Bathroom Reveal

Remember way back when I got the itch to redo our main bathroom upstairs? It's the bathroom our kids use to take baths and our guests use when they visit. It's decent enough in size, but it was lacking - majorly - in style. This is what the bathroom looked like after we painted the cabinets white years ago:

White cabinets, white towels, white tile, and white shower curtain, if I remember correctly. It was one of those projects that I had started, said "Good enough," and left alone, never coming back to reassess. Then {Oh happy day!!} I received a catalog from Restoration Hardware with a stunning bathroom. The pages beckoned to me, calling out "Come in. Relax. Pamper yourself." Luxury! Do you remember?

Image taken from here.

It didn't take more than the spread on pages 22-23 of the Restoration Hardware Annual Bath Event catalog to inspire me to find the perfect dark brown-black paint and get started on my own bathroom transformation.

First, Dave removed the ugly tile backsplash and strange small counter over the toilet.

A couple coats of Behr's Dark Cavern to the cabinets, and we were well on our way to a bathroom redo.

In the whole Project Paint the Upstairs ordeal, the bathroom was repainted with Berkshire Beige right before Dave and his dad were about to install a new granate countertop.


Berkshire Beige took its place on the walls.

The new counter and sink waited impatiently
to be installed. Or maybe it was me who was impatient?

Just when we thought it was smooth sailing with the counter installation, we ran into a hurdle. The cabinets in the bathroom had been custom made, and they weren't a standard size. Rather than having to order a custom sized granate counter {and pay extra money galore}, we bought a standard sized counter and a new standard sized cabinet base to fit the counter. We weren't counting on the added expense of the new cabinet base, but the new counter would have been too wide and too deep for the old one. Add that to water damage to the inside of our existing cabinet from a crack in the old sink, and it was a pretty easy decision to go ahead and purchase a new cabinet base. The new base got a couple coats of Dark Cavern before Dave and his dad put it in place.

Watching Dark Cavern dry....

With the installation of the new cabinet, counter, and faucet, the bathroom was almost complete.

My favorite bit of bathroom decor went back up on the walls as soon as the paint dried....

Each baby's butt, only appropriate for the bathroom.


While I waited for the counter and cabinet to be installed, I had time to hunt for a new rug and shower curtain to match all this bathroom newness and found something perfect at Target. A shower curtain with subtle clean stripes and a fluffly, taupe rug rounded out the makeover.


I'm in love with the new shower curtain.


One last finishing touch: notice the panes in the window?

I adore the unique octagon shape of the bathroom window, but I wasn't in love with the cutesy panes. Lucky for me they're an insert that is simply set in the window. Removing the insert couldn't be easier, and it updated the look for free.

New tile is still on the agenda but not too high on our priority list. Dave and I don't dislike the white tile as much as we used to, and we're willing to live with it for now.

One last before and after:

Notice the fluffy new rug?



I'm so happy that Restoration Hardware catalog came in the mail. The bathroom went from "EEK!" to "Chic!". Have you stopped to think about changes you could make to love where you live lately?