These past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. I started on this bathroom makeover, spent Memorial Day Weekend at the beach, started a new job, and then went to Texas for a few days last week for work. Things are going great, but I feel like I need to catch my breath. If I had to pick a theme song for my life it would be Alabama’s “I’m in a Hurry.” I am always in a hurry to do something even when there is no reason to be in a hurry. I continue to remind myself to slow down and appreciate the journey, to appreciate the process. I have made improvements in this area, but I still get caught up in the moment of things, or with a particular project, and the race to finish line becomes my only focus. Case in point: my master bathroom makeover that’s in progress. I’m about to go nuts with the continuous state of chaos that is my bedroom and my bathroom. Project chaos, doesn’t usually bother me (drop cloths everywhere, tools everywhere, everything everywhere). But this one has invaded my space. I can’t close the door and ignore it. My only alternative is to go live in the guest bedroom. This would be a perfect solution if this project hadn’t invaded this room as well. Oh well these are my first world problems. Here’s a before picture of the bathroom:
This bathroom makeover has been a challenging project. I wanted to find balance in staying true to my style while also pushing myself to think outside the box and consider new design options. I kicked things off with some new mirrors. You can read about that post, here. A couple of weeks ago I moved onto the next phase with tiling the floor. I found 4 options for tile: 2 were 12X24″ in separate dark gray patterns, 1 was a 6X24″ light gray stone tile, and 1 was a 6X36″ white washed wood grain tile.
I fell in love with the long wood grain tile immediately, but took the time to consider all my options. I was nervous that the wood grain tile was too long for the space. I wasn’t sure if using a 36” long tile in a bathroom was going to look appropriate. The 6X24″ inch tile was all wrong. It was too light in color and the pattern was bland. I was open to trying something different and narrowed it down to the wood grain tile and one of the 12X24″ inch tiles. In the end I decided to go with the wood grain tile. I love the wood grain pattern and the long plank design. The other tile seemed a bit bulky for the space and more of a modern style.
This bathroom was a little more complicated to tile than the guest bathroom I did back in January, here. It’s bigger, there’s a linen closet attached that needed tile too (which meant there was another door jam to work around), and there was a pillar in the center of the room. I decided to center the tile on the pillar. This way I wouldn’t have to cutout notched pieces to go around the pillar.
This time around I knew what I was doing, for the most part. I was able to take up the toilet, remove all the baseboard and shoe molding, take up the vinyl, lay backer board and dry fit the tile in 10 hours.
Vinyl, Toilet, Baseboard, and Shoe Molding removed.
Tile Dry Fitted
One thing I would recommend for this project is an oscillating tool to cut the door jam, like this one. It’s amazing! Also knee pads are key…..they are a fabulous fashion accessory as well…
The tile went down pretty easy, although it’s really much easier with two people. It’s convenient to have someone handing tile pieces instead of having to get up and down over and over. I used 1/16 inch spacers again for the floor. It really depends on what you prefer. Most floor tile is laid using 1/8 spacer. What can I say; I prefer the smaller grout lines. I used a colored grout again from TEC. (If you’re grout spacers are 1/16, I would use the unsanded kind vs. the sanded grout. The sanded grout won’t fit in the 1/16 grout lines very easy.) The color is called “Mist.” It blends well with the gray/white color combination of the tile. Putting in the grout took much longer this time than I thought. I waited the full 30 minutes suggested by the package before wiping away the skim coat. I should have started back at the beginning, immediately, once I had finished the entire room. The skim coat on the tile dried too much and the tile has grooves in it to simulate the wood finish and it was a pain to get the tiles completely clean and the grout out of those grooves. The guest bathroom tile was a smooth finish, even though it had a similar wood plank design. I didn’t notice that the tile wasn’t smooth until it came time to wipe away the grout.
I really like how the tile turned out. I think it looks nice with the white tile in the shower and the white toilet. Once the yellow paint is gone it is going to look even better! I am still in the process of painting. But I’m hoping to get that done within the next 2 weeks. I talked about deciding on paint colors for this room in this post, here. I’ve got 2 of the 3 colors picked, and I’m moving forward with those. I’m hoping once the accent wall is up and the vanity is painted it will be easy to finally choose a wall color. Stay tuned!
