Let’s talk about all the little details in this kitchen…

The Cabinets

I agonized for a long time about what kitchen cabinets we would put in this kitchen. In our last house we did IKEA, and I loved them. So customizable, totally durable and modern, and affordable. Naturally, I wanted to go with them again….

But, I also was really wanting to go darker this time around. And IKEA is just a bit lacking in the darker painted spectrum of their cabinet fronts. Really the only one I was considering was the Lerhytten which is a black stained wood in the shaker style. So I scoured Pinterest for black kitchen inspiration and every time I found one I loved, I looked closer and realized it was a very dark gray.

Eventually I came across The Cabinet Spot and we ordered their Inset Charcoal Gray Shaker Cabinets. Which amazing turned out to be on par (if not cheaper) than the IKEA kitchen we had picked out.

I am thrilled to have the elevated look of inset cabinets. And I shared a lot more about the decision making process in this post. Am I happy with them? Yes. Would I choose them again? Probably not. The inset style turned out to be difficult to assemble and while I see the pros over IKEA style, I’m not convinced they are leaps and bounds above. I will try and right a post comparing and contrasting the two options.

Cabinet Hardware

The hardware buying process turned out to be a whole fiasco of it’s own. If you recall, I actually bought all the hardware from one company and ended up not liking them and returning them all. But, in the end it all worked out because we settled on these beautiful bin pulls and knobs in Bedford Brass from Home Depot.

I had already picked out a polished brass faucet, so I was originally set on polished brass hardware (and then there is the whole lacquered vs. lacquered debate which I won’t even get into). But I just could not find a rectangular cup pull in polished brass that I liked and was in budget (read: $9 or less).

So in desperation I ordered like all the brass hardware that I semi-liked at Home Depot to try out. And from that mass order emerged some winners! I liked the Liberty Bedford Brass Cup Pulls because they had the most presence and came closest to my vision of rectangular pulls. And then we went with the Martha Stewart Bedford Brass Knobs because I wanted to keep the look simple and have a dash of ‘traditional’ in the kitchen.

And you know, it doesn’t bother me one little bit now that the hardware are an aged brass and I have polished brass faucet. Seriously I have every single metal type in my kitchen… Stainless steel, copper, aged brass, polished brass, brushed brass, chrome…. That’s everything but nickel people.

Kitchen Faucet

Speaking of that polished brass… Oh man, does this faucet make me feel luxurious. It’s totally one of those no-name brands off of Amazon (Kunmai High Arc Gold Kitchen Faucet ) with only a few reviews, but I’m telling you this baby is legit.

As soon as I found it, I knew I wanted it. The question was only.. can I pull it off?? And, I think I did ok, right? It seems to be at home in our kitchen and add just the right amount of glam.

At first I was totally stuck on getting a bridge faucet. But, let’s just say those were priced out of reach for us, so I had to expand my horizons. In the end, I’m so so glad we went with this and not a bridge faucet. Although having two handles is beautiful and symmetrical, wouldn’t it be so annoying to have to turn two handles on every time you use the kitchen faucet??

This faucet has a great spray feature and is made of solid metal. Some of those spray faucets trick you and come with plastic heads, but this one is nice and heavy. I wasn’t sure about the decorative ceramic handle at first, but I think I’m cool with it now.

And we decided to install a separate water spigot. Our house is on well water and it’s seriously iron laden. Even though we have a great softener system, we wanted to be able to install an additional water filter for drinking water. We ordered the Kingston Brass Gold Water Faucet, and it seems to match the other faucet well. Actually, it’s not hooked up yet since we haven’t forked out for a filter yet.

Kitchen Sink

About the only request Jake had for this kitchen was that we get a stainless steel sink. In our last kitchen we did the double bowl IKEA farmhouse sink. I ADORED it. But Jake said he always felt like he had to be delicate with the porcelain and he’d prefer a sink he didn’t have to baby.

I know everyone has their own preference on single versus double bowl. I’m on team double bowl. We went with a 60/40 split in stainless steel. And my only other criteria was that it had straight lines to look modern. No curvy sinks for me.

Overall I have mixed feelings about this sink. It’s too deep for me. But, really they all come that deep nowadays and the undermount just makes it that much deeper. Our IKEA farmhouse sink was shallow, but just right for me.

