Two of the rooms most need of update on our new house were the bathrooms.…
Basement Bathroom Makeover
We are lucky enough to have a full bathroom in the basement of our house, which is super useful especially since we don’t have a bathroom on our first floor. But when we moved in, the bathroom looked like nobody had touched it since 1980. It needed a full renovation.
And being the DIY-ers that we are of course we took on making over this space all by ourselves. It has taken us 4 1/2 years to finish it. Wow we are slow! But most times slow is in the budget and slow is just how life lets you finish a project like this.
We did a ton of projects here, mostly on our own, and learned a lot of new DIY skills. The only three things we hired help for (one friend and two professionals) were the fixing of the toilet flange which broke, the electric, and the installation of the base of the shower.
These were our plans to take on this basement bathroom makeover:
- Gut the space
- Frame out and build the walls and floor
- Install shower, toilet, vanity, lights etc.
- Decorate and use it!
Here is the breakdown of the projects we did:
- How to Grout Pebble Tile
- How to Silver Leaf a Mirror Frame
- New Basement Bathroom Vanity Ikea Style
- New Bathroom Lights
- Plank Wall DIY Tips
- Grizzle Gray Paint for the Bathroom
- Working with DRICore Subfloor in a Basement
- How to Use Self Leveling Concrete
- Tearing Apart the Bathroom
- Basement Bathroom Before
You can see all the stages of our renovation at those links above. Here is the bathroom before.
Here it is now.
Once the shower tile was finished, it was time to decorate the space. I’m a simple decorator, I don’t like too much frill so I only added some fake flowers (since there’s not a lot of light down there), a shiny object, and my favorite bath towels from Serena and Lily in their bright Marine color.
Once we finished this space, we couldn’t wait to take a shower. Here are the small built in shelves we put up in the space between the outer wall and shower.
The shower was the biggest area of concern. We ended up with a non-standard size for the floor of the shower and didn’t want to spend a fortune on a custom base to tile on so we ended up making a bench. It only took us a year to figure that out.
The accent tile and river rock tile floor were bonuses that completely take the space from plain to perfect. It’s affordable to add in some accents and splurge on a floor in your favorite tile. Dan did the tiling, I did all the grouting.
The distressed plank wall, dark grey paint, modern vanity and glass shelf came together to create a simple, modern look which I just love. I didn’t specifically plan this entire space out in my head before we did it, but the contrasts in the colors and materials are totally our style and work so well in here. It’s Dan’s favorite place to shower.
The floor is the same sheet roll-out vinyl that we installed in our upstairs bathroom. It’s super say to put in all by yourself and is only a few dollars a square foot. Plus it gives the look of real tile, depending on the pattern you pick.
The vanity contrasts nicely with the white wall (which we installed in about 20 minutes), and I like that it holds a towel, and necessities underneath without being seen.
I silver leafed a yard sale mirror and did the plumbing for the sink myself.
See all the basement bathroom project here.
Sources: Paint color Grizzle Gray by Sherwin Williams; Shower tile by Lowes; Shower Tile Ready Base by Build.com; Shower Curtain from HomeGoods; Flooring by Tarkett Flooring; Vanity and skin from Ikea; Lighting by DecorUSA; Towels by Serena and Lily.
Incredible transformation, the new colors are fantastic, well done Jessica, thank you for sharing your work, is very inspirational.
Wow that bench in the shower is a brilliant idea especially if elderly people would stay at your home. You made me want to redo my bathroom but I’m still debating between the different colors/styles of granite.
What a difference! Looks lovely – you must be proud <3