Marti

Bathroom Decision Making

Looks like I am moving forward with the half-bathroom remodel! I hit my savings goal thanks to our tax refund, annual bonus, and squirreling away of money. Now I get to dive into a capital project.

For reference, this is what our bathroom looks like currently:

It’s tucked under the stairs, in the center of our home’s first floor.

Virtually everything you see will be changed, so I have a lot of decisions to make. It’s equal parts fun and stressful. I’m nowhere near a congealed plan, but I wanted to round up the major choices. Many of you commented in my reader survey that you’d like to see more in-progress details, so here goes.

Floor Tile: Decided!

Marble tile doesn’t feel right to me for a bungalow bathroom, so I zeroed in quickly on porcelain mosaic tile. Here are a few options I considered:

Jarrod saw the penny tile and said “They don’t fit together!” and now I think he’s right: it’s weird each tile is an island in a sea of grout, instead of being more like a puzzle piece.

I was on the fence on basketweave vs. hexagonal until I stopped to appreciate the tile of the wine shop in the Merchandise Mart, where I work (the Merchandise Mart, that is; I don’t work in the wine shop. I would be terrible at that job, because I am an undiscriminating lush).

Simple matte white hex tile with black grout. Worn and imperfect, it still looked beautiful. And, this tile is very common in original bungalow floors. I’ll order it from Wayfair. Decided!

Wall Beadboard: Decided, ugh, Menards

Did you know Menards charges a 25% restocking fee for anything you order from their website? I’m not talking custom orders: just off-the-shelf online orders. I ordered something recently and was vexed – vexed! – to learn this. Don’t worry: I channeled my grandma, pushed back, and was issued a full refund.

Anyway, I want a v-groove beadboard with wide planks, because it looks more modern, and I want it a few inches taller than the standard 32”. The closest thing I could find to what I have in mind is at Menards, unless any of you lovely readers have a hot tip.

Faucet: Decided, with fingers crossed

I want a matte black fixture, which is a limited pool of options. I plan to reuse our existing sink (to save money and reduce waste, and because I like it), which requires a centerset three-hole faucet – further limiting my pool of options. This MOEN Kingsley Centerset 2-Handle Faucet is The One.

The cost was hard to swallow, but when it arrived it was clearly worth it. This thing is remarkably heavy. It’s beautiful. My only concern is that the arc of the faucet may make the water stream be too close to the front of our shallow sink. Fingers crossed.

Vanity: 78% chance of success

Our bathroom requires a very shallow sink and vanity. The 14″ x 24″ sink in there now is as big as the space can handle. Hours and hours of perusal of every online store plus lots of local shops did not turn up a wide variety of options.

I got quotes from a variety of places for a simple custom vanity, all of which came in around $1k (for the cabinet only – sink excluded). I am not opposed to spending that amount of money in general, but a tiny vanity isn’t really where I want to sink my budget.

Why not a pedestal sink? You see this sink from the side, which is the least attractive part of a pedestal sink due to the supply lines and wall drain (for example). I know there are some nice kits for exposed plumbing, but I’m just not feeling that look here. Also, a vanity is the only opportunity for storage in this bathroom.

So, I am going to use the $109 IKEA SILVERAN vanity as a starting point, and customize it with brass hardware, inky-black paint, and furniture legs.

I’ll buy the pine version because all of the parts are solid wood. The $89 white one is foil/plastic-coated particleboard, which feels and looks a lot cheaper.

Here are some inspiration photos for the general vibe I’ll be going for, though none of these are exactly the end goal:

Here’s the tricky party: I need to cut the vanity’s depth down to size to fit our 14″ sink. The 15″ SILVERAN is too deep, and the 9″ version is too shallow. So, that could end in total disaster. I’m willing to risk it, because I’m excited about this idea and I like the challenge.

Wall sconce: So many good options

Schoolhouse Electric – Davis Double Sconce ($199 fixture + $44/shade)

I would get the brass finish with the faceted shades.

Rejuvenation – Graydon Double Wall Sconce ($399)

Wade Logan – Rickford 2-Light Wall Sconce ($95); maybe too modern, but sharing because it’s such a good deal!

Rejuvenation – West Slope Sconce ($399)

This babe is my favorite by far, but I’m afraid the size options won’t work. 27″ is too wide, and 15″ seems too short.

But first, I have to choose wallpaper.

Wallpaper: All over the goddamn place!