And to be honest with you, I miss the porcelain. It felt pretty. I wanted to clean it because it was beautiful. The stainless steel.. I don’t really want to clean it because it’s kinda blah to me… So moral of the story, don’t look too closely at my kitchen sink.

Pendant Lights

These were so so hard to pick for some reason… I felt that they mattered so much, and I probably put too much pressure on myself to find the perfect ones for the perfect price. But that’s how we live and learn, right?

They are from West Elm, and I bought them on a Black Friday sale. My criteria was that it have gold hardware and a shade that diffuses (so milk glass most likely). And these met that.

One of my favorite views in the house is looking in the kitchen pass through from the living room as the sun is setting. You can see the sun glint off the gold faucet and then these gold and milk glass lights shine in front of the dark green wall in the den.

Countertops

Oh me oh my…. I LOVE my countertops. I went into the countertop search with much trepidation knowing that I would fall for a more more expensive stone (aka quartzite) and Jake would be a proponent for a granite or quartz (both more affordable options).

Thank goodness for Factory Plaza . If it weren’t for their seriously fantastic prices, there is NO WAY I would have gotten my dream counters. And thank goodness for a sweet husband who let me buy the most expensive stone that they had….

This is the White Macaubus Quartzite. Quartzite is more durable than granite, but has more fluid patterns similar to marble. Everyone gets very confused by this stone and thinks it’s Quartz (which is man-made). It was $65 a square foot installed. Which is no small cost, but also a phenomenal deal for this type of stone.

Probably one of the greatest moments of stress in this kitchen renovation was surrounding the layout of this stone. Because of the size of the slab, it was looking like we would have to have a large seam on the peninsula where the direction of the lines would hit perpendicular. That would have made the seam super obvious. (I could and should write a whole post on this…)

Thankfully, after much brainstorming (and maybe a little freaking out on my part) we found a way to do away with the perpendicular lines by adding a seam in the middle of the sink and taking some stone from underneath the backsplash on the peninsula. Totally the best possible solution, and I’m so glad we did it that way.

Shiplap

You might notice that we opted not to do a traditional tile backsplash and went with shiplap instead. I think this was partially a cost saving move. But also a maximization strategy. I knew that we would not tile an entire kitchen (for labor or budget reasons), but Jake might be convinced to install shiplap instead of drywall.

And that achieved the same thing in the end. We got texture throughout the kitchen, in a more understated manner. I’m glad we went with the ‘pre-made’ stuff. I’ve seen tutorials where people rip down plywood etc., but having the wood pre-primed and the nickel gap for hidden nails was super nice.

Open Shelving

Originally I had planned to make these shelves out of some old weathered cedar that we’d kept from our old house. But, to my great dismay, those boards ended up being to warped to make shelves out of. So we ended up buying some new Douglas Fir to make them out with.

I was definitely disappointed because I was looking forward to having naturally weathered/distressed shelves. But I think they turned out great in the end.

We were too cheap to buy the floating shelf hardware to hang these. Seriously, they are over $30 a pop!! And Jake had the idea of pounding rebar in the wall and drilling holes in our shelves. Great ingenuity, thinking outside the box for sure.

Not sure we would do it again though… I don’t think are shelves are totally straight. And how do you straighten out rebar in the wall? A lot of pounding… so yeah, we definitely saved some money, but maybe lost some sanity.

The Range

Practically speaking, this is hands down my favorite thing in this kitchen. It’s basically a miracle stove and I love it so much. From the get-go in this kitchen design, my heart was set on a ‘professional’ range. NOT-mind you-because I feel like I need one for cooking, PURELY because they are beautiful. I’m a ridiculous girl, I know.

So, for months I had been checking Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for a professional style range. But they were all like at least $2,000, or were seriously falling apart. The chances were not looking good for me achieving this desire.

Nevertheless, one glorious morning my range appeared on Craigslist for just $400!!!!!!! I was in disbelief, like was it a scam??? We reached out immediately and arranged the sale.

We showed up to a million dollar house, and the guy explained that their ice maker had broke so they replaced their whole kitchen. Ha! The range was a GE Monogram 48″ Duel Fuel and was around 10-15 years old. It has two ovens, six burners, and a griddle. This is what dreams are made of right here.

