Reduce, Reuse, Refresh

A few days ago our family celebrated the one-year anniversary of closing on our house. It’s been a pretty wild ride. I remember looking at the house that first day before anything had been moved in, and thinking about all its potential. I imagined our daily lives, coming and going; I imagined sitting in these rooms looking at beautiful things, feeling peaceful and comfortable. Little did I know how much more time we would be spending in these rooms after March 2020. All the more reason, I guess, to have things just the way you want them.

But to get them the way you want them takes money, let’s face it. We could remodel and redecorate absolutely everything, but where does it end? We would like to have some money and time left over to do other things. Travel. Buy gifts. Pay for college tuition. Eat. So we had to make a priority list of projects; after the kitchen comes bathrooms. Having put all of our eggs in the kitchen remodel basket, we’ve decided to only do a refresh—not a major overhaul—of our downstairs bathrooms. Again, the biggest issue with our house overall is being stuck in the 1990s with a whole lotta golden oak and brass fixtures. Fortunately, the brass is coming around again; the oak, not so much.

Our guest bath seemed like a good place to start, as everything was in pretty good shape to start with. We are big fans of reuse (our previous house remodel projects involved building a garage, shop, and loft with doors, windows, brick, and flooring salvaged from old buildings) and there were several square feet of perfectly good granite left over from our kitchen counters. I actually liked the granite, despite being what everyone referred to derisively as “builder’s grade.” It has interesting shades of grey, brown, silver, and black, which makes it very versatile with many color scheme possibilities. We’re not ready to do an all-over paint job just yet, so we needed something that would work with our current neutral beige walls.

Timing was crucial. Fortunately, we caught the countertop guy as he was installing our soapstone in the kitchen, and he measured the bathroom at the same time and had his guys pick up the granite to take back to his shop. That meant the stopwatch had started for us to tear out the old countertop and stain the cabinetry, allowing enough time to dry completely. Fortunately, we had already ordered the sink and faucet; our installer needed these dimensions to know precisely where to make the holes for the drain and faucet base.

After removing the countertop, we removed the doors and drawers and hardware from the cabinetry. This was our first experiment with General Finishes gel stain, and we must say, we love it. We chose black as a striking contrast to the light neutral tones of the walls and flooring, and the gel covered the color variation in the oak grain perfectly. The odor was strong, but not nearly as bad as many other similar products I’ve encountered. Recommendations from Pinterest-linked blogs led us to apply the stain with an old sock, which worked very well. The hardest part was finding horizontal surfaces in the garage to let everything dry before applying a second coat. Staining the inside of the cabinets was pretty tedious, and there was a lot of touch-up despite having taped carefully, but the result was dramatic! Putting the hardware back on, we realized that black and brass truly made everything look clean and classy. I couldn’t wait to get those countertops on!

The only thing left after that was to deal with those spectacularly obnoxious Hollywood vanity lights. (Good lord, why did anyone ever think those were a good idea?!) We didn’t want the trouble or expense of trying to retrofit with new light fixtures, so again we sought ways to refresh the fixtures so we could reuse what we already had. After a few days of searching I found the perfect solution:  EZ Light Wraps, which I found on Etsy. These long shades wrap around the row of Hollywood lights to create a transitional-style linen-covered fixture with stylish brackets. The shades diffuse the overbearing light and redirect it  towards the ceiling, creating a softer glow while maintaining enough light to apply makeup or put in contacts. I changed the bulbs to LED to ensure the shade didn’t get too hot on the inside, and to conserve energy. The wraps were super easy to install, and I’m quite pleased with the effect. 

We chose a vessel sink, as our cabinet height is only 31” (without the granite), lower than current standard height of 36”; we also matched the other brass hardware with a single-hole waterfall faucet. When the granite was installed a couple of weeks later, then my husband put in the plumbing and installed the sink, I couldn’t believe the transformation! The granite that I had despised in the kitchen looked modern and chic in the bathroom. I added some shower shelves and a hook for towels, and our bathroom refresh was complete. 

By reusing our granite we saved hundreds of dollars on the countertop; by only painting the vanity and cabinet and not replacing both, we probably saved another couple of thousand dollars. Including sink, faucet, plumbing supplies, stain, varnish, EZ light wraps, new bulbs and shower shelves (but of course not counting my husband’s labor, and my many hours scouring Pinterest, Houzz and Etsy), the entire project cost less than $1000. And we weren’t without a bathroom for weeks and weeks, either. It was so satisfying to see a project through on our own, too. We’re pretty happy with the result!

Getting this bathroom done is also crucial to our “grand plan.” In order to remodel the master bath, we’ll need someplace to shower in the next few weeks! Onward to the next bathroom!