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Bathroom Total Reno

The bathroom in a little brick cottage needed to be totally redone.

We have completely gutted, overhauled, re-plumbed rewired and revamped it!

Now, you actually want to enter the bathroom, before… not so much.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the before and after.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

Even though the window was replaced with a new double pane window, it’s in the exact spot in the after pic as in the before pic.  Just about everything else in the bathroom was moved to create a new floor plan though.
A couple of things to notice in the before… see the ‘door’? If that’s what you want to call it. The previous ‘door’ was a louvered bi-fold that didn’t offer much privacy. And yes, that gray floor was carpeting… not very appealing, I actually couldn’t imagine allowing my bare feet to touch it, that’s how bad it was.

Even though this is a small room, it has a lot of details to make it work well and look good. Here are a few things we did to this bathroom to create a room that would be desirable to use and walk barefoot in:

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

First, we gutted it,

everything, including all the plumbing, (that yellow cast iron pipe in the center pic later got cut out too) Then we realized to make room for the toilet by the tub to meet the building code, we needed a couple more inches, so we took the wall between the kitchen and bathroom down too.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

Then we started rebuilding.

Not only did we install the new wall, just a little closer into the kitchen, we also stole some unused closet space from the back bedroom so we could squeeze a stackable washer/dryer in here. (Previously the laundry was in the basement and being a super old house, there’s not a lot of head clearance down there, so to get it up on the main level was needed.) That’s the stud wall for the laundry space in the right background.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

Speaking of the washer/dryer area, here is that spot all plumbed and sheetrocked. The back rectangle hole you see, goes into the back wall of the back bedroom, so access to the hookups can be gained from there without having to pull out the washer and dryer.

After we installed the bi-fold door to the washer and dryer, we realized that the soap drawer on the washer didn’t have enough room to open. I could have opted to rip out the bi-fold I already paid for and paid a carpenter to install and then turn around and buy and install a new door, but that would have cost a lot more than

this simple fix my carpenter came up with:

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

So now, you just pull the door open, it doesn’t fold and you have clear access to the washer and dryer.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

The new tub location is where the old vanity was.

Now, since it’s not over the window, we were able to install a shower with it. We went with an acrylic one piece. Should stand up to many a shower without ever leaking, no maintenance required.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

We installed shower doors.

I know, shower curtains can be so pretty, but they can also let water escape which rots walls and floors. As I knew this cottage was going to be a rental for a little while, until we sell it, I wanted the bathroom to hold up well.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

The character in the room comes from other things besides the missing curtain, for instance, because there was space at the head of the tub for these cubbies, the beadboard inside and the beautiful trim adds classic character… and great storage!

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

Some of the top shelves are adjustable with these simple metal shelf supports. I painted the beadboard on the inside of the cubbies the same gray as the inside of the built-ins in the dining room. And the face of the cubby area is the same slightly off-white that all the trim is throughout the cottage.

Since we’re talking paint colors, in the bathroom the beadboard on the walls, (not in the cubbies) I painted bright white, and the upper walls are the same tan as the living room walls.

I think it’s important to blend and carry a color theme throughout the house, especially in a small house.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

One more thing before we leave the shower area. Below the window, I installed simple farmhouse style hooks for towels. Also, in this room only, I installed louvered faux wood blinds for privacy but allowing some light in when tilted. (The rest of the cottage has scalloped bottom roller shades.)

Now to the vanity:

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

We had just enough space in the stolen space from the back closet to fit in a shallow vanity. The vanity, and mirror (which opens and has storage in it) are right off the shelf from HERE.

Notice the added mounting box made from wood behind the fixture so the lightbulbs clear the mirror for optimal lighting?

I installed a simple farmhouse style hook here too for a hand towel.

What else?

Oh, the floor:

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

The rectangle tile was the very first purchase I made for the ‘Little Brick Cottage’! I got it on clearance from Menard’s and had to stop at 3 or 4 different locations to gather enough, but it’s perfect. It has both the gray and tan colors in it, and for a rental, not having a ton of grout lines helps maintain a cleaner floor, so the larger tile is good. The staggered installation pattern gives the floor the character it deserves.

simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after

The bathroom honestly went from night to day in this revamp.

It’s a cute and very usable space now, and totally welcoming to bare feet.

Here are more posts featuring the little brick cottage renovation projects:

front entry sdtips
 living room before and after SDTips
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Little Brick Cottage Dining Room Before and After
front bedroom reno before SDTips
Bedroom Redo Before SDTips
simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after
little brick cottage back entry SDTips
DIY canning jar lights SDTips
Mixing Hardware Styles SDTips
SIMPLEDECORATINGTIPS.com Antique Brick Cottage Farmhouse Style Kitchen Before and After

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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Redo Your Furniture!
The shop is stocked with amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Redo Your Furniture!
The shop is stocked with amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

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Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

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