This room is still one of my favorites in the house, probably because other than the kitchen, it’s the most different from its original. In case you missed it the first time, this is what it looked like in the original listing photos.

So really, the same issues present in the guest bathroom were here too. The countertop was massive, yes, but underneath, no real way to store anything without buying a million Container Store boxes and organizing thingys (which isn’t the worst thing in the world to do, but I wanted to avoid that as much as possible). I also didn’t want our countertop to be FULL of stuff because we had no other place to put things. Too cluttered.

The floors again. Ugh, I hate these tiles so much. The big builder mirror and the soffit fluorescent light again. I mean, HONESTLY, WHO PUTS FLUORESCENT LIGHTS IN A BATHROOM?!?!?

But the previous owners, I guess in an effort to update something in the house (the only thing updated in the house since 1994), did change the shower, so this is what we saw when we actually toured the house.

And just like before, we started demoing things before I took real “before” photos. Oops.

The tiles in the shower look nice, yes, however upon entering this shower, it was immediately clear that in order to wash one’s hair, it was one arm or the other. Both arms could not be up at the same time or else you’d be outside of the shower. So yea, not functional at all.

Thankfully these tiles were the EASIEST to take off because they had just been put in. We felt a little bad since they had just renovated it, but it probably would’ve been wiser to leave it alone to begin with.

Also you see on the right side of the shower, that little wall that extends halfway on the side of the countertop? I hated this wall. It was dumb, made no sense, and was one of the first things to be torn down. We discovered about a foot of empty space behind that wall, so the major change we made here was to make it a double shower.

How’s that for romance?

Obviously, everything else went too.

Already, staring at the empty, completely gutted master bathroom is calming my nerves from the before pictures.

See all the metal studs? This has been very annoying. Apparently, when the house was constructed, only the external walls received wood studs; internal walls are metal. This has driven me insane as I hit them time and time again trying to install things or even just hang a picture. And this is why we hired a professional to mount our TVs.

Again, we bought the double vanity and countertop/sinks from Ikea and constructed it ourselves. We had plans to have two high storage cabinets on either side plus a huge mirror cabinet in the middle. However, we didn’t really measure correctly, and after I assembled this massive cabinet, turns out, it didn’t fit. Never to fear, we returned it to Ikea and bought a $15 mirror instead.

(Yes, you can return fully-assembled items to Ikea. And it was totally worth it since we couldn’t put it anywhere else realistically and damn, it wasn’t a cheap piece.)

After the whole re-plumbing issue was resolved, onward we went with the renovation. These were the pieces we selected for the overall look, including the kitchen and both bathrooms.

So pretty and classic, right? We chose to do the exact same subway tiles in both bathrooms, but in the master, floor to ceiling! Same dark grout, because it’s just a good look. Also, the same wood-grain tile tied the entire look together.

More photos during the reconstruction and beautifying phase:

Yes, this bathroom was also a dual paint job. The original teal really set Timmy off in a bad way, and while I didn’t mind it, I’m glad now we changed it to a much more neutral color. So much more calm and relaxing in here now.

Timmy and I must have gone back and forth a hundred times about shower door vs. shower curtain. A shower door here was really expensive and because we extended the shower, had to be custom-made since our measurements weren’t stock sizes. A shower curtain was obviously inexpensive but unfortunately REALLY unrealistic. Looking at these pictures, I don’t even know why we had that discussion in the first place. There’s no way we could’ve gotten away with just a curtain.

When we finally did order the shower doors, we had already moved in and had to wait a while for them to be installed. They delivered them after the renovations were done, and then the installers suffered an injury. So for 2 weeks, we had these MASSIVE shower doors taking up major space in our master bedroom that were so heavy, they just had to stay where they had been delivered.

That was fun.

Also, I hope you notice the covered floors in the last picture. This was something we didn’t do with the wood floors in the main spaces at the very beginning to protect them and it has really been a frustrating point for me every time I come home.

Back story: We donated all of our old appliances (except for the old fridge, which we moved to the garage) to Habitat for Humanity. Timmy was there for this exchange, and unfortunately, it was terrible! Not only did they break the wood plank at the top of the stairs in half, they also managed to scratch the SHIT out of 3 main spots in our living room. And I mean, nearly GAUGED out the floor. This was before we even got really started on the renovations!

It drives me crazy to see those spots. I’m not done trying to fix them, but I think at some point, the floors will just have to be sanded and restained to get rid of them. Lesson learned.

I really can’t explain how much I love this bathroom now. It has PLENTY of storage space (and I mean plenty!), and best of all, nearly everything is hidden from view. It makes everything cleaner and so much more relaxing since clutter is not visible. We chose the same waterfall faucet as the guest, and again, went with chrome for the sinks and brushed nickel for the showers.

And without further delay, here’s what our master bathroom looks like!

Our bathroom now rules. It’s 100% our style and can totally appeal to another buyer whenever we decide to sell. Extending this to a double shower was a stroke of genius (if I don’t say so myself), and it’s just an excellent space in general.

Again BIG PROPS to our designer Meg at ME Style Designs for helping us through this renovation in particular. All the plumbing issues, the color changes, the timeline, the ordering and re-ordering of parts and tiles and installations, there’s NO WAY I could’ve handled this. I had no idea about 1/2 the things involved with this type of renovation, and without her assistance, ideas, and patience, this would’ve been a complete disaster.

Next time, prepare yourself for the reveal of the kitchen, maybe our favorite space in the entire house!

♥, VB