I cannot wait to show you this amazing bathroom renovation that my sister, Emily, just completed! She recently sold her house in Takoma Park, MD, a suburb of D.C. But, before putting it on the market, she had to complete a long list tasks, and one of the largest was renovating her basement bathroom.
Here’s the before picture. The sink was outdated along with the questionable shower setup.
She aptly named this shower “tiny cement prison shower” and you can see why! Plumbing coming down from the ceiling! Who designed this thing??!!!
I have to note that this shower was actually constructed of cement. The contractors that came in to demo had to use an industrial jack hammer to take the shower floor out. They said that they had never had to use this kind of equipment for demo inside of a house.
The inside of the shower was painted baby blue…seriously? And, when you bent over to shave your legs or lather up, you hit your head on the wall. Can someone hand me a towel….and my helmet???
Now, this bathroom is small, but usable, and in order to attract potential buyers, it had to be more than just a cast-off bathroom in a dark corner of the basement.
So onto the renovation….The only things that she decided to keep were the toilet and the floor tile. The shower had to be reconfigured to another area of the room and the vanity, sink and mirror all had to be purchased. Together we consulted about design and color choices and here’s what we landed on.
Because she was keeping the existing flooring, the shower tile needed to coordinate with what she already had. We chose the top left tile for the floor and the bottom, rectangular subway tile for the walls.
Here’s the newly framed shower.
New plumbing
Cement board installation
Tile going up!!!
On the adjacent wall, a new sink was installed. One of the challenges was that the wall space for the sink and mirror were literally 20 inches wide! That called for an intense search for a sink and mirror that would actually fit. Emily was able to find this sink, faucet and vanity at IKEA. The vanity and sink are 17 3/4 inches wide! Score!!! It’s a snug fit, but it works and the vanity allows for some much-needed storage in this bathroom.
The mirror is from World Market and is 16.5″ wide. The wood frame adds a nice warmth to this white modern bath.
And here’s the Big Reveal….
Before and After
The before and after shot really shows just how tiny that shower really was. Go ahead and take another look just to see what I’m talking about. It’s crazy!
Emily is so happy with how this project turned out and I’d like to think that this bathroom had something to do with her full-price offer on her house only a week after it went on the market. But, it was probably the rest of her impeccably-styled house as well!
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