Before & After: Kim’s Powder Room Renovation
This weeks Before and After is brought to you by Kim (Fred’s better half). She took on the challenge of updating their first floor powder room. I think you’ll agree that it is an amazing transformation.
As with every week, OPC will make a $25.00 donation to Habitat for Humanity.
The Powder Room Makeover
Buying a fixer-upper has left us with years’ and years’ worth of renovation and all-out conversion projects. Sometimes it seems like we’ll never get there. So, to encourage myself, I decided to tackle the smallest room in the house first: our main floor powder room.
When we bought the house, 20 year old wall paper “hung on” (read “was peeling off”) the walls.
After buckets of Dif-y-water and hours of scraping and drywall patching,
I was finally ready to paint and accessorize. As mentioned in a prior post, I used flat paint the first time but have recently have gone back and repainted in eggshell, due to child-wear on the room. The gray-purple color has remained the same, however: Duron #8875 “Pigeon Isle.” We found a color like it while attending a friend’s wedding in North Carolina. Their reception hall’s walls popped with the white trim and were enough of a muted purple that Fred liked it as much as I did. Once home, I pulled out my paint fan and found “Pigeon Isle.” For my most recent re-paint, I used Jocie’s brand comparisons information and bought Ralph Lauren eggshell paint and had Home Depot color-match the Duron chip.
When we bought the house, the bathroom accessories were all different metals. For the re-do, I went with brushed nickel, since the room is tiny, and I wanted to keep the accessories light like the trim to make the room feel as “airy” as possible. I replaced the lighting fixture over the sink, removed a medicine cabinet and closed the drywall and hung a mirror over the sink as well, replaced the toilet paper holder and removed a towel bar (more drywall patching), added a towel ring, replaced the faucet, replaced the toilet seat (no, we didn’t keep the pink one), and found two pieces of wall art that incorporate the wall color.
Some time in the future, we’ll replace the vinyl flooring with the hardwood we hope to carry throughout the first floor of our house, and we’ll replace all the trim and the door. For now, though, the room looks finished and coordinated. It’s the one place I go to remind myself that we’ll get there with the REST of the house. Someday.
Thanks from OPC
Obviously, your hard work paid off. The bathroom looks great. And this is a relatively, low-cost remodel. You have a new bathroom for the cost of some paint, art, and hardware!
Habitat Quick Fact
From Habitat’s website about World Habitat Day:
World Habitat Day, an annual event created by the United Nations, falls on the first Monday in October and unites people of goodwill and organizations around the cause of housing to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.
This World Habitat Day will focus on the estimated 1 billion people living in slums, and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Secure tenure signifies that an individual has protection against eviction from housing or property they rightfully own or rent. Right now, families in many parts of the world are being forced from their homes as a result of harassment, corruption, excessive bureaucracy and discrimination against women and minorities.
Please join Habitat for Humanity in support of World Habitat Day 2008, as we raise our voices and take a stand in support of those facing wrongful eviction in our communities, in our countries and in our world.
For information on how you can help, e-mail worldhabitatday@habitat.org.
What do you think? Let Kim know what you think of her awesome bathroom makeover.
Comments & Conversation on this Article...
4 Responses to Before & After: Kim’s Powder Room Renovation
Wait! Got a question on your own project?
Ask your question in our Home Improvement Help Forums.
Otherwise, leave a note here!
September 22nd, 2008 12:57 am
Absolutely awesome.
September 22nd, 2008 3:19 am
What an update! Kim, you must be so pleased after living with that old wallpaper for years. I love your color choices. May I offer one suggestion? Try a larger piece of art than the one you have over the toilet. I know it’s a small room but the scale of the one you’ve chosen seems to draw attention to the smallness of the room. A piece with more presence may anchor the room more and not comment on the room’s size. If you don’t like the larger piece, return it to the store and put back the original. But really, nice work!
September 22nd, 2008 5:04 pm
Looks great Kim! Well done you. Taking on a smaller project is a great way to keep up enthusiasm for the big ones that test the patience. I really like your choice with the brushed nickel, and hope to refit my master bath with similar in the future.
September 30th, 2008 12:47 am
I wanted to keep the accessories light like the trim to make the room feel as “airy” as possible. I replaced the lighting fixture over the sink, removed a medicine cabinet and closed the drywall and hung a mirror over the sink as well, replaced the toilet paper holder and removed a towel bar (more drywall patching), added a towel ring, replaced the faucet, replaced the toilet seat (no, we didn’t keep the pink one), and found two pieces of wall art that incorporate the wall color.