Small Master Bathroom Remodel with Stylish, Affordable Countertop Storage!

For those of you who are new around here, I thought I'd repost a couple of our favorite projects for you to enjoy this month! I know that they can get lost in the mix of things, and I just think that some of our most popular tips, tricks and DIY's would be fun to revisit!

One of our all-time favorites has been our last homes master bathroom makeover, complete with affordable, creative storage from just two inexpensive CD storage shelves (boo-ya!) - check it out!

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Well, here she is! In all of her more modern than cottage (but still a good mix of both) glory, our Master Bathroom Makeover is finally done!!! Oh how sweet the sound; the last part of that sentence. haha! It's always so exciting to be able to check-off another finished room on our huge "spaces to makeover" list, but like I mentioned before, this project threw us for a loop. With a LOT of brainstorming on how to make this bathroom "House of Smiths worthy" (aka: pretty, organized AND functional) we eventually pulled it off, and now we can show you all the fun little details through pictures!

Bathroom Vanity Tutorial

Layered Molding Board & Batten Tutorial

Bird - Down to Earth, Greenery and small Mirror - Ikea, Sink - Villeroy & Boch

Master Bathroom Makeover Reveal + CD Towers turned Vanity Storage

Well, here she is! In all of her more modern than cottage (but still a good mix of both) glory, our Master Bathroom Makeover is finally done!!! Oh how sweet the sound; the last part of that sentence. haha! It's always so exciting to be able to check-off another finished room on our huge "spaces to makeover" list, but like I mentioned before, this project threw us for a loop. With a LOT of brainstorming on how to make this bathroom "House of Smiths worthy" (aka: pretty, organized AND functional) we eventually pulled it off, and now we can show you all the fun little details through pictures!

Bathroom Vanity Tutorial

Layered Molding Board & Batten Tutorial

Bird - Down to Earth, Greenery and small Mirror - Ikea, Sink - Villeroy & Boch

Layered Molding Board & Batten Tutorial - Master Bathroom

Just like I promised, we're back with another master bathroom project today! If you missed yesterdays post about our vanity makeover, then you can check that out below, along with a few other master bathroom project links from the past.

  

   

 

Today we're going to share a layered molding board and batten treatment that we applied to the largest empty wall in our master bath, that we now use to hang our towels on.

We wanted our bathroom to appear as large as possible, because it's so small, so we knew that some sort of white, clean molding would do the trick. We thought about doing the same sort of board and batten wall treatment that we put up in Aubrielle's old room...

 ...but we wanted the look in our bathroom to be a bit more masculine and "chunky",

so here's how we did it:

We started off by painting the actual wall white first. I know you can put MDF and other flat pieces of wood or paneling on the wall for a super smooth finish, but we always just save our money and paint the wall white, to make it just LOOK like it's all one big piece of molding.

:)

Next we figured out our wall design and laid it out, so we could see how it was all going to fit together.

Master Bathroom Vanity Makeover

Yippy-skippy! This week is going to be ALL about our Master Bathroom Makeover, and today I thought we'd start out with a few post links and reminders of things we've already covered/conquered in this itty-bity space.

This small bathroom has DEFINITELY, by FAR been our longest, most design challenging project to date, and Cason and I both agreed that it was because we kept trying to make the space bigger, better and more grand... when it wasn't really possible. ha! Once reality hit and we figured out that walls couldn't be knocked down and our coffin-type shower wasn't getting ripped out and replaced (due to having no budget for that) we finally came to peace with our design plan and moved forward.

:) 

To read individual posts about progress made on our master bath so far, click on the images below.

   

   

  

Now that you've gotten up to speed on some of the posts you might have missed over the past TWO YEARS... yes, it's taken us THAT long to get around to finally finishing and posting about this freakin' bathroom... we wanted to show you in a few posts this week, some more up-close details and tutorials on how we refinished a few specific areas in this space, to make our master bathroom feel and look as good as we could possibly make it.

