A Half Bath Reno (& Disaster)

It all started when I got a finish nailer for my birthday and I set my sights on our half bath for its first project.

Yup. My finish nailer was barely out of the case when I felt the need to do a project, and it needed to happen RIGHT NOW.

Our 6 x 6 half bath was the smallest room in the house and therefore seemed to be a good place to test it out before going on to any larger projects.

In my mind it seemed infallibly like a short and sweet project to start with my new nailer; put up some picture rail, crown molding, roll on some paint, and bada-bing bada-boom…an actual quick project I could knock out in a few days.

But…Y’all know how any “quick project” goes?

It never happens as quickly as you thought it’d go.

My half bath had not been touched since we moved in 5 years ago. I liked the floor tile and toilet put in by the previous owners, but wasn’t a fan of the corner cabinet and vessel sink, and it was time for their wall and trim colors of lavender and purple to go.

I knew I wanted to do floor-to-ceiling with the same color on the trim and the walls, but for the longest time I truly wasn’t sure of what color I wanted. Color ideas went from rosy pinks, deep purples, berry reds, to finally landing on olive greens, which was still new territory for me.

The color I chose was a divine deep olive green by Benjamin Moore called Trailing Vines.

Things were starting to roll in a good way. I had a vision for the room, a color, and my nailer was humming away as the picture rail and crown molding went up.

That’s when disaster hit in the form of my precious little one who wanted to help mama with painting. Unattended.

To say the “surprise” she intended didn’t go the way she’d expected with my reaction is an understatement.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelly | 1901 Fixer Upper (@livinginafixerupper)

I took a look at my bathroom, floors, door, TOILET, & the STAIRS (the stairs that I’ve been removing paint from for years!)…and my reaction was to sit on the entryway floor in complete overwhelm and bawl my eyes out.

It took DAYS to clean up the mess (not to mention my emotions were left really raw). In fact I still have green paint on my newel post that I need to get off with paint stripper. Ugh.

BUT the bathroom project was still there, so after 3 days of recovering from the *ahem* “paint trauma”, I pressed on (and I REALLY needed to finish painting so I didn’t have to worry about a second “surprise”, heh).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelly | 1901 Fixer Upper (@livinginafixerupper)

It was a journey and a half to get this “easy” half bath project done, and goodness I am glad it’s complete. Here it is now:

In true form around here, the room is approximately 95% done, but good enough to call “done” and move on. In the future I’d still like to:

1. restore and install an antique ceiling light and wall sconce
2. hang more artwork
3. install a marble countertop for the sink would be perhaps wishful thinking, but a girl can dream ;)

It’s such a change from before, and I love the extra drama it brings to our main floor. On top of that (tho I’m dubious if I’ll be able to look back on it fondly), I’ll always have a good story to go with this particular room’s reno. ;)

---

Disclosure: affiliate links contained below. If you purchase anything from these links I may receive some kind of commission. However, I only mention products I use, find helpful, and/or love whether I’m compensated or not. Thanks so much for your support! – see full disclosure)

Sources:

Crown moldings and picture rails – Metrie

Picture rail hooks – House of Antique Hardware via Amazon

Picture rail wire – Ook copper hobby wire

Paint Color – Benjamin Moore Trailing Vines 1505

Cabinet Door Pulls – Lowes. Similar here.

Cost for doing the entire bathroom with new moldings, nails, cabinet pulls, caulk and paint: $75. Doing a makeover doesn’t have to cost much, ever, which is why I love to always include what I paid for materials to show that sweat equity pays you well. ;)