Bathroom on the Cheap/ Lipstick on a Pig

I received a lot of questions and emails about the bathroom I featured yesterday.  I decided to do a post to help answer them and to hopefully inspire anyone else out there that is stuck with a "dated" bath. 

We have 2 of these lovely 1960 era baths. 
 One day our big plan is to renovate and make both baths into one master bath and add a second full bath using a corner in our family room that is right near the bedroom hallway.
 UNTIL THEN something had to be done.  

before picture taken when we were looking at the house to buy,
sorry it is so blurry...
.




#1 TILE

First off, we had bigger issues than the fact that it was chartreuse yellow.  I knew the yellow could work since it was going to be a kid's bathroom.
It turned out the shower/tub had rot and mold.  
There was no wall board holding the tile up on the first foot, it was all rotted and tiles were loose.  

before

We had a contractor friend come in and tell us we needed to replace the first  18-24" of tile and fix the wall backing.  I was really hoping he would say "Its crap, rip it all out!" (We did rip out the rickety sliding doors and replaced them with a white shower curtain.)
They weren't able to save much of the tile they ripped off, and I couldn't find a match so we needed to improvise.  I found some glass sheets at a local tile store that had 
the same citrus yellow with green so I snatched up 6 square feet.  

In order to make it feel fresh we added inexpensive white squares around the 6" stripe as filler.  
I had plans to add lots of white to the rest of the room,
 so I crossed my fingers it would look all right .  New grout helps too... 



#2 WALLS 


When you are stuck with colored tile you have a few choices when ripping it out is not an option... 
-Paint it with a paint designed for ceramic.

-Choose a color scheme that makes it feel fresh for the walls.  Pattern helps too by drawing your eye away from the tile.  Stick with one or two accent colors, don't go crazy.

-And breaking all the color with white makes it feel fresh.  You can do this with a white shower curtain, white towels or by painting your vanity white.

There is no hiding the fact that it is old tile, but you can put lipstick on a pig and call it Miss Piggy.
 Just saying.


The walls had a shimmery white vinyl wallpaper on them. That go ripped off the day we closed. The walls eventually got painted with green and white horizontal stripes to tie in the glass tile.

#3 LAMINATE CABINETS

Good sweet mother loving gold and grey hell, I really can't think of one nice thing to say about these cabinets and matching counter.  Just yuck...


 I had been dying to paint these!  Thank goodness for The House of Fifty article.  I told my husband I had a new pattern and we were going to have to sacrifice the laminate in the name of O'verlays.  He actually wanted to keep them as is since they were eventually going to be ripped out- IN A FEW YEARS!  Being  a designer, eyesores bother me more than most people.  If I can paint them away, I will. 

So I painted and O'verlay-ed.  
I cleaned the cabinets with TSP to remove grease and grime and then lightly sanded. 
 I rolled on 2 coats of XIM primer, that stuff is the bomb. It sticks to everything!
Here it is with one coat, squiggles still slightly visible but better... 
You can also use Rustoleum Countertop paint, except they don't have it in white. I used it when I did my kitchen counters and it is pretty awesome.  No priming needed.  It bonds to laminate.

I then painted them with 2 coats of white semi-gloss and faux painted the counters to look like white marble.  See the tutorial here.  
I added the "Grace" O'verlays to the cabinets using Liquid Nails Clear Silicone. 
(They will be available in the next few days on the site. We had February 1st as the original launch date, but the article came out early.) 
I also changed the hardware to antique brush brass knobs that were hand me downs to me from my in-laws...

I toyed with the idea of painting the sinks white using a kit, but I did this once before in an apartment I rented and it started to peel after 1 year around the drain. I also have 2 boys that love to play in the sink, so I sadly nixed that idea...




#4 MISCELLANEOUS

As far as vintage goes, I am all for it- except when it comes to a 50 year old toilet.  Bleach, etc.... It got replaced. I prefer a fresh start and to know that when I catch my 4 year old  fishing something out of the toilet the grossness is all in the family...


We also replace the ceiling vent.  You don't want to know what the inside of one of those looks like!   
10 pound dust bunnies amongst other things.

And lastly there is nothing like some good old elbow grease and Comet.

Hope that answers any questions! Let me know if missed any thing!











27 comments:

Janell @ House of Fifty said...

This project blew me away, I'm going to have to do a post about it on my blog! Janell

Brandi@ Flights of Whimsy said...

Incredible! Its amazing the things we can live with while waiting for renovations right? The countertop is awesome, the new tile, the color, great job!

Houndstooth and Nail said...

