This has been my sad half bath for the past six years. And you wonder why I haven’t shared my entire house with you yet? Now you know. It takes time (and moolah!) to get these places to a point where I can expose them! These are actually the photos that I took when we were looking to buy the house, and I really didn’t do anything other than throw a rug down since. So what’s your favorite part of this beauty? The beige tile on the floor? The pink and beige wall tile? The hideous vanity? That fab light fixture? Really, any of these on their own are pretty bad, but all together, they’re even worse. As I mentioned earlier in my outline of what we planned for this space, I’ve been collecting items to re-do this room for quite some time. But the time has come that it is finally finished!

Before the big reveal, I just want to share the before picture of the antique washstand that I bought awhile back for this project. I paid $40 for it, and I love it! For such a small space, it’s perfect as you’re about to see.

Voila! Here is the new powder room! I painted the washstand in Ralph Lauren Shoreline Blue. The walls are the same color, although the paint actually looks darker. I think it may be because I painted over the green whereas I primed the washstand. Either way, they still look ok together, and I really like the color (even though it brings my grand total of blue rooms in the house to five!).

The tile is this basic white hexagonal tile which I bought way back when as well, but which will never go out of style–a key factor when choosing the more permanent fixtures for a space. I also learned a cool trick from my contractor, Pete from Sachuest Construction. Instead of using grout on small tiles like this, you can just use a gray mastic (the powdered kind) and mix it with a polymer to harden it. Because the mastic tends to creep up between the tiles anyway, this makes the installation process easier and gives a more uniform appearance. You also don’t have to wait a day for the mastic to dry before you grout so it’s a great idea when you are pressed for time to get your reno done!

I was a bit torn as to where to put the towel ring. It doesn’t seem like a big decision, but hanging it on the beadboard made the towel hang much too low, and putting it where our old towel bar was opposite the toilet just seemed random since it’s only a ring. The only other option was on the back of the door, but I decided to just take it higher and put it right next to the sink. On top of the washstand, we put a large bowl sink. Because of this, there wasn’t enough space for a faucet on the stand so we switched to a wall mount faucet.

I’m totally obsessed with the one I found which is the . We had a small issue with the soap dish being broken, but since I ordered it from Amazon at nearly half it’s regular retail price, we just glued it back together rather than dealing with the hassle of returning or replacing it. I have to say that I looked at a lot of faucets and was really frustrated that most of them were nearly $300 and not that attractive. I was really thrilled to find this one. I don’t mind spending money when I love an item, but I hate dishing it out for something that isn’t exactly what I want. Amazon turned out to be a great source for faucets; much better than the high end plumber’s supply store in my town.

Above the sink, I hung this pewter mirror from Maison de l’Etain which I bought back in my days at Rue de France. It’s been hanging in my dining room and I love it, but it wasn’t until I was about to go mirror shopping the other day that I realized it would be perfect in the new bathroom. I did have a little debate over whether I should mix the pewter frame with all of the other chrome pieces, but I think it works. The light fixture is nothing special. It’s a Home Depot special that is apparently the only vanity fixture I like from them because I realized after I bought it that I picked out the same one for our upstairs bathroom when we redid that five years ago. I promise that if we go ahead with the master bathroom addition, I will pick out a different light!

And a little detail shot. My ranunculus are still hanging in there a week later, and if you want to indulge in the most divine smelling soaps in the world, pick up some of those Yves Delorme hand soaps. Oh, they are so amazing! The little dish was a gift from my old boss and is by Gien.

There are still a few things I need to finish up like hanging the pictures. I’m also loving all the light that has been pouring in the window without the blinds up. It needs to have some sort of window treatment for privacy since it’s right next to the deck, but I’m thinking of putting up a roman shade that I can keep open most of the time.

Between my new built ins and the bathroom, my house is pretty happy. Well if you don’t look outside where they’ve been digging up my yard and tearing apart my front steps to install French drains this week!