The Modern Nautical Bathroom

You know how sometimes when you’re watching a sporting event, and you see some person collapse across the finish line- victorious but exhausted? That is us. That is now. This is it.

Welcome to Week 6 of the One Room Challenge! A brief refresher if you’re new here: the One Room Challenge was created by Linda of Calling it Home to challenge designers to complete a room makeover in 6 weeks, sharing their progress along the way. And today- we’ve made it to reveal day! If you’d like to catch up, or follow along from the beginning, here’s our journey in renovating our beige box of a bathroom to the Modern Nautical space of our dreams:

Week 1: The Blah “Befores” and the Design Plan

Week 2: Demo Time!

Week 3 // Rebuilding and Changing Up The Plan

Week 4 // Tiled Floors and an Upgraded Vanity

Week 5 // Tiling the Shower & More Details

Since it’s always great to see where we started, here are a few “befores”:

 A pretty bland builder-basic space that could definitely use a big dose of style. Here’s the plan we came up with:

And here’s how it turned out!!

This Challenge was aptly named. So much of this project was new territory for us. We’re not total DIY-novices- I mean, I build furniture for a living, but this really was a whole different ball game. We build things, we paint things, we’ll replace lights or plumbing if we need to, but rebuilding a whole room? It was not easy. It was a lot of work. It took over our lives. It was frustrating, exhausting, and rewarding.

But it is an incredible feeling to look around and see that every. single. thing. that makes this room beautiful is because of something we did together.

We also know that we saved a crap ton* of money by doing these things ourselves. Did that comfort us while we were wet-sawing tile at 12:30a.m. on a Friday? Not really. But still.

*not an actual amount. Probably closer to $5000 saved, though. According to my semi-informed research.

So let’s dive into the details a bit before I pass out clutching my glass of victory champagne.

The vanity makeover was a huge change- and a BIG way we saved money on this project. A new double vanity can cost over a thousand dollars- not including plumbing fixtures, and we just weren’t on board with that. We knew that a little paint and some new hardware would make a world of difference.

Paint // Sherwin Williams Salty Dog

Compass Pulls // Anthropologie

Brass Knobs // Home Depot (we repainted them)

Up top, we knew the existing countertop was destined for the “donate” pile. The countertop was a solid material and in pretty good condition, but it didn’t match our style at all, and the integrated sinks were a big thumbs-down. We built our own butcher-block style top to bring in a little warmth to the space, and I just LOVE it, especially with the pop of the simple white sinks and nickel faucets.

Faucets // Ikea

Sinks // Ikea

Rounding out the vanity area are the upgraded mirrors and sconces. The oversized mirror was just more surface area to get dirty, and it didn’t elevate the space at all. We’ve wanted round mirrors for this space FOREVER, but it was a struggle to find the right ones. They were either too big, too small, or too expensive. These simple nickel ones ended up being perfect, now that I’m seeing the space all together. I love our touches of nautical fun, but I think keeping it simple on these big pieces was a good call.

Then there’s the LIGHTS. I am obsessed with them. They’re simple and beautiful. The bathroom is SO BRIGHT now and it’s wonderful! Embarrassingly, we had 3 mismatched bulbs in our former fixture since we’ve moved here, and one had been burnt out for at least the last six months… #shame

When we got these ones wired up and lit, it was like light shining down from heaven. I love that the pin is brass- an unexpected detail, and those teak-wrapped edges are just so beautiful.

Sconces // One Forty Three

Mirrors // Ikea

Moving right along… Not that the toilet area isn’t super fun by itself, but we knew we could make this corner into a little something more interesting. A touch of black was the perfect choice for a floating shelf above the toilet, which houses all the essentials: model sailboat, turtle votives, a succulent, and a pretty (and on-theme!) candle. Duh.

Above that, we hung my VERY FAVORITE print, in an awesome floating frame. There’s not much to say about this except it’s perfect and I love it. The fun textured wall hanging was a last-minute addition from Target, and I think it was such a great find for that blank spot.

Shelf Brackets // Ikea (painted matte black)

Shelf Paint // Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black

Sailboat // Etsy

Succulent Pot // Ikea

Print // Minted

Floating Frame Hardware // Highland Hardware

Woven Wall Hanging // Target

Flipping right around bring us the most dramatic change: THE SHOWER. The oversized beige tiles, random green glass, and dim light made this space feel like a cave. Here’s a fun progression of this transformation to help show how much it’s changed:

This space was also the most work out of the entire project. I won’t bore you by complaining as much as in previous posts, but there it was quite a process to rebuild the entire shower area. BUT- we are SO HAPPY with this space now. It looks so much bigger now with the gorgeous glass tiles- and I think doing the vertical running bond was the exact right choice, even if it was a bit of extra work. The grey tiles ground the shower floor so nicely and bring in a graphic pop at the niches. The semi-frameless door was such a win too- it makes the space feel huge! (And it was a great price!!)