It took 6 guys to get this puppy home, but know it is mine, all mine! And I love cooking on it. Totally unnecessary, yet it makes me so happy. Don’t be afraid to shoot for the sky folks, miracles do happen.

Patterned Tile

How special is this cement-look tile? And even better: I installed it all by myself. It’s ceramic, so super easy to work with. And I’ve seen this pattern in so many beautiful designer kitchens and baths. It’s a serious showstopper.

The vision was to see this beautiful pattern as you drive up to our house because there are floor to ceiling windows in front of it. I love it so much, I’m thinking of using it as our master bathroom flooring.

And there you have it, everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about our kitchen!

Sources:
Cabinets – Inset Charcoal Gray Shaker Cabinets from The Cabinet Spot
Knobs – Martha Stewart Bedford Brass Knobs
Pulls – Liberty Bedford Brass Cup Pulls
Kitchen Faucet – Kunmai High Arc Gold Kitchen Faucet
Water Spigot – Kingston Brass Gold Water Faucet
Sink – Double Bowl Stainless Steel Undermount
Pendants – Sculptural Glass Globe Pendant
Countertops – White Macaubus Quartzite from Factory Plaza
Shiplap – Home Depot
Shelves – Douglas Fir
Range – GE Monogram 48″ Duel Fuel (bought on Craigslist)
Fridge – Kitchenaid (bought on Facebook Marketplace)
Peninsula Tile – Kira Ceramic Cement-Look Tile
Wall paint – BM White Dove
Flooring – Floor & Decor
Photography – Rilea Petersen

The post Kitchen Sources appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

• Picking out Kitchen Cabinets
• Kitchen Layout
• November Happennings
• Video Update
• Kitchen Hardware
• Kitchen Sources

And of course, an after always needs a good before… So here are the before photos of our kitchen:

Without a doubt this was the grossest kitchen I have ever experienced in my life. This was the first demo project after we bought the house. We tore the kitchen out before our estate sales even started.

The dishwasher was stuffed full of unused cleaning supplies, the sink was rusted out after years without softened water. There were dead mice abundant, and too many vintage stoves.

But, the placement in the house is just perfect, slightly tucked away yet still very much in the center. With abundant lighting and tall ceilings. This kitchen was gross, but the potential was undeniable. And, I am proud to say that we have breathed new life into it….

A huge thanks to Rilea Petersen who took these amazing photos! Check out her work on instagram.

Look how happy I am to be cooking in a finished kitchen!! Ha. But seriously, it had been a long time since I have had a complete kitchen. We were in renovation mode so long on our last kitchen that we hardly got to enjoy it before we sold the house.

It’s hard to know what to talk about because there are so many little details I love about this kitchen. I will do a breakdown post soon to discuss each element in the kitchen, but for now I just had to get these pictures up.

I love seeing before and after posts, they are so encouraging when you are in the trenches of renovation. We are just completing the demo phase of our first flip house, so it’s exciting to think that the transformation there will be just as dramatic and satisfying.

Sources:
Cabinets – Inset Charcoal Gray Shaker Cabinets from The Cabinet Spot
Knobs – Martha Stewart Bedford Brass Knobs
Pulls – Liberty Bedford Brass Cup Pulls
Kitchen Faucet – Kunmai High Arc Gold Kitchen Faucet
Water Spigot – Kingston Brass Gold Water Faucet
Sink – Double Bowl Stainless Steel Undermount
Pendants – Sculptural Glass Globe Pendant
Countertops – White Macaubus Quartzite from Factory Plaza
Shiplap – Home Depot
Shelves – Douglas Fir
Range – GE Monogram 48″ Duel Fuel (bought on Craigslist)
Fridge – Kitchenaid (bought on Facebook Marketplace)
Peninsula Tile – Kira Ceramic Cement-Look Tile
Wall paint – BM White Dove
Flooring – Floor & Decor
Photography – Rilea Petersen

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I want to expand my decorating ability and leave my comfort zone when designing and furnishing this house. And I made a big step towards doing just that with our den… (aka the fireplace room behind the kitchen).

This room needed a lot of love. It was the original family room of the 1950’s cabin before the large addition was added in the 90’s. You could see smoke stains on the ceiling and walls. And the whole ceiling was sagging, so Jake had to screw it back up and patch all the nail holes.

