Yes it is.
So, less than two years ago, we moved to Small Desert Town USA and bought our first house. And it’s a nice first house with high ceilings in the common areas, a great view out back and paint that I could live with.
And one of he best things about it was the fact that we had a functional en-suite bathroom to the master bedroom. In our sweet little house in Europe, we technically had an en-suite, but I don’t really think it counted because it lacked a toilet.
Yes, a toilet. Now who builds a separate master bath and puts in two sinks and a tub but no toilet? The Germans, that’s ‘oo. The other weird bit was that while there was a shower in the tub area, it was either solely for the purpose of washing your hair while simultaneously taking a bath with your head next to the faucet or it was meant for leprechauns.
So, yes, it’s incredibly nice not to have to share a bathroom with the babies and/or house guests who rarely come our way. But it’s ugly. It was so ugly that when I decided to do something about it, I got overly excited and didn’t take any before pictures until I’d already pried two of the cabinet doors off. But here you go:
And while my photographic skills that night leave a lot to be desired, the colour of the cabinets is pretty dang accurate. Orangey brown. “Browned” as Little c says. The walls are kind a peachy-sandy-pinky…well, flesh, really. And the combo of the two were heinous. So much so, that after living in the house for 21 months, I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and bade the paintbrushes to go forth.
And this is what has happened so far:
Freshly painted bathroom cabinets. Ahhhhhh.
So much better. And now from the the angle of the doorway:
Creamed cabinets.
That one was blurry for some no-good reason.
The colour is called “Cinnamon Cake” by Behr. It’s low-VOC (I didn’t think no-VOC would be a good idea in a bathroom) so the stink factor was low and it had a primer built-in. I still used an oil-based primer after sanding and cleaning and all that good stuff though. These suckers get banged around quite a bit and the last thing I wanted were any chips. Especially after 3 coats of paint. Did I mention those cabinets were super dark? Gah.
I’ve picked pulls and such for Mr. T to put on when he finally has a moment of leisure. I also replaced the nasty, “antiqued” hinges with new ones which was fine and dandy until I couldn’t fit the last door panel on because despite their sneakily similar appearance, apparently a few millimeters difference in offset was a few too many.
So after much grumbling and cursing, I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:
Hingey McHingerson
Ahhhh. Spray paint. What would I do without thee. I found a brushed nickel spray paint and after I primed the old hinges, I gave a few light and even coats to the old hinges, which I knew had to fit.
Because of the grumbling, I was in too much of a hurry to get doors back on (it had been over a week at that point) and one of the hinges got dinged, but if I want to do touch ups, it’s a pretty simple process to remove the door and hinge and re-paint it. Someday. Sigh.
And here’s the shortlist of thing I’d like to do to the bathroom (but might not if we move in the near future):
Cabinet hardware (it’s all been purchased, it just needs Mr. T)
Paint the walls – maybe a soft gray?
Frame out the mirror with molding
Replace the sink
Replace the light fixture – since when is it a good idea to have a fluorescent light in a master bathroom?
New shower curtain
New bathmat
Paint the trim
Replace the toilet seat
I’d love to replace the tub and surround (it’s one of those all-in-one dealies out of plexiglass or something like that) but that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon, so my breath is not held.
So there you have it – probably the space in house that a visitor is least likely to see is now on the interwebs for all to see, point at and laugh. Am now taking suggestions, especially for that whole accessorizing/storage thing. Ideas welcome!
It was this guy:
And for some reason, he was really ticked when we asked him to leave and got all punk teenage bad-boy on us when we did.
In fact he was downright angry. Sabres drawn, rattles blazing.
Sorry, dude.
