Powder Room Re-do

When you think of what a powder room looks like, you are most likely thinking of what our powder room looked like when we moved in.  It consisted of an oak vanity with a cream vanity top that took up one wall, and a toilet on the opposite wall.  We knew when we started renovating that we at least wanted to paint and replace the vanity.

OLD POWDER ROOM

The existing flooring was the same peel and stick tile that we had in the kitchen, and the paint was the same yellowish color that every other room in the house was painted.  Time for a change.


We decided to tear everything out and continue the walnut flooring into the powder room so that the entire first floor had a consistent flooring.

THE NEW FLOORING WITH EVERYTHING ELSE REMOVED

We loved the look of the powder room in our townhouse, and decided to go with the same color on the walls.  Behr Trail Print is a cocoa colored paint that traditionally should probably not be used in such a small space, but it looks oh-so-good in a powder room.  We also fell in the love with the Kohler Memoirs pedestal sink and toilet due to its clean and straight lines and decided to use them in this room as well.  Due to the lack of storage with a pedestal sink (vs. a vanity), a powder room would be the only time we would use a pedestal sink over a vanity.  We can hide the extra toilet paper upstairs in our linen closet.

So, we had our color chosen, and our toilet and sink, but we wanted something unique in this powder room.  You know that we can't do anything "standard" so we set out to do something a little unexpected.
We came across a great deal on some custom ordered tile that had been returned to Home Depot.  It is a "cubist" tile and each cube is a different depth, creating a three dimensional tile.  We decided to install the tile from floor to ceiling on the wall behind the pedestal sink.

WORKING ON THE TILE

TILE AND THE NEW PAINT COLOR

The tile was on a 12"x12" mesh sheet and our room was exactly 3' wide.  So what that meant was that there was no tile cutting!  Oh Happy Day!  We had to remove a few of the tiles from a couple of the sheets to slip over the plumbing lines.  We also removed a rectangle from two tiles above to accomodate two sconce lights from Home Depot. We did this by taking a utility knife and cutting the mesh on the backside, removing a few cubes at a time until we had the holes that we needed.

FINISHED TILE WITH SCONCE LIGHTS

FINISHED TILE WALL!

We went with a satin nickel faucet in a farmhouse style to keep with the modern rustic decor of the rest of the house.  We also wanted a rustic mirror, so Nate made one using some reclaimed wood that he had found. He also ordered some oil rubbed bronze clavos (old nails) that he put at each corner to complete the old rustic look of the mirror. We added crown moulding and base moulding to the room to finish off the look.


A couple of friends have commented that they won't "use" a bathroom this nice.  Mission complete!

Here is the quick Before and After:

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

AFTER

From Dark and Dreary, to Fresh and Modern

The fireplace is the living room was dark.  Dark oak, dark reddish brown brick, dark, dark, dark.  YUCK! I knew immediately that I was going to paint the fireplace a much lighter color to freshen things up.

LIVING ROOM AND FIREPLACE BEFORE WE MOVED IN

DARK AND DREARY FIREPLACE

The living room was painted yellow (the same color every other room in the house was painted).  I knew that I really wanted a gray and yellow room but it was definitely NOT the walls that I wanted to be yellow.  The walls got painted a soft gray (the same color in the kitchen and hallways), the old base moulding was taken out and a new 5" moulding was added and painted Benjamin Moore Cloud White, of course the floors were done, and some yellow accents were added.  BUT the biggest difference in this room was the painting of the fireplace.
I had mentioned to several people (Nate, and his family specifically) my intentions with the fireplace and got an overwhelming response,  "Don't do it!"  No chance, my mind was made up and the fireplace was going to be painted.  So, I broke out the can of Benjamin Moore Cloud White and went at it!  Actually, I had to put two coats of primer on the fireplace first, and then the three coats of Cloud White.  Covering the dark wood was hard work for such a light color!
Take a look at the difference!  Fresh and Modern don't you think?

