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From day one, I have been most excited to honor our home’s mountain identity, in a timeless and fresh way, and uniquely “us” way. For our bathrooms, desiring a clean and light vibe, my aesthetic has shifted a bit more towards the Modern Organic design style. There is a significant effort to undergo eventually when we remove an awkward roman tub (why is it there???) and replace with something more functional for daily use. However, before we tackle that, we choose to make an impactful, yet less intensive, no demo bathroom update by refreshing the wall and vanity paint, covering the dated granite with a concrete overlay, and updating the smaller fixtures like lights and hardware. All of this has bought us some serious time before we need to do the full remodel and we are beyond thrilled with the result. It’s so fresh and airy and just a treat to walk into every time. Read on to see what we were dealing with, why we made the choices we did, what hero products we used and how it all came together.
The Sad Before.
For this project, the things that had to go and could be bundled into a medium sized effort we planned for were the:
- Drab yellow wall paint,
- Dated, diagonal pink beige granite tile countertop,
- Lackluster wood grain fronts to an mdf built vanity,
- Damaged and generic mirror,
- Bland sconces hung in an awkward, vertical manner, and the
- Mismatched small finishes in chrome, brushed nickel, black, and antique bronze.
Using what we have that isn’t necessary to change is always our starting point. With our home, these two anchors are the golden pine interior trim and the slate tile flooring. Neither of these are what we would choose if given the option, but they are high quality, in excellent condition, and do not merit creating unnecessary waste in the landfill. So, we have chosen to work with them and might I say, are even enjoying the challenge of taking these elements that may typically seem dated and bring them a fresh, new, and current life throughout our home.
No Demo Bathroom Update Design Board
As we bring new design elements into any space in our home, we’ve formalized our goals to always balance the space, make it more relevant but also timeless, be cohesive across decor selections, and bring the outside in with thoughtful organic touches. To accomplish those goals we tackled the base elements of color first, then material, then styling. And of course, before we purchase anything or start demo, we begin with a design board.
Color: It’s all about undertone, cohesion, and a balance of modern and classic to make it timeless. I cannot stress enough to try out Samplize, like we did, to gain 100% confidence in your color choice without having to waste money or space in your home on sample paint pots! Here’s how our color selections from paint to hard finishes played out…
- To compliment both the trim and floors, we have selected Benjamin Moore’s White Dove for all interior walls, as it can play both warm and cool. This update alone has brought the freshness of the outside in, and actually made us appreciate our golden trim even more.
- For the vanity we choose to utilize Benjamin Moore’s Black Beauty, which is a soft black that anchors the built in to the floor.
- To balance the vanity, tie into the dark floors, and keep a slight utilitarian vibe (in the right, small dose), we selected a black metal framed mirror from Joss & Main. We went with the largest one we could, hoping to make the wall feel more utilized while enlarging the feel of the space, without taking on the not-so-small effort of moving the ill placed outlet over the countertop. We were also intentional in selected a rounded edge mirror to bring a touch of softness to our otherwise very angular, right angled home.
- Since our walls and trim have warm undertones, we wanted to ensure that the remaining finishes worked with the warmth while also bringing the “classic” (i.e. the right amount of elegance, modernity and timeless) feels to the room. Tall (and seemingly contradictory order), right?! I think we did it though… we selected brushed gold clear globe sconces for the modern, brushed gold envelope pulls and knobs for a modern twist on timeless, and Signature Hardware’s Pendleton polished nickel bath fixtures (faucet, towel rings, and tp holder) for the elegant and classic elements. I don’t know about you, but we absolutely LOVE how these all came together harmoniously. Because YES, you CAN mix metals and tones, but keep the finish (i.e. brushed vs polished) consistent by metal.
Material: Material is everything when making the “Organic” portion of our Modern Organic design style come to life. In a bathroom, we chose to incorporate the organic and minimize demolition/waste by adding a white concrete overlay from Direct Colors onto the existing countertop. I won’t delve into the “how-to” as there are plenty of blog posts already available for reference. Here is a guide from the product we used and it really is pretty simple. A little messy and maddening if you’re a perfectionist, but ultimately simple when you consider that it eliminates the tougher elements typically required with concrete, such as forms, days of curing, etc. Eric initially put an unnecessary amount of pressure on himself to create a perfectly smooth surface, while I was fully expecting (and wanting!) imperfect/naturally occurring texture. In the end I got my texture wish and couldn’t be more pleased. Just keep layering (we did 3 coats!) until it matches your vision. We also added a couple lovely white resin stone trays from West Elm for our toiletry bottles, giving us another chance to delicately incorporate a more natural and organic material. P.S. – We love the black soap + lotion bottles we found on Amazon so much that they now adorn every sink in our home. Plus, they allow us to purchase soap and lotion in bulk, minimizing container waste and enabling us to use gentler products needed for this crazy dry climate.
Styling: I have to admit, neither of us are fans of introducing superfluous items into our home simply for aesthetics. I mean yes, we have some art on the walls, but tchochtkes and filler items, not so much. Which means, we typically struggle with styling and having our spaces feel a touch on the minimal side. The tall ceilings and oversized windows of our home have challenged us in this tendency and we are working the balance of minimizing the superfluous but also bringing life to a room. Here we achieved this, and balanced the room through symmetry, by adding a second towel ring to the right of the vanity with two West Elm stone colored waffle hand towels, the previously mentioned stone resin trays on each side of the sink, and the element of green to the left in my Tata Harper skincare bottles and to the right with a faux Eucalyptus stem. We originally intended to place that stem in a textured pottery vase, but as I was bending it to size it down, I was so pleased with the shape it made that I placed it directly on the tray by itself. It’s a little less polished, which is perfect for preventing this bathroom from taking itself too seriously.
You don’t need too many items to make a small space shine…
Texture and naturally occurring colors keep the space serene, fresh, and wonderfully familiar.
We’ve listed the detail of the $1,400 in approximate costs below (application supplies such as rollers and trays are excluded) to achieve our no demo bathroom update, which is less than the cost would have been for a quality new vanity alone! Plus, we did splurge a bit on the polished nickel, but in doing so, we breathed new life into our sink (allowing us to avoid replacing it) and the nickel really sings with the golden pine trim. So lovely!
Costs:
- $665 – Polished Nickel Fixtures (faucet, towel rings, toilet paper holder, toilet lever)
- $180 – Concrete Overlay and Sealer
- $156 – Styling Items (hand towels, trays, faux plant stem)
- $150 – Paint
- $130 – Mirror
- $110 – Light Sconces
- $16 – Vanity Hardware
And there you have it! We’d love to hear what you think of our little reno and we can’t wait to share our next project – building out board and batten in our powder room!
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