I hereby present: the hardest room in the entire UNIVERSE to photograph. I shot these photos a few weeks ago and looking at them today was a harsh reminder of horrible lighting situation in here! Our first floor powder room is the epitomy of a cramped, tiny half-bath that makes you wonder how it even made sense when it was designed back in the 1950's. It has no window and you have to basically sit on the toilet before you can shut the door. To be fair, the tiny half bath is a bit of a West Hartford hallmark - nearly every home we looked at had some version of a itty bitty bath squirrled away in a corner somewhere. We are overjoyed to have 2.5 baths - most homes in our town (even north of our budget) only have 1.5 but we're paying for it in size in all three.
Long term, we plan to expand this bathroom (and the other two) and possibly relocate the laundry here (it's currently in the kitchen, bless...) but for now we decided to do a 1.0 remodel just to update the space. It's the only bathroom that guests will normally see so we did this right after we moved in. When we bought it, the room was an interesting shade of neon canteloupe and had dated oak and brushed nickle fixtures:
Please note the wide angle lens gives a generous (false) impression of sq. footage ;) We painted the walls the same Benjamin Moore Fog Mist that we used in the kitchen, hallway and entry way to help give the illusion of more space. My heart desperately wanted to wallpaper in here but we have other rooms to prioritize before we take on a project like that (also - avoiding sourcing a new tiny sink ;). On that note, we also painted the vanity BM Stonington Grey and painted out all of the trim white (aka we had a pro do both of these things - oil paint is not my friend). I sprayed all of the hardware flat black and bought a new faucet from IKEA. I am on the hunt for a little marble remnant and a wee under-mount sink... once I source those I'll add them to the vanity.
In terms of accessories, this room continues to rake in the awkward nominations... the space between the vanity and the wall is too short for most towel bars, but all typical short bathroom shelves that you'd think would make sense actually made the room look even more cramped. Additionally, the toilet paper used to be to the right of toilet and you'd actually hit your elbow on it whenever you sat down. I tried a million shelves/nightstands/etc and finally said screw it brought this big guy home from TJMaxx. Not sure how I feel about it in photos but in real life it actually works - the larger scale makes the room feel bigger and there are no clunky towel bars or toilet paper dispensers to wrangle.
I took the same approach with the art and I love how the large-scale prints look from the tiny hallway. You can see how awkward the tiny prints look in the "before" snaps - the larger art works much better.
If you look closely you can see that the $20 IKEA light we installed actually makes it so that you can't open the medicine cabinet HAHA but to be honest I didn't have any energy left to go source a new one especially since this whole room is barely held together. When we install the new countertop + sink I'll prob swap out the cabinet for a smaller mirror that makes more sense.
I almost didn't share this little room because it is definitely one of those "band-aid" design jobs that I don't feel passionate about but hey, it's all part of the process ;)
Cost breakdown:
Painting + supplies (including labor + all the trim, including the door): $250
Shelving unit: $125, TJMaxx
Vintage prints: $75 (more than I would normally pay but I LOVED these and I found ones by this same artist online for $300/ea...#validation)
New light: $20
Vintage trophy for matches: gift from my friend Sarah
Vintage horse helmet: I forget already but I think it was $10? Maybe $5 or maybe $15?
Trash can: basket we already had
Linens: ones we already had
Total reno: Give or take $500. Feels like a ton of money for a room that will basically be getting a total overhaul in the next few years but it's loads better then when we moved in. I'll post another update when we find a remnant countertop!
Meg