I think it’s safe to say that most of us dream of having a master bathroom with a pretty tub, walk in shower, and connecting closet. A master bath is something that I will hopefully have soon, and with lots of hard work I believe AJ and I will get there. For now, we have our two smaller bathrooms that tightly fit in a shower, toilet, and vanity. All you could every need in a bathroom right?
When I moved in with AJ, the bathroom was in dire need of a facelift. This was back when I didn’t take before photos, so unfortunately I can’t show you the initial photo of what our “master” bathroom looked like but I’ll describe it for you. It was your typical old tub shower, newly replaced toilet, wood vanity painted black, mirror on the wall that covered a hole in the wall from one of those old medicine cabinet mirrors, and some yellowish-tan paint color. SO I was very thankful that we were going to be cleaning it up a bit to make it nicer.
Some things we did to the bathroom at that time was add new paint, pull out the vanity and put a new one in, carry in the same wood floor from that main level, and add a new light and mirror. I also put up some floating shelves which were actually pretty nice.
Our vanity that AJ built was actually pretty nice, and we ended up keeping the farmhouse sink with the faucet for when we had the budget to do a full reno. Pretty sure we gave this white vanity away because it wasn’t getting too many hits off Facebook marketplace. As you can tell, the paint in this room also was the dreaded “purple grey” that I so very hate. My BIGGEST tip when it comes to grey…never, and I mean never buy the paint with the blue/purple undertones. I promise you at some point during the day your grey paint will look blue or purple. Not worth it. Make sure it has the brown undertones.
So how did we go about designing this bathroom for the second go around you ask?
Well by this point we had already renovated the upstairs bathroom and had a little experience in a full bathroom rehaul. We wanted to do some fun, yet neutral tile for the floor and wanted to bring the vibe of the beach to our bathroom. So how might one combine a beach vibe into a farmhouse style home? Very carefully.
Most beachy bathrooms will have your typical seahorses with shell decor, but that wasn’t the look I was going for. I wanted guests to walk into the bathroom and feel like it just had a slight beach vibe to it but not be full-blown coastal decor. When I was planning to do this, I mainly stuck to how could we warm up a bathroom and use a bit of blue.
The answer? Whites and woods! This is a great year round color palette, and I’m always able to add small touches throughout the seasons. Here are a few of the smaller items I’ve purchased that have stayed year round in the bathroom:
1. This round mirror is my favorite, and we actually purchased another one for our future master bathroom! We will be doing a his and hers vanity, so we needed two and I am just obsessed!
2. The light fixture shown above is also an amazing deal! The price can fluctuate a bit, so if it’s out of your budget, add it to your cart to see if it’ll change over a couple weeks. I believe we spent around $50. We have the LED Edison bulbs in it, and I’m still such a fan.
3. The shelf is something that has been here since we renovated the bathroom, and definitely is a cute option! When you are using brushed nickel, galvanized decor is really good and budget friendly to add into a bathroom setup.
4. The blinds. They were definitely a warm neutral wood tone and not grey like on the site. I do love this curtain, however it’s a pain to have to close the curtain all the time to avoid the neighbors seeing us getting into the shower lol. Such a problem I know, but I love my natural light.
The items that are more permanent that I chose to give off a beach vibe were definitely fun to design and pick out. The design part while renovating is always fun and one of my favorite parts! Here is a bit about how we pieced together the main parts of our design:
1. The white shiplap was the first thing that I knew I absolutely wanted and needed to have in this room. It adds great texture and such a clean look to it. When I think of a dream beach house, I always picture a clean and fresh space.
2. Second was the shower tile. The reason we chose this faux Carrara marble tile is because it matches with a lot of things and was priced very good at Home Depot. Yes we love the design too, so it was an easy choice.
3. The paint color. THIS was my “beach” statement piece if you want to call it that. Once I saw this color I was like “This is it!!” Sadly, for the life of me, I cannot find the photo I took of the paint color name. It was a Behr color and was in one of their blue palette pamphlets.
4. Last but certainly not least is our custom vanity that AJ built. This is where we really tried to pull in the warm wood tones to match the mirror and make the room cozy and warm. He did everything to fit the bathroom, be convenient for storage, and give it a very modern farmhouse look to it.
I love our bathroom and honestly this bathroom will be one I never forget. I love every detail of it and we learned so much with renovating this bathroom. Through the woods, whites, and light blue paint color, I was able to give this small 40 square foot bathroom that beachy feel I so desperately desired!
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s read, and please let me know if there are any spaces in our home you’d like me to touch on!