Bye-Bye Builder's Grade - Bathroom Renovation

Ashley Harding
by Ashley Harding
Today I'm sharing a project we just finished in the condo. I'll admit, our condo has been a little ignored lately The to-do list of home improvements finally got long enough that we decided it was time to start tackling some of those items.
Here is the Before picture. There you have it, folks - city living at its finest! I'm pretty sure I should be mortified right now that I'm showing off this room, but what can I say...storage space is a luxury here and you take it where you can get it - even if that means telling your guests they won't be showering for the weekend.
The first step was naturally to convert the room from a storage closet back to a functioning bathroom. We then started demo-ing the floor and shower tiles, repairing the drywall, and removing the vanity and toilet. Here is a shot somewhere along that process.
The main objective of this makeover was to replace the builder's grade look with a more fresh and modern feel. Below is the full scope of work:


Remove wainscoting


Repair drywall


Paint walls


Install new baseboard trim


Replace built-in vanity with freestanding vanity


Replace toilet


Update bathtub walls with subway tile


New light fixture


New hardware


The catalyst to this makeover actually stemmed from a poor design choice on my part when renovating the guest bathroom at the lake house. Long story short, we had an extra bathroom vanity laying around which we knew we wanted to use for this renovation. So, whatever updates we made, they had to coordinate well with the vanity.
Over this past year, I have started to incorporate more black into my decor. I knew I wanted to carry this trend into the bathroom as well. Since we were working with a white vanity, and the room isn't huge, I wanted the use of black to be minimal, but effective. I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to achieve that, until I spotted this mosaic bathroom tile at Floor & Decor. It immediately caught my eye and paired well with subway tile, which I wanted to use for the shower.
With the major design decisions made, I felt pretty good about the bones of the room. I figured from there I could work out the details as I went.


So, let's get to the After pictures and then talk details.
The vanity was actually the same size as the original built-in it replaced, so it fit the space perfect. Thank goodness, because there are no more bathrooms left to pass it down to!
However, because it has the open shelf at the bottom, it looks much less bulky than the original vanity.
We went with a polished nickel finish for all the hardware. It has a slightly more goldish tone to it than the traditional chrome you see so often.
One of the major issues why this vanity didn't work in the original bathroom we planned for was the countertop color. It has some earth tones in it which completely didn't match. Luckily, those brownish hues compliment the flooring in this bathroom much better, allowing me to pull in both browns and blacks.
For more details and a complete source list, visit http://www.vintagerefined.com/blog/2016/5/31/condo-bathroom-makeover-reveal
Ashley Harding
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Kathy Kathy on Jun 05, 2016
    Love it! What paint color did you use? Where did you get the mirror? I love it!
  • Ann Ann on Jun 05, 2016
    I love absolutely everything about this bathroom, floor, vanity, mirror....ok to my question: in the pics the vanity looks like it doesn't touch the floor. Is that an illusion or did you mount the cabinet to the wall just a smidgeon high?
  • Nell Nell on Jun 16, 2016
    Flooring in guest bathroom. Where can I find something just like that, I absolutely love it. I went to the website mentioned in the tutorial but could not find anything like it. Do you have some kind of stock or item number so I can check back with that website??
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