Guest Bath: Almost there

I'm back with another installment of the Guest Bath Remodel series... and we're just about there! If you can remember back to a week ago, we left with the bathroom looking like this:

Most of the beardbord was done, the vanity was in place, and the room was repainted.

Brad finished up a lot of it during the week, so by Saturday the room was looking like this:

Here's a couple shots of the installed vanity light (from Home Depot):

I placed an order for this oil rubbed bronze set on Ebay (minus the robe hook)

And I picked up this soap dispenser ($7 at Target)

Everything was coming together nicely... but there was one glaring eyesore. Let me remind you of this picture again... can you see it?

If you guessed the medicine cabinet, you were right!

I've always dreamed of a recessed storage nook... recessed + storage are two of my favorite things. So I convinced Brad to rip it out and see what was underneath.

It was better than I thought...

A nice square box ready to be finished!

I had originally pictured smooth, seamless drywall with a dividing shelf in the middle, but we are nowhere near that skill level to make something like that look acceptable. So we headed to the garage...

The solution was right there in our discarded wood pile.

Leftover beadboard! Love it.

So we headed to Home Depot to get the rest of the supplies. The most important supply was a tool we were missing: a skill saw to make the cuts. So we paid the $40 and got one, finally (it's not like we'll never use it again!)

We also picked up some trim to frame it out, and decided it would be neat to recess a light in the top for extra bathroom luminance...

We got to work right away, starting with the back piece:

We measured perfectly and it went right in on the first try (whew!)

We built the light assembly next (which required some creativity since we drilled the hole too big...)

Brad ran the wiring after the top piece was secured:

Then we secured the side pieces and trim...

And here it is, all nailed and framed...

See those broken pieces of wood sitting on the bottom shelf?

This is why....

This box was seriously crooked.

But after the bottom trim piece went on and provided support, we coated the bottom of a 1x5" board with liquid nails, set it on top and caulked it in. Good to go.

Happy Dance! We are so going to do this in our master bath when the time comes (it has the cabinet). This project cost us under $80 (saw included... so $40, really).

See that new ORB fixture peeking out from underneath it?

Hello, $11 towel holder.

And matching towel rod.

And toilet paper holder.

Here's a shot of the whole corner... cause it's all I could fit in this lens.

Note to persons named Brad reading this... wide angle lens = all I want for Christmas. Start saving.

I still need to hang art on the walls, and we're going to place a glass shelf in the storage cubby and pack it with some bathroom necessities. The "grand finale reveal" will come next week!

I had time to squeeze in one more project... a new trash can. This is normally a boring/easy purchase, but I had an idea in my head and this was the perfect chance to execute it.

Have you seen this cute bucket from Urban Outfitters?

Cute, right? I wanted one. But this one was a bit too big, and I thought I could make my own for a bit less $. So I found this on amazon:

Yep... that will work.

I picked up a $2 paint tester at HD in a muted green:

And got to work designing the perfect "TRASH" sign. The typeface "Clarendon" did the trick.

I printed it out on paper with a sticky back...

and carefully traced the letters with an X-acto knife.

Unfortunately, my blade was on the dull side, and a sharp one would have made the process much easier.

Once it was cut out, I peeled the backing off and applied it to the can:

Then I lightly sponge painted over my stencil.

The paper started bubbling up when I did this... which scared me.

And it was not good.

However, I found that all I needed was the edge of my nail and the excess paint scraped right off. So I took a few minutes to clean up the letters, and it had a much better look:

And here is the trash can in its new home:

I like it! What do you think?



Okay, last but not least... we have a new foyer light!

Remember how I had ordered this last week from Overstock?

It came exactly as described and I love it!

Here is the newest most recent foyer shot (there will be a few more of these before we're completely done)

Lights on:

I like the rustic vibe. Our house needs more of that. One piece at a time...


Alright, there's a bbq burger with my name on it. Time to go... be back next week with the final bathroom reveal and another surprise or two!