PAINTED FIREPLACE

We added a yellow Pottery Barn Moorish rug (great Craigslist find), dupioni silk drapes in a color just slightly darker than the walls (found at Tuesday Morning), and some pillows that my mother made with fabric (Dahlia Dove) from Calico Corners.  We also took down the very dark mirror above the fireplace (photo above) and added a sunburst mirror.  We found the mirror at Burlington Coat Factory and loved it except for the fact that it was a hideous gold color.  We spray painted it with a mixture of pewter paint and satin nickel metallic paint to give it some depth.  It turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself.  With all of these elements and the freshly painted fireplace, I had a fresh and modern, gray and yellow living room.

FINISHED!

Oh, and see that large mirror in the corner?  Nate made that for me for my birthday in 2006.  Isn't he beyond talented?!

CHRISTMAS IN OUR NEW LIVING ROOM!

Livin' It Up in the New Den

One thing about us, is that when we want to relax, we need to relax, and we needed a place to do it.  Our new home had a room (that we now refer to as the Den) that was adjacent to the kitchen and leads out to the backyard.  It was OK the way that it was, but we really desired a comfy, cozy place to relax.

The existing den had a wood fireplace and some wood veneer built-ins around it.

OLD DEN

OLD BUILT-INS

The built-ins were alright, but the space above the existing built-ins was being wasted.  There was a drywall area above the fireplace that we really wanted to take out to open up the space a little bit.  The room has a vaulted ceiling with a skylight and we really wanted to highlight that element of the room.

Nate began the tear out while I was working on the dining room wainscoting.

TEARING OUT THE DRYWALL.

You can see how much room was above the original built-ins that was just covered up with drywall.  We decided to keep the built-ins at each side and eventually add height to them and paint them to match the rest of the trim in our house.  The wood surround and mantel around the fireplace was easily removed as it was just a veneer over the drywall.

NEW DRYWALL COVERING THE OPENING

PATCHED AND READY TO PAINT.  LOVING THE NEW FLOORS TOO!

In our previous townhouse, Nate had decided that he really wanted to do some Pennsylvania stacked stone around the fireplace there.  It turned out beautifully, and we got a lot of compliments on it.  If you know anything about the company that Nate works for, they do a lot of stacked stone walls and are truly masters of the art.  We decided to hire some of the masons that work for Nate and have them do a similar look here, taking the stone all the way to the ceiling to highlight our vaulted ceilings.

First, we had to paint.  We decided to go with a color called "Gun Metal Gray" by Benjamin Moore that had a hint of blue in it.  We really wanted to go darker in this room to create the comfy, cozy feeling that we were going for.  The built-ins were painted "Cloud White" by Benjamin Moore to match everything else that we painted with this off-white color.  We also needed to mount our cedar mantel that we had beat up with some chains and hammers in the garage to give it a little "character".  It was also a great stress reliever!

NEW MANTEL!

Once the mantel was hung, we also hung a board that would eventually support our television (that is the large black piece of wood above the mantle) and Nate ran flexible conduit from the left side cabinet up through the mantle (this eventually gets hidden by the stone) so that the cable and electrical cords could be hidden.  Pure genius!  Time to call in the very talented stone masons...

JOSE WORKING HARD ON THE STONE FIREPLACE

OUR SMILING MASONS, JOSE AND NATALIO

ALMOST DONE!

Now it was time to fill the built-ins with all of the books that we had collected over time.  We also added cedar on each of the cabinets below to match the cedar mantel.  Nate roughed them up and ground in some dirt in order to get the new cedar to match the older cedar of the mantel.  They turned out great and added a nice element to tie everything together.

BEFORE THE CEDAR TOPS ON THE CABINETS, BUT ALMOST FINISHED

Above the right bookshelf, we decided to add a nook to display some art work.  We are currently searching for a cool piece of driftwood to put up there to create great shadows when the small puck light illuminates the space.  The puck light was Nate's idea to add some interesting lighting to the space.

Get ready for the Before and After!!!

BEFORE

AFTER!

The furniture in this room will eventually be replaced.  The money tree in the backyard was cut down for this renovation, and hasn't regrown yet in order for us to buy new furniture for this room :)