One Room Challenge: Guest Bathroom, Week One

For those of you who are new here, a year ago my husband and I purchased our first house: a 1940s Colonial in a cute coastal town in Connecticut. We’ve been upgrading our house room by room and sharing the process on this blog and on Instagram.

If you follow me on Instagram, this may be a complete 180. Up until yesterday I had planned on tackling my office for the One Room Challenge (including the first blog post already scheduled). But, after receiving a call from our plumber saying he could start on our guest bathroom next week, it’s full steam ahead on the bathroom. I’ve posted on this space before, but since we demo-ed the room a month ago it has sat empty. During this time, we were figuring out what we could do with the layout of the space, given the plumbing set up, and getting bids from plumbers. Now, we’re ready to go on building it back up.

Let me introduce you to the space:

The room is just boring… and kind of sad. It was remodeled in the 80s, but as we’ve since discovered, none of the plumbing had been updated. The bathroom is lacking in charm and the layout is just inefficient. For a bathroom with this square footage, we shouldn’t have to settle for a 30” vanity (in a very dark claustrophobic nook). This bathroom also contains one of my biggest pet peeves: a toilet in full view from the doorway.

So, this is our first full bathroom ever. The first time we’ve tiled anything, reconfigured a space, hooked up a toilet, etc. Given this, six weeks definitely feels like a challenge, but we’re all in. I’m going to be sharing each step along the way for any other rookies who are planning on remodeling their first bathroom too. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of learnings along the way.

The vibe in here is going to be a modern meets traditional mash-up, with some glam thrown in for good measure. I want this room to mesh well with our guest room and the rest of the vibe in our 1940s Colonial home, and be classic in materials.

This is the guest room that accompanies this bathroom, so aesthetically they need to work together (more photos here):

What we need to accomplish over the next five-ish weeks:

• Removing the remaining drywall
• Re-do the subfloor
• Re-do the plumbing
• Re-run the electrical
• Install additional can lighting
• Lay a radiant floor
• Install drywall
• Build out a base for a drop-in tub
• Install tile on the floors
• Install tile on the walls
• Add trimwork
• Install fixtures
• Paint ceiling, trim and door
• Build a radiator cover
• Install lighting
• Install mirrors
• Install built-in shelves
• Style out the space (the fun part!)

And I’m sure about a dozen things I’m forgetting.

In terms of selections for the space, we have already got the toilet, faucet and shower head on-hand, the tub and drain en-route and have decided on the tiles for the walls and floor. I will get into the details in upcoming weeks on how we nailed those down. We still need to pull the trigger on:

• A vanity
• A mirror
• Overhead lighting
• Sconces
• Vanity pulls
• Window covering
• Towel hooks and other bath accessories
• A vintage rug

And, since my photos so far haven’t been so pretty on the eyes. This bathroom by Christine Dovey is a space from which I’m drawing a lot of inspiration.

You can check out the other participants in this season’s One Room Challenge here.