Literally and figuratively all over the place. There are over a dozen wallpaper samples currently taped to our bathroom wall, in a wide range of styles. You know the Crazy Wall trope, where the detective’s obsession with the case is his downfall? That’s me in this bathroom.

If you’re also on the hunt for good wallpaper, the brands I’ve been looking at include:

Hygge & West: beautiful paper and print quality
Cole & Son: so, so gorgeous
Milton & King: not impressed – the patterns are really pixelated
Serena & Lilly: why are all of these brands Name & Name?!
York: whew – thanks, York, for breaking the & trend

My Top 3 contenders are:

York – Stencil Overall (YC3414) (only $14/roll!)

The online photos are so flat and lifeless – ordering samples is necessary to see what they’re really like.

Don’t worry, that antique bird towel hook is definitely staying. (I used it in our last bathroom.)

York – Ashford House Flower Vine (AK7500) ($14/roll)

Speaking of channeling my grandma! In real life, it looks rich and hand-stenciled.

Cole & Son – Dialytra ($125/roll, unpasted, which will add a bit to the hanging cost)

Cole & Sons has the best product photos, which must be what $125 a roll gets you.

One point of consideration is that there are several awkward corners and angles in this room. A pattern with strict lines may make that more obvious. A botanical print would be more forgiving of the not-perfectly-square space, especially with the sloped wall (due to the overhead stairway).

Here’s a slap-dash, not-to-scale mock-up I put together back when I was thinking I’d do a white vanity, which – now that I’m looking at this – is maybe back on the table. Sigh.

I’m torn because I want something interesting, but it also needs to vibe with the rest of the first floor. You see it as soon as you come in the front door. I want the bathroom to be interesting when you’re in there, but I don’t want a bathroom to command your attention from our foyer (although I guess we could just keep the door partially shut).

Most importantly, I don’t want to go all wackadoodle just for the sake of punchy After photos.

What’s Left to Decide

Every time I feel like I’m close to having considered all of the decisions I need to make, I remember a ton of other things left to decide.

Mirror: Preferably wood and antique, circular or with rounded corners
Door
Bathroom fan: I have not even looked at the options. Surely this is an easy one? I’ll just buy whatever is rated highest.
Art
Baseboard and trim

Okay, that’s all for now. I’ll do plenty of other posts detailing the exact budget, final design board, and contractor plans. If you feel strongly about any of these options, please weigh in with a comment!

Thanks so much for all of your feedback on the reader survey – I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your funny, thoughtful, and encouraging remarks. It’s made me really excited to keep on blogging, and it’s warmed my paint-it-black heart.

Reader Survey – I’d Love Your Feedback

Dear readers:

I put together a brief survey to help me learn a bit more about you, the readers of this blog. I’d love your feedback!

If none of the multiple choice options provided work for you, please select “Other” and fill in your own answer. The open-ended questions are optional: feel free to skip if you don’t have anything you’d like to add.

If the embedded form below doesn’t work for you, or if you’re on a mobile device, please go to Google Forms to fill it out.

Thanks so much! And thanks for reading this blog.

xoxo
Marti Palermo

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Adding Moulding to Inside Out Bi-Fold Doors

Yesterday I shared a quick post about my new entryway chandelier and rug. Now I’m back with a long post on the final change I made in this first wave of improvements: DIY Shaker bi-fold doors for our entryway closet. Here’s where we started:

It’s fine, but I disliked that the closet doors were as much a focal point as the front door: same paneling, same moulding, same color. The focus should be on our home’s entryway, not the bi-fold doors.

Additionally, I didn’t love the exaggerated faux woodgrain – nothing wrong with it, just not my style.

I wanted a smoother finish with Shaker-style trim, which is a better fit for our Craftsman(esque) bungalow.

Reversing the Doors

There are a lot of good guides online from people who have tackled similar projects (e.g. The DIY Playbook and Room for Tuesday), but they started with plain bi-fold doors. I wanted to make do with what I had, if possible, so I decided to try flipping the doors inside out to use of the flush backside.

I started by removing the doors. Then I removed the hinges and drilled through the existing screw holes with a small drill bit. That made it easy to know where to mount the hinges on the reverse side of the door. I flipped the door over and reattached the hinges.

Then I put the door back on its track to see if this harebrained idea worked. It did! The inside out door functioned without problem. So, I proceeded.

