a remodel in black & white

Well. Our house is finally free of contractors, plumbers, electricians, etc, etc...for a little while at least.

The big bathroom remodel that started a few months ago is finally complete. YAY. And, since I've noticed that I don't have much of a consistent theme of subject matter going on here on this blog, I figured why not throw in in a little design before-and-after magic.

Alas, I just found out that I really didn't have any before photos of said room. And I did remember to take some after the ceilings were complete, but also just found out that I accidentally deleted these from my camera...

...so the ONLY photo I found was from last fall of a friend getting ready (identity spared from humility of using the sad bathroom! ha :)). A bad photo, which maybe is even better as a bad before photo so you can see the mess it really was: 1) extra low drop ceiling, 2) boring standard white tile floor over even worse mauve linoleum, 3) a fitted tub with peeling off-white finish. on and on. UCK.

BEFORE & AFTER

I'd collected several ideas from some excellent design blogs I read, plus had some ideas of my own. Then after consulting with our contractor and laying out the basics, the room was stripped to the studs on all surfaces...walls, floors, ceilings.

One of the biggest changes was getting plumbing and electricity to the right side of the room where it didn't exist before. We wanted to combine our utility room into this bathroom so we can later expand our living room (where the current utility room is now). This required expanding the current towel closet to accommodate a stackable washer/dryer, and then building recessed shelving units in the extra wall space closer to the tub.

plexiglass panels rolled away to access the washer/dryer • tracks on the ceiling for the flat panels as not to have a door that encroached into the room space • magnetic spring-loaded plexi shelving cabinet doors
The drop ceiling was taken out and a flat ceiling was put in, raising the room 8" higher. A new can light and fan were installed as well. I knew that I really wanted this black & white theme, including black ceilings and floors, so that was pre-planned...

...but while all this restructuring work was going on, I was still finalizing my ideas for the tub area...which led to one of the most excellent scores ever: a vintage 1926 clawfoot, complete with original hardware including faucets, hand-held sprayer, shower head and rod, plus the curtain ring. This pretty much made the room, and everything else was just planned out around that.

right side of the room • tub detail • sink area
It ended up to be about 3" too long for the space, so we put a recessed shelf on the tiled wall, which worked out perfectly. The entire area is actually plumbed and designed as a shower space, with extra support to hold the super heavy tub on top.

Wanting to be more eco-friendly where we could, I chose one of those "green toilets" with low water usage, lighting with low wattage florescent, and 100% post-consumer recycled rubber flooring. Yep, all ground-up old tires under foot in this new room.

Simple clean design. Mix of modern + antique. A good book. Lavender essential oil. Bubble baths. Ahh.