Before & After: A Dated Bathroom Goes Mid-Century
This bathroom looks like my childhood, and while that may be heartwarming for me, Tanya was not that wild about the dated look of her space. After saving up and getting down and dirty and doing a lot of work themselves, Tanya and her husband have a stylish and timeless bathroom in their forever home.
From Tanya: Technically, the “before” photo I submitted is the before-before, because I gave it a temporary spruce while my Hubby and I planned and saved for this renovation. My little budget-friendly update was even featured on Apartment Therapy.
I mentioned then that it was temporary, but was overwhelmed by everyone’s positive reaction. I, too, was happy with how it looked but unfortunately it had started to really fall apart – especially the shower portal – and the counters, built for the previous elderly occupant in a wheelchair – were uncomfortably low. So we saved and saved and now we have a mid-century inspired bathroom in its place!
We did a lot of the work ourselves (ripping out the old bathroom, adding bracing for the floating walnut cabinetry, re-doing the drywall, framing out the shower area – and of course the finishing details like trim, installing lighting and faucets, painting the walls, etc., but the tile and cabinet installation was left to the pros).
Our small bungalow, on Lake Superior, is what we hope to be our forever home, so I chose finishes that suited our location – a cool, watery color palette with natural textures – but would be something we could love for a long time. The bones are very simple and, I hope, timeless: charcoal grey floor and shimmery cream shower tile, stone counters that look like the frozen lake, and floating walnut cabinetry. A couple of quirky, colorful little touches – like a pair of bright aqua sinks – make this bathroom feel like us!
Despite many setbacks, I’m thrilled with the results. This room functions really well for and I can’t walk past it without grinning like an idiot!
Thank you, Tanya! You can see more of the nitty gritty on Dans le Lakehouse.
Edited from a post originally published 8.27.16-NT