If you don’t like your current half bathroom, consider giving is a makeover! Check out all the reasons why our current half bathroom didn’t work for our family and the plans we had to fully remodel this well used space on our own.
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Our downstairs half bathroom is one of the most used rooms in the house due to it’s central location in the home. But like most rooms in our home, it was due for a major remodel that was not only visually appealing, but more functional for our family. Before sharing all the beautiful details on our modern half bathroom remodel, I wanted to review some of the before photos and explain why we chose to gut it and do a full remodel.
Half Bathroom remodel requirements:
- New paint – The paint used in the bathroom (and throughout the whole home during the selling process) was not a bathroom friendly paint as it often showed water streaks and splashes near the sink. Having a vanity with a backsplash was a must, but adding wainscoting painted with a more bathroom friendly paint (aka easy to clean and not show water streaks) would also help.
- Replace round toilet with elongated toilet – As a girl I wasn’t aware of the preference of an elongated toilet for men, but as a mom to little kids I was also very much looking forward to getting rid of the need for a gross kids’ potty seat! With an elongated toilet, the kids can actually hold themselves in place as there’s more area for their little butts to go. This older model also had horrible water flow (the water didn’t fully come from under the lip) so it was a pain to clean!
- Add Exhaust fan – There are no exhaust fans in any of our bathrooms in a home an always something we preferred for obvious reasons.
- Replace pedestal sink with a vanity that had storage – Not only did we lack storage in this space for things like hairbrushes and hair ties, masks, and even extra rolls of toilet paper, but the pedestal sink was old, crooked and missing a drain stopper! The faucet itself had a piece that popped off constantly (making guests worried they were the culprit who broke it) and the lack of surface area on top meant the soak dispenser had no place and also sat at a crooked angle. It also left these strangely large space between the sink and the toilet was so odd in this half bathroom.
- Replace medicine cabinet with decorative mirror – We aren’t fans of a medicine cabinet in a half bathroom space so this needed to go.
- Replace laminate floor with tile – This laminate floor was applied OVER an old laminate floor throughout the kitchen/laundry/bathroom area prior to selling. It was just a bandaid situation that served it’s purpose but visually something we wanted to modernize.
While I did not do most of the heavy lifting, like most remodel projects for the house, I was in charge of researching, choosing items, and ordering the pieces we needed for the space. Since we we heard about so many shipping delays these days, we were able to order items early and keep them in our garage until ready to make the project happen.
The day after we hosted my family for Christmas, Derek began ripping everything out. Luckily we didn’t discover any major issues, except the nice surprise of seeing what the original floor actually looked like! (see above).
Since we had two other working bathrooms in the home, he was able to weave the project in on weeknights or weekends over the next months and by mid March our half bathroom remodel was complete! Since we were using a larger vanity and were scooting it over a bit, the walls had to be opened to move electrical and plumbing for the new piece and to center the lighting.
And no, Derek didn’t know how to do everything on his own! He did watch a lot of youtube videos first for tips, but when it came to tile, plumbing, and electrical, he got some help from our brother-in-law. He’s a very handy guy who has remodeled his entire beach house from the studs, so he luckily has had experience to assist and teach Derek how to make these upgrades.
Now that you know the WHY for our half bathroom remodel and have seen a little bit of the progress to get there, check back in a few days to see the full reveal on my new second favorite room in the house! (Second only to the craft room / office of course!)
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