When we moved in, the kid’s bathroom was a bit too cheery. Almost everything was sunshine yellow, including the shower tile. We replaced the old tile flooring and sink top, and then someone told me it would be safe to paint the tile with kitchen and bath paint. It looked good at first, so we painted the tile in the master bathroom too. That turned out to be a disaster, which forced us to have it re-tiled. The kid’s bathroom held out longer, though. That shower never gets used, since the kids still take baths. Recently, the tiles started to bulge, and the paint was chipping away.

Demo complete:

New backer board:

Work-in-progress:

Ready to grout:

The finished product:

More photos of the completed bathroom are located here.

What we used:

Behr Paint:

Wall Tile – Marazzi Montagna Lugano 12 In. x 12 In. Glazed Porcelain (The Home Depot)

Mosaic Tile Accent – Premium Mosaics Smoky Mountain 1 In. x 1 In. (The Home Depot)

Shower Curtain – Canopy Waffle Weave, Artic White (Walmart)

In case you didn’t notice, recent posts contain links to previous, relevant posts from this blog. These links give you a better look at the before-and-after, as well as related projects. Check them out!

It started with the hallway flooring shortly after we bought the house. Two years later, we built a wall to divide our giant family room into two rooms. Later, we did a sort of overhaul of those rooms to create a fourth bedroom for Molly and Mia. To complete our budget-friendly renovation of the lower level, we are moving into the bathroom.

Before:

After:

More updated photos of the bathroom are located here.

We were left with bare concrete when the old cabinet came out, and I couldn’t find the name of the flooring to order more. The opening in the wall is two inches wider than the vanity, and some space is also visible in the front. We decided to go with glass mosaic tile (we’ve been in love with mosaic ever since we did the kitchen backsplash). The colors blend nicely.

Here’s a list of everything we used:

Behr Paint:

Mosaic Tile – MS International 3/4 In. x 3/4 In. Ivory Iridescent (The Home Depot)

Medicine Cabinet – American Classics White 15 in. W (The Home Depot)

Faucet – Price Pfister Brushed Nickel Double-Handle (Lowe’s)

Vanity – allen + roth 28″ White Wynn Combo with Granite Top (Lowe’s)

Shower Curtain – Essential Home Bamboo Leaves (Kmart)

Here are the photos:

All kitchen photos updated here.

We have been very busy. We went back to the Raymour and Flanigan clearance center and found the matching bed for our dresser. We got them down to $425.00. It’s still amazing to have a queen size bed. I never realized just how crammed we were in full. Serta makes a very affordable imitation of the Tempur-Pedic mattress, but it’s
hard to find in-stock at Big Lots. We managed to get the last one. Luckily, I had been buying queen bedding for a while, so we were able to keep everything we have. I updated the master bedroom photos, along with many other rooms in the house.
This is the chandelier, finally installed:

My Dad and I spent the weekend wiring from the attic. I found a nicer chandelier at Home Depot and decided to keep the white one to install in Molly and Mia’s room at a later time. We wired a dimmer switch through the walls and changed the wiring to
add a junction box to the attic. We plan to use that later for the wiring in the girls’ bedroom and for an outlet to connect the attic fan. It was a bit tricky, but I learned a lot.

We found a handyman who would re-tile our shower for a very reasonable price.

It was a big job. I’m glad we didn’t try to do this work ourselves – even with my Dad’s help!

I can’t believe how beautiful it turned out.

We decided to add a shower door. I had to look everywhere for that because it was out of stock. It was $50.00 cheaper at Home Depot, compared to the price at Lowe’s. It won’t be installed until next week, but this is the one we chose:

I painted three paw prints on Will’s room because he loves Blue’s Clues. I drew them by hand on cardstock to create my own stencils. It turned out really cute. The photos of his room have also been updated.

I moved the mirror from our bedroom wall to the wall above the fireplace. It looks very nice.

Lastly, I painted a wall in the family room with dark brown chalkboard paint. It is the wall with the door to their clubhouse. They’re already having a lot of fun with it.

I have found some deals on eBay lately. I bought white roman shades for the kid’s rooms, and fabric-look pleated shades for the two windows in the playroom. They look nice, but you do get what you pay for. The installation was tricky, and we had to be careful. I added a new curtain rod in Will’s room that I actually bought years ago. Micah painted one of the walls navy blue, so Will has an accent wall now.

I bought a plain white chandelier a couple of weeks ago ($37.00). I spent a lot of time shopping around for a good deal on that. I found some small purple shades on clearance at Pottery Barn. I was all set to install it in the master bedroom, and then I realized that the ceiling fixture is not connected to a switch. I’m going to need my Dad’s help with that wiring.

Will has an old armoire from Target in his room. I bought it when I was pregnant with the twins, and they used it for a couple of years. Throw in several relocation moves, and it was in pretty bad shape. It wobbled every time I moved it. In addition to this, the girls had an old dresser as well. They used to be pretty rough with it, and I had to use duct tape just to hold the drawers together. It was obvious we’d have to do something eventually.

I went to the Raymour and Flanigan clearance store last night and saw an as-is dresser for $509.00, marked down from $900.00. It was missing one handle and had a few scratches that weren’t very noticeable, but it stood out because most of the other pieces for bedrooms were far more expensive. The salesman approached me, but I was stubborn. I finally negotiated my way down to $299.00! The next thing I knew, Micah was taking the seats out of my van and I was picking it up. It’s 70 inches wide and 40 inches high. I absolutely love it.

The kids have inherited our old dressers, which we recently painted white. I’ll post updated photos of their bedrooms soon.

We still haven’t done anything with the rocking chair. We’ll have to wait until the weather is nice so we can strip it outside. We’re going ahead with the shower tile, though. It will be done in about two weeks. I chose this 12 X 12 porcelian tile:

Rapolano Noce Tile

I’ll have lots of updates and photos posted on the site soon.

The kids’ bathroom is complete. We painted the shower tile tonight, using the same color that was used in the other bathroom:

Before:

After:

The yellow tile was a LOT easier to paint over than the blue! We have about 2/3 gallon left, just in case we ever need to do touch-ups.