Even just having the flooring installed in this room really helped it feel less nasty. Let me tell you, the nasty factor in here was very high….

So people had been asking me, what are you going to use this room for?? And I’d be like, I don’t know, another living area? Seriously, though, how many sitting rooms does one house need? Always another I guess… But, I did want it to at least feel different that the bright light and airy great room, so it could have it’s own purpose and function. In our last home, we painted the den (I just really like calling rooms dens, I don’t know why…) paneling a medium gray. It really made the space feel cozy.

I wanted another cozy space, but to take it even a step further: darker colors and a matching dark painted ceiling. I’d been eyeing Inchyra Blue rooms by Farrow and Ball, leaning towards this dark blue/green/gray hue. But, since I’m not about to spring for Farrow and Ball prices right now, I went to Home Depot and got a bunch of Behr color Samples.

Jake helped me narrow it down by picking the greenest ones. Green is having a serious design moment right now, and I am joining the trend bandwagon. Plus it feels a bit more rustic than the more teal-hued colors, and they leaned too tropical for my preference. We settled on Behr Mountain Pine.

It took us 2 coats and 2.5 gallons, but the effect is feeling very dramatic. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m nervous about this space, but I’m also pretty excited for what it could be. The ivory tufted chesterfield sofa (that we found for $65 at a local thrift store!!) fits the mood perfectly. I feel like it needs to be positioned in the middle of the room, or it’s too far from the fireplace.

There are lots of decisions to be made in here, like will there be a leather armchair? What lighting should be added? What goes behind the couch? And, does the fireplace need some love?

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From the beginning I was set on this golde square cup pull.  Like, completely obsessed with how it looks in these kitchens… I mean, seriously, does it get more perfectly dramatic than this?

kitchen via: Planete-Deco

So from there, I had to decide what other style I wanted. Typically you have a knob and pull for your cabinets, but not always. In our last kitchen, we put the same style modern pulls on all the doors and drawers for a cohesive feel.  In this case, I wanted to emulate a bit of that fabulous DeVol kitchen with some modern-English-traditional. Which means I got to pick out kitchen knobs for the first time ever! (Exciting times here!!)

This image inspired the knobs I wanted. We have similar smaller drawers on top of our cabinets that wouldn’t fit those beautiful square pulls. So, the symmetry of having the two little knobs over the chunky brass pulls felt just right.

via stephani buchman website

After shopping around trying to find my dream square brass cup pulls, I landed on these guys…. They tempted me with a super reasonable price, so I ordered them.

The website also sold these little brass knobs so I threw them in my cart and pressed order…

Then I made this little mockup to visualize them while I waited for my order to arrive. Pretty cute looking, right?? I will say, the color confused me some, but I chalked it up to bad photography.

They were on backorder and took forever to arrive… and then when they finally came, they just didn’t look how I had pictured. Mainly the brass color was so light that it almost appeared silver. Now some people might like that because they are afraid of having too orangey of a brass. But, this just wasn’t cutting it for me. I wanted this definite warmth in the hardware and they were not achieving that.

So I went through the whole return process… which was not easy. And that reminds me why I always prefer to order off Amazon, guaranteed returns people.. They are crucial for home remodeling choices. You are bound to order something you’ll need to take back, so make sure you have the option.

In the meantime, I had to accept that I would not be getting the exact square pulls I had been dreaming of, and expand my search horizon. Learning from my return nightmare mistake, I ordered another set of gold cup pulls from Home Depot.

The original one I had ordered is on the right side. After some help from friends, I decided on the left pull (Soft Industrial 3 in. (76mm) Center-to-Center Bedford Brass Cup Drawer Pull). It still had a square feel to it and seemed dramatic enough. Matching brass finishes can be tough, so I kept it in the same family and chose the Martha Stewart Bedford Brass Round Knob.

And thankfully, I loved these ones, so no returns needed. I think installing the hardware on the cabinets was a real turning point for us. We were in the pits of renovation mode. Seeing a finishing touch like hardware go on really helped us see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We tied in the gold a couple places in our kitchen: the faucet, the hardware, and the pendant lights. I’m looking forward to adding even more accent touches in the decor. But, for now… I’m just enjoying a fully functioning kitchen

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Sidenote—there are two lessons to be learned here… One: items on Facebook Marketplace sell at a premium over Craiglist. It’s just a much easier platform to use with way more people frequenting it. Two: know your season. Matching chairs get snapped up right before the holidays because everyone is anticipating have tons of family over for dinner.

