what it has looked like for the past year.No personality and all white. Pretty boring, right? Well not anymore! Jamie breathed some life into it by painting the room Cliffside Gray by Benjamin Moore. It’s actually the same color we have in our master bedroom. Don’t you love how something as simple as paint can improve a room?!

But the biggest improvement has to be the new cabinet doors he made!

Above the toilet we have a built-in cabinet.It’s great for storage, but looks kinda blah. Plus, the doors slide open and it’s hard to get anything out that’s in the middle of the shelf. Also, notice where the toilet paper holder is. Not very convenient. Any new guest in our home would always comment they had the hardest time finding it! Haha! Don’t worry, Jamie fixed that too.

If you follow me on Instagram, you would’ve seen that we picked up some supplies a few weeks ago.This project is what we were up to. We picked up some 1×2 pine boards as well as some beadboard. Jamie decided to take the existing doors, make them hinged, and reface the fronts.

He started by removing the doors from their track and removing the handles. He then used the backs of the doors to be the new front. He cut the 1×2 boards and glued and screwed them on to get this pattern.Jamie also spackled the seams. He then decided to cut the beadboard to fit inside each individual triangle, making sure to keep the pattern lined up. He attached them using glue. You could put the beadboard down first, but to make it flush, you would have to use a tongue and groove type process.

Once all of the pieces were in place, Jamie primed it and then gave it a few coats of white paint. He then added the hinges — 3 on each side.

Hanging them ended up proving to be more difficult than we thought. It was definitely a 2-person job between holding the doors up, lining it up properly, and screwing everything into place. It took some trial and error, but we eventually got it.

I think they turned out great, don’t you?! It’s hard to believe these are the same doors!And here’s the highly anticipated new locale for the toilet paper holder. Much more logical!We also added these cool towel hooks that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.Of course there’s more we want to do in here eventually — like replace the vanity, mirror, and lighting. But for now, this is a pretty good start!

Linking up with Bless’er House | The Shabby Nest | Serenity Now

January 20, 2014
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A Little Paint Goes a Long Way

We’re slowly but surely making progress on changing our walls from being all white. This weekend I tackled the upstairs bathroom while my husband took on the dining room. Isn’t it amazing how just a coat (or two) of paint can make such a difference?

For the upstairs bath we both wanted a light blue. We decided to go with Tinsel Beam by Valspar. And I must say I love it! This bathroom was meant to be blue – now it pops!

Before

After

Note: I really can’t take all the credit. Jamie actually painted the first coat awhile ago. I just added the second coat :-p

As for the dining room, we both agreed we wanted a sage-y color. We chose Mint Frost by Valspar. Again, I’m so happy with this color! Jamie did a great job! Here’s a before and after:

Before

And just for fun here’s a panorama of our front three rooms – dining room, entryway/hall and living room. The entryway/hall was painted awhile back too. The color is Cream in My Coffee by Valspar. It’s a shade lighter than the living room, which is Desert Fortress by Valspar. (We’re big fans of Lowe’s paint if you couldn’t tell!)