The Estate of Things

This bathroom remodel took place at a rental house in Southern Pines, NC, the same house with the painted stair runner posted about here.

I don’t have a true before and after for you because I didn’t make it over to the house with my camera before it had already been demolished.

There’s a different approach in renovating a rental property. Generally, I like to keep things neutral and keep a tight budget in mind which is why you see a lot of off the shelf fixtures. I don’t want to push the design envelope because I know that most of the people in my area probably won’t appreciate it, the painted stair runner blew a lot of minds but in a good way.

I’m not trying to sell this property, I’m really just trying to maintain it or remodel it to a level that will set it apart and guarantee higher rent.

Here’s a picture of the bathroom after it had been gutted.

Here’s what we did:

• Stripped everything out except for the shower. It stayed because it was tiled with neutral mocha brown tiles. I regret leaving the shower now, I think we should’ve gone ahead and re-tiled the shower. If we would’ve done that, I would’ve certainly used white subway tiles.
• New plumbing
• New wiring
• New toilet, Lowe’s
• New pedestal sink, Lowe’s
• New faucet, Overstock
• New mirror, Lowe’s
• Sconces, CSN Lighting
• New floor tile, Marjorca
• Added wainscotting
• New valve trim, showerhead, local plumbing supply

I think it turned out great!

Safely saved for inspiration, a bathroom by Roman & Williams via Remodelista.

Its so sophisticated yet at the same time it wouldn’t be totally offended if my husband were to say….pile his dirty clothes on it’s floor for 4 days.

Its that wall cabinet…I could almost lick it. Is that wrong? Too over the top? Eh…I don’t care.

You’ve seen it, here and there and everywhere - I’m sure! Yet, this lovable and quite easy trend was just triply re-enforced with DoorSixteen’s post about its staying power. She’s amassed quite a great collection of stunning examples of the black wall in action. Did you see them!?

I was reminded that this image was the one that had me at Hello back when it first appeared.

I gave it a shot in my last home. The lighting pretty much sucks in my photos here… but let’s take a look for sake of nostalgia. I’ll never get to take a better picture than this cause that bathroom is dead to me.  (I do greatly miss my 1500 sq. foot furnished home).

I used a black paint that leaned a little towards grey/brown. I wanted to make sure it was warm and didn’t come across feeling blue or purple and soul sucking.

Please note my DIY shower curtain too. Everyone I know owns this duvet from Ikea!! It is a great pattern and I have yet to tire of it. However, I did grow weary of seeing it on my bed everyday!! So, I re-purposed it and now it is my super tall shower curtain! The added height over the tub made it feel just a bit more luxurious. Not bad considering the beige that I started with.

I’m looking forward to making a similar transition with the bathroom in my new joint. I’ve been in the new place for less than two weeks, and I’ve only slept there a grand total of 4 nights…. If I was smarter I may have taken some of this holiday time to stick around in LA and put my life together there…. But there is NO WAY I could volunteer to do that when instead I could attend an Avett Brothers concert for New Year’s with Sarah and Dan!

If you want more, check out Apartment Therapy’s post a Bevy of Black Bathrooms

The wishing continues with these T-handled apothecary jars, need these for the master bath

jars at CS Post

So I can get this going on…

Steven Gambrel

Another totally custom job that is really outside of the box. These sinks are vintage wash basins. I’m not sure which is more over the top the pajamas or the sinks?

Next on the decorating checklist in my head is a mirror for the hall bath.

hall bath at Bungalow 404, photo by Betsy

One of the things Betsy’s real estate agent included on her punch list before the house could be listed was that she needed to replace all of the “art mirrors” in her bathrooms…clearly we disagree.

The bathroom at Bungalow 404 needs a mirror that shines and has timeless, simple lines with a slight modern kick.  It cannot be very wide because there isn’t a lot of space to work with horizontally, tall would be ideal to emphasize the ceiling height.

The following 3 mirrors are from Z Gallerie

Arno, $149

Simone, $149

Omni, $229

Art Deco Venetian, Wisteria, $148.05 (what!?!)

Coat of arms, Anthropologie, $198

Elise frameless, Pottery Barn, $189, found on Ebay for $182 (includes S+H)

Channing, PB, $146.99

Simon from SNL would’ve liked these interesting little tub crayons in his bath.

Coconut, Lime, Cotton Candy, Peppermint….yummy. Great gift for teachers but I like them in a glass jar in a kid’s bathroom. Get them here.

Could I love this more?!? Your thoughts on the exposed storage in the bathroom? Even if you feel like it’s too messy and that stuff should be hidden, doesn’t the library ladder make it all worth while?

I have a lot of questions…

Image via Design Sponge

Ha. Sure I would love nothing more than a warm towel when I get out of the bath, but seriously I always thought it was a silly luxury - who wants one of those heinous racks taking up space and plowing through their aesthetic.

Oh, but there’s this Paperclip Towel Warmer from CribCandy….

Right now that would be these towel racks. 

Pointclickhome is showing off this little diddy that’s made from recycled bamboo. Question: Would you get bonus points on the carbon footprint reduction deal because you re-used a self-sustainable material? Forgive me if I have used the wrong green terminology here.

And this lovely rack was discovered at a flickr photostream, bitsandbobbins

I’ve got a place for one of these at one of the bathrooms at Bungalow 404.