Anyway, I had grand plans to ceruse it like this but in black, and get these IKEA chairs to go with it.  But, plans tend to change. And right around the New Year is when we decided we were going to sell our house. Knowing you’re not going to be in a place much longer really puts a damper on furniture project motivation. So the table has remained as is.

Fast forward to the Hoarder House: once we had cleared out all the junk, we moved this table in.  And oh, it just fits so perfectly in that space. It’s as if we planned it, but no! All we needed were some perfectly mid-century chairs to complete our dining set. Plus we were spending a lot of time at this table because all our other furniture stayed in the basement for a while during the demo and rough construction phase.

Every evening as I browsed the local CL and FB marketplace listings I casually checked for said MCM inspired chairs. Interestingly enough, I was looking for commercial or waiting room chairs because they tend to be inspired by the 1960’s clean lines and retro feel. And they are often sturdy enough to recover.

In my search I stumbled upon these suckers… for just $5 a pop. That is insane y’all!!!!!!! Again, these would’ve been gone in moments on FB marketplace, but thank goodness some old fashioned people still list their stuff on CL.

First off, how cool is it that they are chairs from a Parish? Talk about history! And, they are just so stinkin’ mid-century with the straight lines and the shape of the legs. I’m even kind of obsessed with those gold connector pieces. And, they had over 200 so I could get a full set of 10. Do you know how hard it is to find 10 matching chairs???

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So obviously I called the poster right away, because THESE WERE THE CHAIRS I HAD BEEN WAITING ALL MY LIFE FOR!!!

But…. He said they had all been sold…………………… *gah, update your listings people!!* So, I very sadly went back to the drawing board on my chair search.

Well, later that week I saw that not only was the listing still up, it had been renewed….. those sneaky snakes (why do I love this song so much?!?)… I called them again…

“Excuse me sir, are these available?”

“Why yes they are!”

*cue angels singing*

*rays of sun shine down from the heavens*

Glory be!!!!! I will have these chairs of my dreams!! So I sent Jake to pick them up straight away. Turns out there was a possible buyer for all 200+ of the chairs, but they were being a little flaky so the Parish let us buy the 10 and was saving the rest for the other buyer.

I feel like it’s safe to call this a miracle. Like total diving intervention right there. I seriously measure my blessings in Craiglist deals and this girl feels #blessed.

So, now that we have this drop-dead dining room set for a grand total of 50 smackeroos, it’s time to start planning how I will refinish it….

For the table, the jury is still out. I’m toying with the idea of a black stain using this method.

And I think I want to leave the wood finish on the chairs. One, it would be a ton of work to refinish them all, and two, I think medium toned oak is acceptable in small doses. So, the main updating I will do on the chairs is recovering them.

I ordered a bunch of Robert Allan upholstery samples from Fabric Guru (is he the only designer with beautifully modern and affordable fabrics?? Please share if you know of others).  It was a tough decision to be sure…

I even tried some sad attempts at mocking them up, but let’s just be honest. This isn’t my best work, and it’s very hard to decide based on this hot mess…

Ultimately the last one was the winner. I ordered it on a 20% off black Friday sale and I am so excited for the statement it’s going to make!!! (And at least a teensy bit nervous too) We have so many whites in our space right now that I need to start committing to some colors and patterns.

I want to start on these puppies, but I’m wondering if I should wait a bit longer as the drywall dust is flying around here and I don’t want them to get ruined.

What do you think? Are you a CL ninja too? Any other fabric designers you like?

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I’ll spare you pics and gory details, but suffice to say that Jake was out for the count for several weeks while his thumb healed. So basically that means that almost nothing got done on our house during that time. Because, let’s be honest, he does all the work around here.

We were able to usher out the fall season in style though. This property is littered with fallen brush and tree limbs. In an effort to try to clean up the grounds a bit, we had many bonfires and were able to clear a lot out. Aren’t bonfires the coziest??