First, is our vanity!

Because our master bathroom is super small, we knew that our vanity area (taking up as much room as it did) was really going to have to set the tone for almost our entire space.

Just a quick reminder: Cason leans more towards a modern style, and I tend to go heavy on the cottage-feel... so mixing the two together in perfect harmony can sometimes be a little challenging, but in our experience it always has a pretty great result!

So we moved forward with clean crisp white cupboards (with slight distressing) and sleek modern pulls and handles. This is what we came up with in the end!

We love it, and it definitely reflects our style a LOT better than the look we had before.

Here's how we did it:

DIY Decorative Tile Wall Art

I almost hate to post this, without a full bathroom reveal, but I guess I have to start somewhere. ha! Between all the crazy Summer events and other projects we've been working on, we've also been s.l.o.w.l.y (that's an understatement) chipping away at our master bathroom makeover this past year. Putting up the last finishing touches, along with finding the perfect piece of artwork for the blank space behind our toilet has been a challenge.

Well... we're still working on some of the decor for the space, but at least we have our unique piece of art figured out!

We knew we wanted to maintain a spa-like feel in the space, with clean, simple decor, so when I found these rustic wood tiles at World Market, I knew they would look great in our bathroom.

Master Bathroom Finishing Touches ... kind of

I feel like if I subtitle this post with "finishing touches" that it will make me feel like we're thaaaat much closer to finishing this bathroom redo, that money will automatically appear out of thin air, and all of the perfect decor for my bathroom will magically be nicely stocked in ONE store, at the same time... in a convenient location near my home.

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PS: It's not working.

:(

Reality is. Enough is never enough for us! First we were just going to paint some walls and slap up a few hooks. Now, besides ripping out the actual shower and tub ... we've basically undergone a full bathroom remodel. Electrical, trim, granite counter tops, new fabulous toilet and sink, and now...built-ins. gah! 

Really, it's all Cason's fault. While laying in bed one night he sketched up this baby.

Built in's? Whaaa? How can a girl say NO to built-ins?

Well, I don't know about YOU... but I can't. So we're Cason's going to build some built-ins!

:)

We've got most of it assembled, except for the doors, and then we'll move onto painting and installation. That will probably take another good month or so... what do ya think?

(rolling my eyes) juuuust kidding.

Granite City: Discount Granite & FREE Sinks!

We've had a bunch of questions about our bathroom re-do lately, and one of the most frequent - mostly from our local readers, has been:

"What granite yard did you go to, to get your discounted granite from, for your bathroom vanity counter top?"

Well, in short:

Granite City, in SLC Utah

125 West Walton Avenue

We knew that when we started to re-haul the bathroom, we wanted to switch out our counter top.  You can read more about that here.

So we went searching for discounted granite near our home, and stumbled onto Granite City.

We have worked directly with Doug, who is in charge of retail sales.  He has been amazing through the entire process.  From finding a piece of remnant granite from his yard, in the color we wanted, to checking up on us after the installation was made!

2011 Summer Happenings

Whew!  Really?  It's almost July?  Jeesh.

I thought I'd drop in to let you know what we've been up to lately.

Well, at least that's what this funny girl, below tells everybody.

Yes, "we all got's new glasses".  Everyone except for Cason...

It was a Master Bathroom Week: Video Update!

We got SO much done this week in our bathroom, that I didn't know where to start!  So I'll let this crazy video sum it all up for ya.

 :)

Master Bathroom Granite Installed

It was like Christmas morning... except it was just a Friday in May. ha!

Granite City rolled in right on time, and our new BEAUTIFUL granite counter top was installed lickity-split!

I am in love.

Painting the Master Bathroom Vanity (progress)

We are SOOOO excited to finally get moving again on our master bathroom.

What are we working on now?

Our Vanity!

Here is a before:

Nothing wrong with this look... We're just ready for a change! :)