The very last little thing I found was the perfect rug. I actually agonized over this rug for several weeks. #firstworldproblem. For whatever reason, I looked through literally hundreds of rugs for this spot, and I didn’t like any of them. And then I wandered into Ross and found this one for $7 and I ran out of that place clutching it like I had just won the lottery.

White Tile // Floor and Decor

Grey Tile // Floor and Decor

Semi-Frameless Shower Door // Home Depot (it looks like the price has gone up on this one, we got ours including shipping under $290)

Shower Fixtures // Home Depot

Y’all. Don’t get me started on those niches. Future Jen will be so pleased with the convenience of the niches that she will conveniently forget how much Past Jen struggled with these dang 14×14 boxes. Side note: I didn’t realize until just now how obsessed I am with lavender, and now all our shower stuff is purple..

I promise we’re getting to the end sometime this century.. but there are a few more details I wanted to share, because I’m just so happy with how all these little things turned out, and there are a few things that I haven’t really shared in the previous weeks’ posts.

Ben’s closet is connected to the bathroom, since both areas were part of an extension to the house about 10 years ago (pre-us). So, this space of course got the makeover treatment as well. It was really about finishes: fresh paint, new floor tile, and a new LED light, but it’s kind of amazing how dramatic those changes were. The room feels so much bigger and brighter! We added fun modern touches here too with the black metal mirror, and the graphic curtain that allows us to close off this space. I’m happy for Ben, but also a little jealous. Like 70/30…. Maybe 60/40 😉

Paint // Sherwin Williams Silverplate @ 60% (because we’re just that high maintenance)

Light // Home Depot (but I can’t seem to locate it on their website- but it was $39!)

Tile // Floor & Decor

Mirror // Ikea

Curtain // Old Ikea Fabric

And lastly, a peek at a few of the details that helped bring home our Modern Nautical look. Anthropologie killed it for us with the whimsical nautical hardware, and we scooped up several different styles: the anchor toothbrush cup, the hook for hand towels, the large cleats for our large towels (which we combined with a simple plaque DIY to create a piece reminiscent of the construction of a Viking ship- which may sound random but if you ever saw my husband you would totally get it), and the compass knobs for the vanity drawers. They’re fun and pretty, and we just loved them. And that’s the point, isn’t it? 🙂 We think they’re the perfect counterpoint to the preppy/nautical new towels. (Which, by the way, are the MOST AMAZING TOWELS EVER AND WORTH EVERY PENNY)

We also incorporated these modern switch plates, and it was such a good call! Ben pointed them out while we were on one of our 47 trips to the store. (Let’s take a moment to appreciate that number. Future Jen will forget since she’s already buzzed on victory champagne.) The squared edges are such a great detail- and it’s a nice upgrade from the basic white plates we already had.

So, to wrap up, a few thoughts:

Home Life // The rest of our house is still in shambles. But man, we’ve got a beautiful bathroom to retreat to.

Shopping // We went to the store (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Floor & Decor, Anthropologie & others) 47 times over the last 6 weeks. I made some new friends. People kept saying “please finish your project and stop coming here”.

Budget // LOL. I don’t even know anymore. I have a stack of receipts that is laughably tall. We didn’t buy anything extravagant for this space, but there was so much unknown that factored into spending more than we expected. The extra costs definitely came from equipment and building materials as opposed to our finish selections. As a rough estimate, I’d say this room was about a $4000 project.

Thanks // Direct shout out to Mark at the Clairemont Floor & Decor for totally preparing us for this project, we would have walked out of there with all the wrong stuff without him. Also, both plumbing guys at the Ponce Home Depot (I’m sorry I missed your names!) were so helpful on multiple occasions! To the awesome girl at the Ponce City Market Anthropologie, thank you so much or checking stock around the city for me- that was a huge help! Lastly, Gregg and Pete from Ponce Home Depot- thank you so much for helping me get that shower door strapped to the Jeep, it meant so much that you guys put in a lot of effort and care.

Extra Special Thanks // To family and friends who have been excited/nervous/encouraging right along with us- you made this process so much more bearable! To readers who followed along- thank you! I could probably talk about this room all day, so it’s nice to have a few people listening 😉

Extra Extra Special Thanks // Ben- you are such a champ. Thank you for working so dang hard during the day, and then coming home and working so dang hard again. Thank you for supporting my dreams, and for being an active part in making them come true. I could not have done this space without you- and I can’t wait to brush my teeth next to you in our gorgeous new bathroom. But at my own sink now, because we are fancy.

If you’ve stuck with me all the way to the end of this post, 10000 bonus points to you! If you’ve been following along with us on this process, thank you so much for your support and encouragement!

We’ll end things with one last look:

Present Jen, out!