Saturday, December 7, 2013

Master Bath Before and After

We hired Handyman Matters in Kansas City to remodel our master bath and they did a really nice job.  Here are some before pics:








And after.  My dream bathroom (within reason considering the space we had!). 


I wanted the soffit completely removed, but there's a pipe running through it to the bathroom upstairs.  The contractor shrunk it and put the sconces on it and I think it looks terrific.  The lighting is by Schoolhouse Electric.


New mirrors replace the one that was void of personality and took up the entire wall.



Crystal doorknobs from Locks and Pulls.


Penny hex tile with charcoal grout.  Love it!!!


We replaced the mirrored closet doors with these solid wood doors that were specially built by the contractor.


Kohler Memoirs.


Roman shade replaces the broken plastic blinds.


Cherub tile from International Materials of Design top off the subway tile.


Beautiful white subway tile with charcoal grout installed flawlessly.


New vanity with marble top and Moen faucets.


And this is the shower curtain I finally settled on.  This was the fourth one I bought.  My husband gives me total freedom with this stuff - he didn't know what anything looked like until it was installed.  However, when a ruffled shower curtain from Pottery Barn arrived one day, my heartily bearded, heartily tattooed husband said, "Oh, hell no."  So back it went.


I just love my new bathroom.  We have dozens of other projects to pull the house out of 1973, but the master bath was a great start and I enjoy it every single day.

Foyer Tile Reveal

The foyer floor has been finished since mid September, but I'm just now getting around to posting pictures.  I went into all the details in the last post, but if I had to do it over again with this very expensive, hand cut terracotta tile, I would not do it.  After saying good bye to the first installer because he was painfully slow and wasn't showing up when he said he would, we moved to another who finished it fast, but who cut corners to do it.  We had a third person pull up some of the tiles the second one improperly installed and were very happy with what he did.  We wish we would have known him from the start, but whatever.  I do love the way the floor looks with my area rugs and it has an authentic, European look.  This tile would drive someone crazy who has to have everything symmetrical and even.  I love wonky imperfection and this floor takes that beyond even what I'm comfortable with, but once again, my area rugs soften it up.  In late January, I'm having the walls skim coated, popcorn removed from the ceilings, and everything painted gray, so that will also enhance the look of the black and white floor.  If I could do it over again, it still would have been expensive, probably limestone, but that would have been thinner and easier to install than this tile.  I hired one of my older son's friends to hand wax it with soft hull wax and that has protected it nicely and given it a warm luster as opposed to a synthetic product that would have sat on the top and given it a garish sheen.  A synthetic product also may have yellowed the white tiles.  This floor was a huge expense and caused lots of sleepless nights.  My advice would be to avoid terracotta!