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05 July 2007

The little bathroom that could.... .. bankrupt me. I'm working on painting and redecorating my bathroom. I can't believe the number of things I have had to buy for this. Originally I thought, well, the sink, tub and toilet and floor are all fine, so I'll just have to paint. But then I'm a simpleton.→[More:]

My bathroom is small and basic, with just a tub, a pesdestal sink, a toilet, and enough room for an average-sized person to walk around. As my mother says, you can tell it was designed 95 years ago. There are four kinds of ceramic tiles used throughout, which are brown-checked in the shower and gray and pink rose pattern on the walls, and then some of the brown-checked ones in the shower have been replaced with plain white. I'll be painting all of these tiles cream. The floor is a sort of marbled green and ivory pattern, so I left that as it was and chose my colour scheme to go with the floor (cream and light spring green). I've tried to create as much storage space as I could.

Here's the list of what I have bought so far:

- Special primer for the shower
- Cream bath and kitchen paint for the walls (fortunately already had the primer for the walls because it was leftover from when I painted my bedroom)
- Two lighting fxtures (the old ones were bare bulbs on rusted mounts)
- A vanity mirror cabinet (old one was rusted out)
- A shower caddy
- A spring green new bathmat and seat cover (my old ones were the right colur, but they were toast)
- New towels in cream and spring green (okay, didn't REALLY need those).
- A little curtain (which I will make) to hide the pipes in the recessed area under the pedestal sink, and also to create a little storage area for my cleansers, toilet brush and plunger.
- Towel racks (there formerly weren't any whatsover, unless you count several sets of old hardware - meant to go under the racks - which were so encrusted with paint that they had to be ripped out of the wall by brute force)
- toilet paper holder, as the old one was a broken plastic thing
- New doorknob (the doorknobs in my house are truly a motley, paint-splashed collection, and so many are unnecessary key locks because this place used to be chopped up into rental units, so I'll be replacing them all)
- New handheld massaging shower head (also optional, but I'm sure we'll be very happy together)
- A couple of quaint wooden boxes with lilies painted on them ($5 from Value Village, and will be both so nice as decor items and handy for Q-tips and the like).

Still to buy:
- A shower bar (the old one was a bent, rusty mess)
- a wall cupboard (old one was battered and ugly white melamine thing that blocked half the window)
- new bamboo blinds (old ones were filthy, broken white vinyl)
- probably a toothbrush holder (old one was ugly, broken green plastic thing)
- a new fan (old one doesn't work)
- probably some sort of decorative corner shelving unit, such as a couple of glass shelves.

It's all adding up to some insane amount of money.

Did I reuse any of the existing fittings? Just three of the four hooks that were on the back of the door (the fourth was broken) and even those were paint splashed and must be scoured clean.

But I will have a very pretty, convenient bathroom when done. So far I've done the prep work and got the first coat of primer in the shower.

post by: Orange Swan at: 11:03 | 11 comments

You're painting the tiles? How does that look?

I had two bathrooms here, in badly need of a facelift but one had ugly 80's tiles and one has some sort of plastic wallpaper (*shudder*). We didn't consider painting either of them since, well , I din't know you could - and the drain in the floor was from pre-1994 (as it turns out, probably the 1930's) and you can't actually keep those once you start renovating (some 'law' that makes people renovate properly or not at all to keep building from becoming water-damaged I think), so we had to tear it all down to build it back up again.

On the other hand, this was just as well, now we could do a proper 'lean' on the floor so that water spilling from the tub would go down the drain, and oooh we could get tubs in both! Bathroom downstairs is finished-ish (lacks some paint on the door) but upstairs there's still just a hole. You wouldn't beleive how many primers and goo's and cements and glues and nets and stuff go in layers underneath the tiles. It's like frosting a cake! Layer upon layer upon layer upon layer.... Wait, now I'm hungry. Do you have any cake?

Hope it turns out nice! :) It'll all be worth it you'll see! Especially the new towels! FLUFFY!!!

posted by dabitch 05 July | 11:17

You have to post before/after pics of the painted tiles. I'm curious, too.

(although you might want to do a google search on subway tiles and see if you really want to paint them. there's a huge market for tile from that era now)

posted by kellydamnit 05 July | 11:26

You're painting the tiles? How does that look?

Very nice, actually, because you paint the grout too so you get a really nice consistent colour. And you don't have to worry about grout discolouration. This is the first time I've done a bathroom. Back when I had a condo I did the backsplash in the kitchen and was really happy with it. Painting over those pink and gray 80's graphic pattern tiles (ugh!) was $30 and a few hours work, compared to replacing them for $200 and lot more work. And I could choose absolutely any colour I wanted, whereas tile selection was considerably more limited.

posted by Orange Swan 05 July | 11:26

The tile in my 80-year-old bathroom has been repainted with special tile paint at least once and it's unnoticeable. It looks like tile, not painted tile. I am a little disappointed, though, because whoever did it painted it all white and (because they didn't do a good job behind the radiator) I know that at the very least the row of tile at the floor is not supposed to be white. I'm a little leery about trying to remove the paint, though.

Now I have to get the electrician in, to move the peacock chandelier (which is too large for the space) into the dining room (and repair it while he's at it and do all the other electrical that needs doing).

posted by crush-onastick 05 July | 11:27

You know, crush, it's really easy to take down a light fixture and move it yourself. I've replaced a good ten fixtures so far myself. So if you want to save yourself some money, have at it, and just remember two things: to shut off the current before you begin, and match the colours of the wires to the like coloured other wires (black goes with black, white goes with white). You'll probably have to have it professionally fixed, however.

posted by Orange Swan 05 July | 11:48

Wow, I had no idea you could paint tile. I'm so going to do that in my shower.

posted by chewatadistance 05 July | 11:50

In the first three pictures of my bathroom set you can see how the bathroom looked originally (flowery old lady tiles) and how it looked after the tile was painted white (using special one-coat tile paint which I'm not sure is available in the US or Canada). The painted tile and new floor gave the bathroom a few more years of life until I had the new bathroom fitted a month ago.

posted by essexjan 05 July | 12:00

Wow, essexjan! I think both your temporary redecoration and your second bathroom renovation look great. The first is cute, the second sleek and elegant. I'll hardly have the heart to post my before and after pictures now;-)

posted by Orange Swan 05 July | 12:08

I'm very impressed, kudos

posted by matteo 05 July | 12:25

OS, because you repeatedly mention "rust" when discussing old light fixtures and metal parts, and because you live in cold northern climes, I'm going to suggest you think about getting some ventilation in that bathroom as part of your remodel. Really, light fixtures, even old ones, aren't supposed to rust.

In use, light fixtures usually run at elevated temperatures above ambient air temperature, so if they are rusting, you've got some long lasting elevated humidity in there. In summer, you should send it outside. In winter, you might want to spread it out around the house, to combat winter dryness. But whatever you do, don't leave that level of humidity in a bathroom.

posted by paulsc 05 July | 13:35

It's probably due to the fact that the fan hasn't worked for God knows how long, paulsc. So I'm expecting that by fixing that, I should solve the problem. But thanks for the advice.

posted by Orange Swan 05 July | 15:00

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