Before and After: A Whirlwind Weekend Bathroom Renovation

Written by

Tess Wilson
Tess Wilson
After many happy years living in tiny apartments in big cities, Tess has found herself in a little house on the prairie. For real.
published Apr 14, 2018
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This windowless bathroom was a bit drab and dated, and over the course of just one weekend, it was transformed into a light and bright space. Oh, the power of a coat of paint and some new fixtures!

That horizontal picture didn’t show much, so here’s a full-length shot, with a description of the pre-refresh situation from Genevieve Claire of Vieve Claire:

The walls and ceiling were painted with a caramel colour making the bathroom look and feel outdated. I knew with a fresh coat of paint, a new mirror and light that this room would be transformed. It’s ideal for a weekend renovation and also easy for renters to do.

Before moving into our home we decided to hire a painter to update all of the walls and ceilings. It was the only room in the apartment that lacked a window so I decided to focus on the bathroom first.

Hiring painters is such a dream—congrats to Genevieve Claire for not having to do all that painstaking work! And any room without a window can definitely use as much brightness as possible.

This is so lovely. I love the way the round CB2 mirror contrasts with the squared-off sink and vanity, and the way the mirror and the sconce from Amazon play off each other’s sparkliness. Mixing metals—gold accessories vs. silver faucet—seems like a great way to keep things from looking dated.

Here’s more of that caramel paint, and, while this snapshot is obviously poorly lit, it’s easy to see how drab the bathroom was before. The white and black tiles look like they would go perfectly with white paint. Here’s the process:

The painting for the entire apartment was completed in a weekend. The only other changes to the bathroom were adding in the shower curtain, with the temporary command fixtures for towels, followed by the mirror and lighting fixture updates. All in all, a good weekend project.

A bathroom refreshed in a weekend is truly inspirational, and an entire apartment repainted in a weekend is mindblowing.

This black-and-white shower curtain is a great companion to the black-and-white tiles, and using removable hooks is a nice temporary solution. Everything looks so much better, and Genevieve Claire has smartly laid the foundation for future updates:

I love how bright our bathroom feels now. This transformation was just a quick update until we can come back around and update the rest. We are thinking Merola Hex Tiles for the floors, crown molding and updated brass hardware.

It really is amazing how a simple coat of paint can revive a room. You really don’t have to spend a lot to update a space.

Crown molding will look so good with the new mirror and sconce. Genevieve Claire, we hope you send update us when the second part of the renovation is complete!

Thank you, Genevieve Claire!