Before and After: The Baths

I don't know quite what it is, but I love 'before and after' shots.  Of rooms, hair-do's, make-up, furniture .. you name it, I seem to get a kick out of watching something change.  I'm not far enough along to have a bunch of before and after shots, but here are a couple.  Decorating is finished in two baths, but not in the other rooms.
I'll start with the guest bath.  There was little to do here because I had repainted for my step-Mom a few years ago, and while I may change this room later on, it was one that I didn't have to do a whole make-over on just now.

The way I had done it for my step-Mother.

I wish that I had photoed the light fixture which was too high above the medicine cabinet to be attractive.  So this just got a cleaning and a bit of redecorating.  Including switching out the light for a fixture that fill's in the space above the cabinet a bit better, I think.

It isn't a huge change, just a bit of "fluffing".  At this point I was glad just to have a room that didn't require a huge amount of effort.  The biggest challenge will be cleaning the aluminum door and door frame that leads to the walk-in shower.  I've gotten a little bit of the shine back, but it will take more effort.  Also installed a new shower head in place of the original one which now flopped all over the place so that one had to chase the water instead of being able to place it were it was wanted.  



The next bath got a greater change.  The front bedroom has a half-bath.  This had been my room since my brother was born and was moved into the 'child' room next to my Mother and Father's bedroom.  My step-Mom at some point decided to move from the master bedroom into what had once been 'my' room, and this is where she had been sleeping for many years and the half-bath was her personal bathroom. 
The 'before' of the half-bath.

I have to include the strangeness of the upside-down light fixture.  I keep asking myself why, if someone bought a fixture and brought it home then realized that it didn't fit in the space ... why not take it back and chose one that did?  But no.  Someone just said, "What the heck?  We'll just turn it upside down!!"  Can you see how difficult it was to change a bulb?  And there is no relation to the cabinet below.  A lose/lose situation, if you ask me.

This bath got a ceiling to tile re-do.  Painted all the woodwork a pure white as it had been an ivory tone which looked a bit dingy to me.  Painted the ceiling just to clean it, removed the old paper and put up new.  Changed out the light fixture. And, voila!  I am quite pleased with the final result!

The hall bath is considered the "main" bath.  The one most frequently used by visitors since it opens off the hallway and not off a bedroom as the others do.  I confess that I had sponge painted the woodwork for my step-Mother sometime in the 80's I think it was.  Whenever that sponge-painting madness began.  I somehow thought that it would calm down the Bollywood-disco style wallpaper which I found a tiny bit overpowering.  A tiny bit.

This bath was a challenge in many areas.  To start, I made an amazingly dumb choice of paint for the woodwork.  I wanted to cover my sponge paint mess (sorry that you can't really see that but it might be just as well.) and go back to a gloss-white.  I bought Sherwin-Williams Cashmere paint (THEY recommended it!) and it was the "Paint From Hell". Worst paint I have ever used!  The worst!  Stay away, People!!!!!!  

That horror was followed by trying to remove the wall paper which had been put on over paint, which was over the original wallpaper!  All of it had to come off, down to the plaster. If my Sister-In-Law, Sally, had not come up for a couple of days to help, and if my cousin had not loaned me "R2D2" the steamer, I'd NEVER have gotten this done.  It was a bitch!

One of the chrome legs of the sink had been removed and a stool set in it's place to hold 'stuff'.  I got lucky and found the leg in the basement and was able to clean and replace it.

The shower head (my first shower-head replacement!!!) had been removed and a hand shower attached in it's place.  Threw all that out and bought a super showerhead at Wal-Mart which has a removable hand shower in the center of it allowing you to use it three ways -- just the shower ring, shower ring and hand shower or just the hand shower.  Makes a lot more sense to me.  

Next was a bit of cracked plaster in the ceiling to repair and then paint the ceiling, install wallpaper and last of all change the light fixture.  The original fixture had a shade that was open at the ends and so coming into the bath with the light on, one just saw the glare of light bulbs.  I made sure that the new fixture had a closed side so that the person entering is not blinded by bulbs!

Finally we come to the bath which is off the master bedroom.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this bedroom was created after my Father and step-Mother were married.  I was already away from home and my brother was on his way to college, so the "child's" bedroom was no longer a necessity.  My Dad removed the wall and made the two rooms one.  On one end he added a wall of closets and shelving and on the other end he created a bathroom.  As I mentioned earlier my step-Mom had moved out of this room, and it was now her main guest room.  A few years ago ... maybe in the 90's (?) I painted the bedroom and bath for her, and put up a new light fixture in the bath.  Since we are just looking at bathrooms in this blog, I'll stick to just showing that.  As you see, it is a long, narrow rectangle of a bath.  (Apologies for the underline.  The blog seems to like it and refuses to let me remove it.  C'est la vie.)

The window and closet were part of the original master bedroom.  The tub is just a joke as it is only about 12" deep!  Someday I would LOVE to remove it and put in a Slipper tub.  Maybe  someday.  Fortunately the tub in the main bath is great, so for the moment I settled for repairing cracks in the ceiling plaster and re-painting everything.  I decided on a whim to use a Martha Steward metallic paint on the ceiling molding and on the top of the baseboard molding. I had used metallic paint before, so I knew what to expect.  I love the effect, but be ready to paint over, and over, and over if you chose a metallic. I also tried 4 different pinks for the walls before I found the one for which I was searching.  I wanted a softer, more 1930's nude pink than the pink that was on the walls.  I also did all the trim a "vintage" white ... not in love with the color, but it works ok.  Painted the vanity all white as it had pink trim before.

Next I brought a painted cabinet that I had in my current house put it over the wading-pool-tub to help break up that long, narrow feel.

So, that is pretty much "it" on my bathroom transformations.  Bits and bobs will still be added as time goes on I am sure, but I'm off to a good start and have paint, paper and lights all in place.  "Whew".