Bathroom Renovation in our Georgia House

The bathroom renovation in our Georgia home ended up being one of my favorite rooms in the house. But the fact that we finished it literally days before the movers came to pack everything away literally makes me want to cry. Do you know often I still think of this bathroom? Easily way more than I’d like to admit.

This project was a labor of blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of HGTV binging. While we didn’t blow out any walls or install any shiplap, we did upgrade it from a decent bathroom to a modern rustic haven. And yes, a bathroom can totally be a haven.

The Before:

Just for a point of reference, here’s what the bathroom looked like before:

Like I said: it was totally decent before. Better than decent, actually. The bathroom has a giant jetted soaker tub, huge actual space, a walk-in shower, and a double vanity. A girl can’t complain. But yet…yet…we wanted a little something more.

The After:

I have to apologize for the lack of “staging” in the following pictures. Like I said, the movers came just as my husband finished slapping on the last coat of paint. Yes, I said paint. We actually painted the tile! (And by “we,” I mean my husband. He did all the super stinky painting, and for that I love him even more.)

It may look a little yellow in the shower from this picture, but trust me: it’s white in there.

We found the orb light fixture at Kroger—of all places—and get this, it was only $15—what a steal! We snatched it up, and my husband bought an Edison-light bulb from Amazon to use with it. (Similar light fixture here.)

I love, love, love those floating shelves my husband made for the walls. He even made a toilet-paper holder and towel racks. The floating shelves really tie in that whole rustic/industrial look; they’re held up with spray-painted pipe.  Here’s a picture when we had it all dolled up:

If you remember in our before picture, the bathroom mirror lacked character. My husband took off the lame siding already on it, and made a new frame out of the same wood/stain from the rest of the shelves in the bathroom. We also kept the same light fixtures, but ditched the sconces it came with, and replaced the bulbs with the Edison-style lights.

Instead getting a totally new vanity, we kept the bottom part and painted it a nice, rich espresso shade. We also changed out the fixtures on it to something a little more modern.

Getting a brand new vanity top and new faucets was one of the things we were most excited about for this bathroom renovation.

We got the top from Home Depot, and it’s perfect. We used their St. Paul Vanity Top Customizer, and after looking at dozens of their samples, we picked out the “white” ColorPoint Technology top, and we couldn’t be happier. I highly suggest getting or looking at samples of the colors (they have samples in the store or you can order them online), because they look drastically different in person than online.

The new, sleek vanity top totally transformed the bathroom into looking really high-end, and we saved money since it’s engineered and not real granite or quartz. We also saved a bit because of Home Depot’s military discount, which is always handy when you’re doing a large renovation.

I think there’s a little more fun, pride, and ownership involved since we did this all D-I-Y style…not to mention it was really cost effective. Painting the tile instead of scrapping the already-existing tile literally saved thousands of dollars. Another way we saved money was by having my handy husband create the shelves instead of buying some from Etsy or another store, and we saved money by just painting the vanity bottom instead of buying a whole new one. It was a labor of love, and if/when we live in our Georgia house again, I’m very much looking forward to spending time in our new(ish) bathroom!

What do you think?! Have you ever done a major reno like this?

 

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