I love this post!! I too am stuck with a 50s crap-tastic bath. Mine has like 49 different shades of blue and speckled blue madness. There is only one bathroom in our little house so a complete re-do is going to be a major undertaking. I have been contemplating painting the wall tiles at least...ugh...
I LOVE your solution to the cabinets though!! We have the SAME EXACT ONES here, maybe a different color though.
Thanks for the post.
:)
Ingrid

Lauren@BaylorSays... said...

This was awesome!!! You do lipstick on a pig insanely well lady. I dig the chartreuse yellow, what can I say.

Stacy CUrran said...

That's no lipstick on a pig....it's insanely gorgeous and creative. I love it and am so impressed!
Stacy

Anna@Directions Not Included said...

My jaw is on the floor. Honestly. I have three 1950s - 1960s bathrooms which are as hideous as can be (evidence here: http://directionsnotincluded.blogspot.com/2011/08/bath-crashers.html)
What you have done is brilliant. You are welcome here anytime you want :)

Bri@Meyouandawiener said...

y'all definitely did an awesome job of working with what y'all had. The O'verlays made a world of difference. And congrats for the feature gurl!

Timmys hugs!

MFAMB said...

i am impressed. i would have cried a lot about not being able to rip it out. you made the best of the worst and managed to make it look GOOD. that is an achievement.

KellyH said...

Your Bathroom looks great! Never would have though that Crazy Vanity and Shower could have been turned around so well. Amazing!

LindsB said...

I am in serious awe over this bathroom- it really looks like you had designed it to look like this on purpose! The cabinets are out of control amazing, and the new tile in the tub, along with getting rid of the door is just genius! Seriously I LOVE this room!!!

lemondropdreams said...

I'm loving this makeover! I have 60's green tile in our hall bath. I've been wanting to do black stripes...another inspirational DIY! Thanks Danika!!

pve design said...

I hope you are thrilled after all that.
It looks like the perfect spot for a party!
Bring on the bubbles, right!
Congrats on house of 50.
pve

Ashley said...

What the what?! Danika, you really have managed to take a dated bathroom and make it look fresh and cheery...not to mentioned custom with your freaking genius O'verlay+cabinet combination. So, so great.

JILL said...

can i say that i like this bathroom now? you didn't just make the most with what you had, you made it look fresh, and amazing. congrats- on this bath, on your other projects i also love, your creativity and with o'verlays. love.

Heather Peterson said...

totally amazing. I have to say, I think the yellow sinks are kind of adorable. Glad you left them yellow!

As for everything else, words don't begin to describe.

You're a genius.

Heather
loveyourspace.blogspot.com

Daily Cup of Couture said...

this is beyond fabulous!! You truly did an incredible job! what a transformation! xx

Ruth said...

HOLY CRAP! Talk about making lemonade out of lemons!!! Well done!

Sam said...

Such great vision to be able to piece all these things together! Love the cabinets and I'm super jealous of the faux marble skills.

Danika Herrick said...

Thanks everyone!
I have the link for the exact primer I used by XIM... http://www.ximbonder.com/products_detail.asp?id=31 (The grey and green can) ALmost any of their primers will work though.

Mitch and Serretta Barlow said...

Woah! What a difference! The cabinets and stripes are my favorite!

Unknown said...

I see know pig there! Absolutely amazing!!!

Jen Sagar said...

So glad you didn't rip out and destroy all of the charm and replace it with run-of-the mill stuff everyone's got these days. I actually LOVE those wild colored sinks. Embrace what you have and run with it! Great work!

Skittle said...

Wow. That's all I can say, Danika. I have a bathroom with this exact yellow tile WITH the yellow sinks AND the yellow bathtub and toilet. The counter looks pale yellow as well, but if you look closely, it's actually tiny yellow stripes on white. But we have the "gold marble" counter in our master bath that has very 60's olive green tile, tub, sink & toilet. I have been contemplating how to "help" them since we moved in last year since we can't afford to rip it all out. Your remodel is a huge inspiration! I was talking about another project & a friend sent me your O'verlays page. I'm so glad to have found you!

Kim @ Plumberry Pie said...

amazaing transformation!

Unknown said...

You've done an a beautiful job with the bathroom redesign. I would love to do this to my bathroom, although I don't really have any cabinets, except the one above the toilet. Though I would like to put one or two in in a year or so.

I will definitely keep your bathroom redesign in mind when I do so.

Yasue said...

May sound crazy, but I think with the remodel touches you did, the yellow is pretty nifty. I like that it retains some of the retro here, but still feels refreshed. If it were me, I'd keep the yellow. Of course, you're going to merge two baths, so it'll have to go.

A Pearl In The Making said...

Love how you made it more trendy, but kept the retro feel. Everything about it is wonderful.

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