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Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Basement Bathroom ... continued.

As happens with most of my projects here, the rebuilding of our basement bathroom has taken a turn away from my original vision. 

Let's step back a minute, and bring you up to date.

This is what we started with:





The only things within this space that are staying are the basketweave floor and the radiator.



This is where we stand as of today:



I love the wood sheathing on the walls ... it has sort of an 'out house' look about it.  That's the air conditioning duct hanging in the corner.  It will be tucked back up into the ceiling, when we get a ceiling again.



While the husband was finishing the demolition of the bathroom itself, he decided to go ahead and remove the walls in the hall and the closet, too. 




You can see the original back wall of the house here in the hall and inside the closet.


We're going to leave the brick exposed in hall, but frame and drywall inside the closet.



Here's the floor inside the closet ... the strip-oak flooring, and the floor joists laid directly on the dirt, are visible through these access panels.  (Not to worry, those electric wires are disconnected already.)


Originally, I wanted to use a sink like this:


I should have bought this sink when I saw it at Caravati's last year, but I didn't.  All I took away from there that day was this photo.  After talking it over with the husband, he wasn't too keen on such a utilitarian look for the bathroom, so two weeks ago we ordered this from Home Depot:



Here is the faucet we chose:



This is the medicine cabinet that I'm refinishing.  It's all stripped of paint now, ready to be painted and reinstalled.



With this light.



I'm still not sure what to do with the walls.  I have two ideas.  I found this paint chip at Home Depot in its new Martha Stewart line.


It's called Toasted Marshmallow, and it matches the floor tile perfectly.  (This photo makes the sample look too gray.  It's actually a lovely pale creamy gold.)  If I go this way, I think it would look wonderful to do a gallery wall full of my collection of antique wall mirrors.  (No photos of the mirrors, sorry.  They're stored in the attic of the detached garage ..and it's raining ... I hope you understand)

I still like this cat print.  Maybe I can work it in somehow.



My other idea is to wallpaper the walls.  I love this paper that I found on eBay.  It comes in red or yellow.


I'm going to order samples to see if either of these colors will work.  With this kind of strong pattern on the walls, I wouldn't need anything else, I think.  (I love doing bold and unexpected things in small spaces.)


I still plan to build a cupboard sort of like this where the bathtub was.  As of now, I'm leaning toward a distressed black finish with red underpainting showing through.



But, I could change my mind. 

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)