DIY Bathroom Makeover

Inspiration:

This is a page from the magazine Portrait of Portland that I had been saving in a file in hopes of creating something similar in our home someday. 

Little did we know that "someday" would turn out to be September of 2003 when our upstairs bathroom pipes began to leak causing the sheetrock in the bathroom below to saturate and eventually give way. The startling clue that alerted us to the unknown problem was the sound of shelves and pictures crashing to the floor, taking with them chunks of soggy, wet sheetrock. Once Ron fixed the leak and we assessed the damage we decided that the best thing to do was gut the entire little bathroom and start over. So we said good-bye 80's style dusty pink and blue wallpaper with a heart border and matching decor, oak cabinets, tile counter tops and dated light fixture... 

(unfortunately I do not have photos of the how it looked prior to removing the sheetrock and insulation)

BEFORE 

and Hello updated "French countryside"!

AFTER

Our New, Updated Powder Room!

Our DIY bathroom makeover was completed in January 2004 when Ron finished and installed the beautiful custom cherry cabinet that he designed and built. We had originally planned on buying a pre-made furniture type cabinet but at that time they were hard to find and the few we found were never the right size for the little space so Ron set out to build it. While he worked on that he also put in the new insulation, new sheetrock and rewired the light fixture so that I could have a little chandelier. I put up the new wallpaper and painted the ceiling RED, something I had been wanting to try. We chose a slab of marble which Mr. Wonderful installed and he replaced the old toilet with a new one. I bought a new, ornate mirror and made a dried flower arrangement to somewhat resemble the one in the photo, using a recycled vase my mother gave me. The hubs also trimmed out the window with new style of molding.