I sanded the doors with 220 grit to create a nice, smooth finish.

Selecting the Moulding

Next step was moulding. I went to Lowe’s and Home Depot to check out their lattice trim offerings. (Note: Room for Tuesday said she used 1 inch thick poplar boards, but that felt too chunky for these doors.) Home Depot had the best options for what I had in mind.

I expected to buy pine lattice, but the oak lattice was a quarter inch wider. This small difference made the trim feel more substantial.

Oak cost about $20 more total than pine, which was worth it to me to have the proportions that felt best. For the top and bottom pieces, I went a step wider and bought 3 inch poplar project boards. (I think even wider horizontal pieces would look great, too.)

Attaching the Trim

I cut the trim to size, starting with the vertical pieces and then adding the horizontal sections. I used Liquid Nails to affix the trim.

I also used finishing nails at the top and bottom, and at a few points in between. I held them in place with long nose pliers to save my fingers from hammering.

I sunk the nail using a nail setter. I picked up this Kobalt 3-Piece Titanium Nail Punch Set at Lowe’s and it’s been super handy.

I chose to do a simple Shaker style, with moulding around the perimeter of each door and no additional horizontal pieces, because my goal was to make the doors less of a focal point. I don’t need a fancy closet. Also, this style coordinates with our nearby kitchen cabinets, and this house is in bad need of cohesion.

You need to set the trim inside the outer edge or else the door won’t be able to open. When I first read that guidance online, it took me a bit to understand why, so here’s a visual aid that maybe (?) helps…

When the door is shut, there is plenty of space between the door frame and the edge of the door:

But the angle of the opening door takes up more space. You need that extra room for the trim to clear the door frame:

I set the moulding about 0.25″ inside the outer edge of the closet door. The “right” position depends on how thick your trim is: the thicker the trim, the more space you’ll need. Before I proceeded with painting, I rehung my first door to double-check that everything was still functioning properly.

Then I spackled the wood seams and nail holes, did a final sanding pass, and caulked any gaps between the moulding the door. Finally, it was time to prime and paint. Painting is, as we’ve established, the worst task in the world. I got through it, but I failed to document it.

The Finished Product

We went from white bi-fold doors:

To slightly different white bi-fold doors!

I used the same knobs I bought for our bathroom vanity upstairs: Amerock’s Blackrock 1-1/3″ Cabinet Knob. I may eventually swap these out for a black metal pull, but I decided to start simple.

As for cost: I could have purchased new, totally plain bifold doors for $45 each. By flipping the doors, I saved $90 and didn’t waste otherwise-perfectly-fine doors. All totaled, the wood trim cost $60, which is at least half the price of any comparable craftsman bifold doors I found elsewhere. And, I like these more than anything I found: the style is exactly what I wanted.

So, we went from this:

To this:

But I’m not finished yet. There are three major changes left on my to-do list for this area, and they need to happen in this order:

1. New front door: I plan to hire someone to install a new door – likely this JELD-WEN Craftsman 6-Lite Primed Steel, which I’ll likely paint black.

2. New moulding: I’m going to replace the moulding around all of the doors with something Craftsman-appropriate. I plan to do this myself, and I am dreeeeaaading it.

3. New coat rack: Finally, I’m going to build a simple hook rail. I might run it across the entire length of the wall, right up to the moulding around the living room entryway. So, it makes sense to hold off on this until the new moulding is in place.

Monkeying with an external door in the middle of winter seems inadvisable, so I’m going to put a pin in the entryway for now and focus on the other projects in my 2017 House Goals list.

One Last Thing: Upcoming Reader Survey

I put together a reader survey to help me better understand who reads this blog, and how you do, and why you do! I’ll return later this week with a link to the survey and a plea for your participation. Thanks in advance, buddies.

Entryway Progress: New Chandelier and Rug

We have a side-entrance bungalow with a nice central entryway, opening into our kitchen on the right and our living room on the left. I suppose you could call it a foyer if you’re feeling fancy. It was far from fancy when we bought the house, though: it was super gross.

I made it not-gross with cleaning and painting, and I made it functional with Flor carpet tiles and a peg rack (both leftover from our apartment). Otherwise, I didn’t spend much effort to make it look nice until recently.

Here’s where we started. I can do better than just not-gross!

New Light Fixture

First up, I added a new ceiling medallion and light fixture: I bought the Mid-Century Long-Arm Chandelier from West Elm.

