Welcome back to another post about renovations! Part 2 of our Bathroom.
So where did I leave off? Ahh yes, AJ completing the cement backer boards and providing some tips! I would have to say that I 100% agree with AJ’s first tip: “Only tackle what you are comfortable with.” This is huge. If you are not fond of using machinery and are just unsure about renovations, take time to learn or ask for help before you start. It’s so important to stay safe with big renovations, and especially ones where tile is involved.
In today’s post I am going to wrap up on the work that was completed, then talk about the final design styles and decor touches. Like I said, AJ was able to get the backer board up rather quickly and once that dried we were able to begin tiling. I will say, tiling is something you can watch videos on to learn, but it’s really something that takes practice. You might mess up and that’s okay. AJ and I have learned so much by going through this experience of flipping our home. We laugh at some of the decisions we made when we first started renovations, but it’s all an experience! There are things we wish we did different, but we will have to wait until the next home to change some of those things.
Materials for tiling a bathroom can definitely add up quickly, so I highly recommend putting a budget together or knowing what you need to buy. The key word is need in that sentence. I can’t tell you what all the stuff was named, but Home Depot had a million things in their tiling section. Did we need all of it? Heck no. Below are some of the important things that you will want to make sure you have if you do plan to do your own tile work.
Tiling Materials We Bought
- Vogue Sabbia Tile & Carrara Tile
- Complete Contact Gray Large Format Rapid Setting Tile Mortar
- Tile Saw
- DEWALT DW4764 10-Inch Tile Blade Wet
- 1/8 in. Tile Spacers
- Charcoal Grout & Snow White Grout
- Grout Mixer Mixing Paddle
- Grout Sealer
- Buckets & Sponges
- Trowel
- Universal Grout Float with High-Impact Plastic Handle
- Caulk
These were most of the materials we bought, but this doesn’t include the countless trips to Home Depot or Menards for random little things we forgot about. AJ worked on tiling the floor first so we could get that out of the way and get the toilet functioning again. Since our bathroom is a bit smaller, it was definitely a one man job (and we all know my lines would not have been straight like his). We chose a medium to dark grey tile for the floor since we were going with a grey theme. It was love at first sight though when we saw the tile. Now I could go into the details about how you can tile, but I’ll save that for the professionals who post YouTube videos about it. Here were some of the stages during the process:
How did we decide on the tile we chose? Well like I mentioned we were going with the grey theme in this bathroom. The one thing we wanted to factor into this bathroom was the faux Carrara marble tile, which goes perfect with a grey room. We held this floor tile up and compared the two. They were perfect matches together!
Once we got the tile all together it was time to begin building the vanity. Now this renovation was one for the learning books. Building the vanity last is something we will reverse for our main floor renovation. Mainly just because it’s nice to get the big pieces in right away when the tile is done so you can enjoy it.
AJ custom built our vanity out of wood and metal, and it turned out better than I could have imagined. We were having such a hard time finding a vanity that would fit our bathroom the way we needed it to, and to be honest a lot of the vanities we saw were cheaply made and costly. So we did what we do best: custom build. We found a marble top then AJ created the perfect size.
Once we got the vanity installed it was all becoming so real. We were close to finishing the bathroom and just had to put my favorite touches in the room. I chose some simple farmhouse decor and to be honest got lucky on finding my mirror. I picked out a different mirror months before getting close to the finish of our renovation but it was way too big. So I took a quick run to Home Goods and it was there. This beautiful circle mirror surrounded with rustic looking wood pieces.
I get a lot of compliments on this mirror and I really appreciate it! I seriously wish I could link this mirror to this post for all of my home decor lovers, but I just haven’t been able to find this exact one. I did find something very similar on Hayneedle that is slightly more expensive, but it’s very close in style!
East At Main Salix Round Teakwood Mirror
Most of the other small decor items I found at Home Goods, Marshalls and Hobby Lobby. The towel rack is a regular at hobby lobby and you can still buy it! It’s actually 50% off this week too, but if you know Hobby Lobby well you know it’ll be on sale every other week. It’s a favorite and I’ve gotten a lot of requests about it, so I’ve linked it here in this post. The other item that you can also still find out there is this beautiful, industrial vanity light. We found it for a steal on Amazon, but the price has risen a bit since we last purchased it. We loved it so much that we bought two! Haha crazy I know but we knew it was a killer deal at the time and we will install it in our main floor bathroom when that get’s renovated.
Now I hope you all are able to fully understand why this room was my favorite renovation out of our home. This room was a complete transformation from the ceiling down to the floor boards. AJ spent a lot of time rebuilding this room and I couldn’t thank him enough. My part was very small in this renovation, but I loved getting to style the room and pick out the pieces. Renovations are fun and they are stressful at times, but in the end it really shows you how much you can accomplish. The rooms in our home are smaller, but they give us a lot of practice with fixing things, rebuilding things, and making things.
I hope you all have enjoyed tagging along through my posts on our bathroom renovation! There is still more to come with a few last changes in this room, but I will be sure to share them as they come up! Again, thank you so much for reading and I am so happy you did! Please feel free to leave a comment to share your stories, ask any questions, or just share the love! Don’t forget to subscribe so you can be notified of when I have new posts up!!
With Love,
Kristen