Sometimes it’s the littlest rooms that pack the biggest punch. At the Fischer Flip house, this certainly rings true of this adorable half bath. We spent the last half of 2020 completely renovating this home. Now that it’s officially under contract for sale, the one room I’ll be saddest to let go is the sweet powder room off of an equally epic mudroom.
Let’s start out with a before photo and talk through this little half bath’s transformation….
There was actually a theme to the decorating in this home when we bought it: painting the same color on the walls and ceiling. I’m not entirely opposed to this idea… But it was just not working in this space.
We ultimately removed everything and painted the walls and trim in Sherwin Williams Greek Villa. This really helped brighten things up and presented a blank canvas for the bath.
The half bath was a part of the massive mud / laundry room and I had opted for a gray and white marble-look checkered floor tile. This naturally carried through to the half bath and helped keep it looking cohesive.
Laying this tile truly felt like a never ending task. We are just not very fast tilers, and there was 300 square feet to cover! Our biggest tile job yet. You would think that 18″ tiles would go down fast since they are so big, but there is just much less margin for error with big tiles.
The tile was an online order from Home Depot and we used the MSI Porcelain Alicante Tile in Bianco and Grigio. And we used a 1/16″ grout line. I matched the grout color to the gray tile so the seams would be less noticeable.
Picking out vanities has always been a struggle for me. I’m just so torn by look, price, and quality. It feels impossible to get all three. And then there is function… Functionally I prefer drawers, as I’m guessing do most people. But for ease of install, doors are hands down the winner. If the drawers get in the way of plumbing, you can run into headaches real fast.
In an effort to balance all of these things, I opted for this gray furniture style vanity base on Wayfair. I felt like it was a good compromise with the doors for plumbing clearance and a drawer at the bottom for easier storage. I did initially panic that the plumbing was too low and would go into the drawer space, but thankfully that didn’t end up being the case.
The vanity comes with stainless steel knobs, but I ended up replacing them with these unlacquered brass knobs that matched the kitchen hardware. I find that swapping out hardware on big box vanities helps them look more custom.
I usually buy my marble vanity tops from Menards because they seem to have the best prices. For the Fischer Flip we used the same bathroom faucets throughout the home in different finishes. In the half bath and master we chose burnished brass to match all the other brass finishes. These faucets seemed to be great quality, they had a very strong flow though!
Perhaps my favorite piece of this bathroom was a Habitat for Humanity Restore find: an unlacquered brass articulating wall sconce for just $40. I had to seriously talk myself out of keeping this for our home… but I just knew it was perfect for this space. Here is a very similar one.
This inspiration photo I saw on Pinterest has left me dying to do a side mounted arm sconce in a bathroom. We almost went for it in our basement bathroom, but I chickened out last minute and had the electrician install the box in the traditional place above the mirror. The half bath in this flip house actually was already wired with a side sconce. And so with no wires to move, it was the perfect candidate!
The final element of this half bath design came together at the very end in the form of shaker peg rail. This is another design element I’ve been dreaming of trying, and it just felt right in this mudroom space. In keeping with the flow of incorporating the half bath design with the mudroom, we carried the shaker peg rails in.
And to really bring the design home, I wanted to hang the bathroom mirror on the shaker pegs. Not gonna lie… I bought and returned two mirrors before settling on the final option. I love ordering from Home Depot because they make returns so easy.
We bought the shaker pegs off Amazon and left them in their natural wood state to bring some warmth. Otherwise these walls are a whole lot of white.
Well there you have it, the design and evolution of quite possibly my favorite room in the Fischer Flip. If you missed the after picture of the whole house make sure to check them out here. Also, the lovely before photos are always fun to gawk at.
It feels surreal to have our third flip house in the books! But also, so empowering. During the Fanchon Flip, our goal was to figure out if flipping was a possibility for us. This flip was about whether or not it is repeatable. And I’m happy to share that it is, and we will. 🙂
Sources
MSI Porcelain Alicante Tile in Bianco and Grigio
Wall paint Sherwin Williams Greek Villa
Gray furniture style vanity base
Unlacquered brass knobs
Bathroom faucets
Round Hanging Mirror
Shaker pegs
Similar Sconce