Master bath makeover!

Our house was built in the 1990's. What that means is that there is a lot of honey oak and even more shiny brass. Very much in style at the time, but not so much now. In the master bathroom, however, the vanity was cherry and the fixtures a mix of shiny gold and silver. Let's not even discuss the faux finish on the walls. Oh my.

After much debate (in my own mind, not with Gus), "we" decided on colors and finishes for a little makeover. Since gutting the bathroom was out of the question (and really, that would be overkill), "we" decided to do the work ourselves: paint the vanity and walls, get a new rug and mirrors, and change the fixtures to satin nickel. (Note: "we" decided means I decided, "do the work ourselves" means Gus did the work.)


Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of "before" pictures, so forgive me for some of the blurry shots...


In the blurry "before" picture on the left, you can see the huge unframed mirror - hated it! So we found these nice framed mirrors at JCPenney - much better!


I also hated all those shiny brass drawer pulls/door handles. The towel bar was always in the way, and I didn't really like the faucets either. So we removed the towel bar, and replaced all the shiny stuff with satin nickel finishes (Price-Pfister from Home Depot). The cherry vanity was still in good shape but definitely needed to be refinished. I decided I would rather have it a darker grey color, so Gus sanded it, wiped it down, and used Behr Premium Ultra paint (primer is in the paint) in a colormatch from a swatch of a discontinued Ralph Lauren paint color.


We didn't do a lot of changes to the tub area. We still haven't figured out how to change the tub fixtures. If we can't change them, I think we'll try painting them since they don't get much use. The walls were painted with Behr Ultra Premium paint in "Castle Path".


The light fixture is the same, but Gus took it down and painted the metal back part a dark oil-rubbed bronze (almost black). I think eventually, we'll replace the countertop with something in granite. Love the grey rug we found at Target! (I think it was around $80 on sale.)


Don't be afraid to paint your cabinets! Just take the time to do it right - remove all of the hardware, take the drawers out, the doors off - be sure to sand everything lightly then wipe it down - and use a good quality paint. If your paint doesn't already have a primer in it, you may need to use a separate primer. Be sure to let everything dry completely before reassembling. I just wipe mine down with a damp microfiber cloth when needed and it looks great!