June | 2014 | ourvintagepleasure

One of the projects that I have been most excited for during this season of renovation is the 1st floor powder room. Not having to run up and down stairs multiple times a day will be so nice. Of course, this is probably one of our biggest projects as well and the horrible state of the space that we started with didn’t make things any easier on us.

After removing all the old, uneven, and cracked plaster from these 4 walls (not to mention completely sealing up an exterior doorway as well!) we were ready to insulate between the studs and put up drywall.

As you can imagine this room required lots and lots of sanding!

While Raul was busy getting our walls perfectly smooth my dad and I set about removing the pieces of the window in this room. The frames had several thick layers of paint and the window itself was nonfunctional. We removed the frames and started restoring the pieces.

After the horrible experience of drywalling the fun started! I am a big fan of feature or accent walls. Whether it be paint, fabric, or wallpaper I love to have at least one wall in a space draw attention from the eye. This little room would be no exception. In order to achieve the vintage feel we were going for in a completely new room we decided to create our accent wall out of subway tiles.

Check out this cool time lapse video of the tile going up!

After the thinset has dried for 24 hours it is okay to start grouting the tiles.

With my dad and Raul busy working on perfecting our subway tile feauture wall my mom and I started on preparing the other elements of the room. We decided to pull one of the grays from the tile for our wall color (Thanks Taber Street Interiors for the advice!)

We also had to get our antique sewing table/vanity shining like new. I scrubbed down the metal and knocked off all the loose paint and then I simply spray coated the base with an oil-rubbed bronze paint.

This refurbished piece looks great against the tile wall!

We added a wall mounted faucet to continue with the vintage flair.

The next step was converting this sewing machine into a functional bathroom vanity. We had already removed the sewing machine from inside of the table. Don’t worry- the machine will be making an appearance later when we get ready to decorate the powder room 🙂 We used a hole saw to create an opening for the sink drain.

After that we simply mounted the vessel sink.

The windows were now stripped, sanded, stained and ready to be installed.

We ran the plumbing for the toilet…and VOILA! 1st floor powder room! I am one happy lady!!! 🙂

There are several finishing touches to add including trim work, door (probably necessary, huh?!), decor, lighting, etc. Check back soon for what will surely be some awesome before and after photos!

Wow! There’s nothing like downloading three weeks of progress pictures to make you realize just how far you’ve come! As we come up on 4 months of remodeling I caught myself thinking this weekend “We’re not getting anything done!” Now as I look back at the 100+ photos I just transferred from my phone to my computer it is easy to see I am dead wrong! I can also tell you with 100% confidence that I wouldn’t EVER want to go back to where we were three weeks ago. Remodeling is hard work…physically, emotionally, mentally, financially…

The good news is that we have reached about 75% completion…and we have an awesome ceiling that is everything I imagined!

When we started with the ceiling demo we were dealing with a cracked, peeling, water damaged drop ceiling.
We quickly decided to remove that and gained about 10″ of space. Then, after several weeks of grueling plumbing and electrical rerouting we were ready to start installing our new ceiling. This time around we decided to create a ceiling out of 8’x4′ panels. After having completely redone the master bedroom ceiling we were none too eager to attempt sanding drywall upside down again. The panels are lightweight and visually appealing and at about $20 bucks a pop they fit nicely into the budget.

Our first task was to add furring strips and shims to the original plaster ceiling in order to create a level base upon which to mount our panels.

photo 4 (1)

After we got our framework laid out we enlisted the help of our handy drywall lift. We started with the first panel in the middle of the ceiling. In working with a 110 year old home you have to accept that nothing is square or level anymore. Since we were expecting some issues to occur with fitting the panels properly together we decided that it was better to have the issue pop up on the outside edges of the last panel where we could cover up the gap or unevenness with crown molding.

Once we got all of the whitewashed panels installed all that was left was a strip of exposed electrical wiring and plumbing running down the length of the kitchen.

We had already planned to cover the electrical and plumbing with a faux beam or box beam which is basically a 3 sided shell that mimics solid wood beams. We decided to make the beam out of rough sewn cedar boards and picked up three of them which were each 16′ long. This way we could avoid any seams in the middle. We stained the beam with a dark finish- Black Cherry, which matches the floors and trim that is seen in the rest of our home. We also created an opening in the very center of the bottom face of the beam which is where our pendant light will hang over the island.

The wooden beam adds so much character to the home. We will seal the finish with polyurethane and also add crown molding along the top edges of the beam where it meets the ceiling.

I am SO in love with the end result!

ourvintagepleasure

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Powder Room Update

Movin’ on up!