You guys, when I first start dating Jarrod (13 years ago!) this tiger blanket was his actual bedspread. Not in an ironic way, either. He’s had it since he was a kid, and now it’s an excellent moving blanket / project cushion.

The chandelier is super heavy and was a challenge to install but, ultimately, nothing insurmountable. I’m really happy with it now that it’s up there.

The adjustable arms work great here because the closet throws off the center of this space. I was able to arrange the arms to balance out that corner.

New Rug

I also added a new rug: a Mazlaghan Persian rug found on eSaleRugs.com for $250.

It was the first time I’ve purchased from eSaleRugs. I appreciate that they post a lot of photos of each item, and their free shipping and free returns policy suits me well, too: I’m prone to buyer’s remorse, so it made it easier to pull the trigger. Thankfully, there was no need to make use of that return option – their photos are remarkably accurate.

That’s all for now! I’ll return tomorrow with a post detailing the final change I made in this first batch of improvements: new(ly altered) closet doors.

Update: see Adding Moulding to Inside Out Bi-Fold Doors

2017 House Goals

In 2016, our house saw many sweeping, expensive changes. 2017 isn’t likely to be quite as dramatic, but that doesn’t mean I’m slowing down. I’m excited to tackle a lot of projects throughout the house – here’s a rundown of everything on my docket.

I’ve listed the projects in order of “This will definitely happen” to “I hope this will happen but who the f knows what the future holds.”

1. Fix Up Mantle and Bookshelves

Our fireplace mantle and bookcases are in poor shape: the mantle is flecked with paint, the shelves look parched, and the stain is inconsistent. I threw our books up there when we moved in, and now it’s time to fix up and thoughtfully arrange this area.

I got a jump on this project in 2016 by painting the previously-painted-red brick.

2. Spruce Up Entryway

I hadn’t put too much effort into our entryway until just recently. Now I have a new light fixture and a new (old) rug, which I’ll share soon. Left to do: buy/build a hook rail, upgrade our closet doors, and improve the closet storage situation.

3. Finish Mudroom Interior and Exterior

I spent a hundred hours on the mudroom in 2016, but never showed you any of the interior and never reached a point I’d call “finished.” (You saw the exterior in the backyard post.)

4. Improve Attic Insulation and Circulation

One not-fun but important thing I need to figure out in 2017 is our attic insulation. During our pre-closing house inspection, our inspector noted that it could stand to be improved. But it hadn’t really caused any problems* until this winter, when we witnessed the symptoms of and then learned the term “ice dam.”

(Diagram from the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association’s Bungalow Maintenance 101 guide, which I highly recommend.)

In short: heat in our attic causes snow to melt off our roof, which refreezes in and over our gutters. It also creates a murderous slick of ice on our front walk and stairs.

* Though our second floor bedroom can be chilly, our 2016 house utility bills were virtually identical to our 2015 apartment utility bills, which was a huge load off my mind – I had really stressed about heating and cooling costs when we first moved in. This winter is expected to be brutal, however, so I’m sure that will change.

5. Figure out Bedroom Storage

The IKEA storage drawers you saw in the bedroom post are wearing out their welcome. We need better storage solutions inside and outside the closet. I also hope to install new bifold closet doors (bifold doors are shockingly expensive, by the way – I don’t really understand why).

6. Buy a New Sofa

You’d think this would be easy. It’s not.

7. Install New Doors

I’d like to replace:

Our front door with a craftsman door (painted black)
Our back door with a glass door (so we can see our garden from our kitchen)
Our half-bath door with a craftsman door, if I…

8. Renovate the Half-Bathroom

If I tackle this project, it will be my very first floor-to-ceiling renovation! Given its small size and my modest ambitions, I think (fingers crossed) it could be in the budget this year.

I’ve ordered a few wallpaper samples, picked out a toilet*, and started to get quotes from contractors. It will be a mix of DIY and hiring out.

* If you’re worried that I may have selected a toilet that won’t be able to flush 3 cell phones, 40 cigarettes, 20 golf balls, and 56 chicken nuggets: stop worrying. It totally can. The product video on the Home Depot site kills me. Such peppy music! Such ill-advised flushing challenges!

Those 8 goals should keep me plenty busy, and keep this blog filled with content. There will be other smaller scale projects along the way as well, including decorating our guest bedroom and adding planters to our front stoop. Stay tuned!