HALF BATH MAKEOVER

Reconfiguring the toilet and putting in the pocket door was by far the best thing we did to this little bathroom.

All of the walls had to me moved a bit to accommodate for laundry on one side, pantry on the other, closet on back wall and a nice wide mudroom. Even though the square footage is just about the same as before, installing the pocket door, relocating the toilet to fit in the little 'nook' area that was created, as well as finding the narrow vanity I had repurposed, makes it feel much larger.

photo of when we purchased this beauty:)

The tile we used ran from the mudroom into the half bathroom.

Here is a nice shot of the toilet drain:)

Doing a wall mounted faucet was a last minute decision.  I am grateful that Marc expects nothing less from me than to completely change plumbing details last minute, so he as was able to make it happen.

It was your typical "No biggie, it will only take me an hour or so" to taking up most the day.  I stood by his side the hole time though, offering a cold beer when needed:)s

The herringbone tile came in sheets but still tricky with the 8 million little cuts that had to be made along the top and side.

Although I ran it all the way down to the baseboard on each side, about 8 inches in, I still used a starting board for my straight, level line.  I then filled in the bottom sides afterwards.

groutin!

The vanity…can you believe I almost threw out this hutch top?!  Having a dumpster in your driveway for the summer makes you pitch crap you've had laying around FOREVER. It's really not a bad thing but I might have tossed a thing or two I wish I kept.

Neighbors really like dumpsters too.

I purchased this piece to use in my kids hang out room and converted it into their tv console, but never planned on using the top.


One day, while walking around my shop looking at my inventory for a potential piece, this caught my eye.  The depth and length were PERFECT….but at that point, that was about it.

I knew I could remove the dirty wicker inserts and replace with something else but still, it was ugly.

I wanted to do some sort of overlay for the inserts and sketched out a design on the wicker.  After perfecting the dimensions, I took a picture and emailed this (very professional:)) sketch below, on a piece of baseboard, to Advanced Laser Cutting.
They are a local company here in Grand Rapids and very nice people to work with. They had the fretwork design done for me in a few short days.

I also started playing around with different feet options.   I have used these many times before and they were a great fit for this guy bringing it up to the right height if I used a top mount sink.

The countertop was made from the marble window sills that were throughout the house. I had held onto them for years and used in my master bath reno project a few years ago.  They would work perfect for this budget DIY project too!

They were all the same thickness but varied a little in width, so I cut them all down evenly and then cut to length.

I always use this honing stone to soften up the CUT edges of natural stone.  

I found this stone at the Tile Shop but have purchased them them from Lowes and Homey D as well.  

It does a nice job of cleaning up the edges.

Instead of mortar I decided to use construction adhesive to glue the marble to the top, leaving very thin spaces for grout lines. 

I typically would never used such a light grout on a countertop (or floor) because my motto is "go as dark as you can stand with grout and carpet" but the gray lines contrasted too much, so I used the same antique white as I did on the wall, but sealed it well. 

My feet:)

Because this was the TOP of a piece, the 'hidden hardware" which is the place where you would normally grab to open is now at the bottom, so had to add some cute little hardware. 

Love my little Cedar and Moss sconce.

Because I had a hard time drilling a hole in this tile, I waited a few weeks to find the mirror I really wanted, which I found at World Market.