We're (sort of) Bath Masters:Takin' it to the Next Level

The second level, that is.  Of our house.  Here's the upstairs bathroom refresh, which was completed several months ago but, of course, had some trouble making it to the blog.  Mainly because of my laziness. 

But regardless. Here it is!  

Here's the "before".  Notice the weird off-center vanity, painted-over wall tile (that must have had sand mixed in because it actually scraped us when we accidentally brushed against it) and out of frame to the right: a peeling cast iron tub that I refused to take a bath in because I was sure I'd get some version of lead poisoning.  Don't let the white on ivory on white fool you.  This was no master bath.  It was barely a bath. 

BEFORE

  We originally had planned to bust this whole thing out, steal some space from the adjacent master-closet (behind the tub) and the linen closet to add both a walk-in shower and new tub.  But when the plumber gave us the estimate to re-route all the plumbing (and alerted us to the fact that he'd have to come in through the ceiling of our dining room), we decided to reconsider our plan.  This was when the "let's re-do BOTH baths and add a second shower DOWNSTAIRS" idea was born.  We are so glad we went with plan B.  Now we can boast "two full baths" and we got two refreshed bathrooms for about the same price as our original plan to overhaul just the master bath.

To save money, we kept the layout the same in the upstairs bath.  We just decided to upgrade everything.  Floor tile, wall tile, tub, toilet, paint, etc.  And we veered off our usual color wheel (which only contains colors like "dove grey" and "gravity" and "porpoise grey") to embrace a dusty plum.  It's "Gothic Amethyst" by Behr. 

As usual, Jake found some unused space that we decided to re-claim.  This time it was in the wall to the left of the toilet (which was empty space under the eave).  We boxed it out, insulated around the box, added doors and made it an 18"-deep built-in medicine cabinet.  We also replaced the fancy second-hand shower curtain "door" to our linen closet with a wood bi-fold door. 

In another storage-claiming move, we added a shelf extending all across the back wall to connect the vanity and left wall, giving us extra countertop space which is currently holding my cosmetics, most of which are Clinique free samples from my grandmother.  Thanks Nana!

We went with the same carrera marble wall tile that we installed in the downstairs bathroom.  And again we extended it window sill-height along the wall behind the vanity.  

We used the same floor tiles as downstairs.  And, once again, we installed a heated floor underneath.  Given that tomorrow's high is a record -2*F, I can confidently say that we are in love with the heated floors.  

Another intentional design decision we made was to install one big wall-width mirror instead of a regular vanity-width mirror (which was all Jake; I resisted at first).  The space is a little awkward because of where the vanity and window are placed, making any mirror above the vanity necessarily off-center.  So after finally finding a mirror with the right dimensions (although the wrong color; we would have preferred something closer to cherry), we gave it a try and really liked how it made the room feel bigger. 

We spend quite a bit of time in this room. And now we don't cringe while we're there. 

Happy New Year!