While Jake was healing, we decided to go on a little trip to the Smokey Mountains. It was nice to get away from the house for a while. Living in renovation gets old…..

But before we left we made sure to place our order for the kitchen cabinets. We did end up going with the Cabinet Spot based on the sample we got. We worked with their kitchen designers to get everything just how we wanted (I will have to share more of the layout details in another post).

There were several reasons we ended up going with the Cabinet Spot. First, they are a ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinet provider which means they ship flat-packed—just like IKEA—and you have to assemble them yourselves. Usually RTA cabinets are sold at a big discount over pre-assembled cabinets.

Secondly, it’s like my wildest dream to have inset cabinets. I know it’s kind of ridiculous.. and if you don’t know what that means check it out here. But, because of the precision required for inset cabinetry they tend to be very pricey and I thought they would forever be out of my budget. In this search for cabinets I had come across one or two inset cabinet lines from RTA cabinet companies, but they were only offered in one color that I wasn’t interested in.

The Cabinet spot offers THREE different colors of their inset cabinetry and… the total order ended up costing less than my IKEA cabinets would have cost!!!! Can you even believe that?! No one beats IKEA, I thought! And beyond that, IKEA cabinets are made out of mdf and while they are fine quality, our cabinets are made out of plywood which is just generally considered to be of much higher quality.

Anyways, super happy with the price and offering of the cabinets we got at the Cabinet Spot. I will say that it seems like they are more set up to work with contractors than DIY-ers or home-owners. For instance, the cabinets come with no instructions. You can download some standard instructions online, but they are not super descriptive and aren’t unique to each cabinet. Another reason why they were a bit more difficult than IKEA: the inset cabinets we ordered were not pre-drilled for the hinges. So that was tricky to figure out exactly where each one had to be installed.

Overall, I would say that the quality and beauty of the cabinets for the stellar price seems to far outweigh the difficulty of assembly. And now our living room is filled with kitchen cabinets…

Pretty soon after the cabinets came in, we decided to hire out the electric for the kitchen. It was the right call because the scope of work was keeping Jake up at night. We had 8 cans installed, 2 pendants, 4 outlets, 2 3-way switches and some dedicated lines for the appliances.  So, it was no small job! And now we have light

Next up, lots and lots of drywall and a bit of shiplap…. So stay tuned over the next few weeks to see the progress on that. And pretty soon it will be time to pick out countertops. *oh the excitement!!*

We went to look at some countertops a few weeks ago… and I’m pretty set on a quartzite. They are just EVERYTHING. The look of marble, but more durable than granite, and they have that real stone beauty that you just can’t get in quartz. The only thing they don’t have is a good price. These were the three we saw and liked at MS International:

Oh my, this one hits me hard… the beauty of this stone is so moving!!!! I want a whole house clad in this. But, I did worry that it was maybe too gray for our cabinets. I was thinking a lighter tone for more contrast and to blend better with the white shiplap on the walls.

I think this one was my favorite… Just barely grey enough, yet still light over all. And the movement of the veining is stunning.

This one is really pretty, but it’s perhaps a bit too cream toned for our gray cabinets, so not necessarily my favorite one of the bunch. I can’t say I wouldn’t still be a happy girl to have this in my kitchen.

Sadly, when we priced these three quartzites out they were WAY out of our budget. So we will be looking at some more options this week and hopefully make a decision soon. Because I want a kitchen again!!!

So that’s pretty much what’s been going one, I also went Cyber Monday crazy and bought a bunch of things for the kitchen. Can’t wait to share them with you.

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And then we took it down to the absolute studs… Like bare bones nothingness…

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So, when I think about it like that, I’d be pretty darn proud to have such a fancy looking bathroom for only $2,500! With that frame of mind, I went to task adding up the costs of the bathroom renovation.  Here is the breakdown:

Can you believe that?? We came in almost exactly on budget! I’m pretty pumped about that, honestly.  I feel like I tried to find the best for the lowest price and I’m pretty satisfied that we hit that!

Probably the biggest cost in most people’s bathroom renovations is the vanity. Custom vanities cost thousands of dollars. And, can I be honest? They end up looking just like everybody else’s vanity in the end… So I just cannot stomach the cost of most store-bought vanities to end up with something that is barely better than builder-grade.

I was absolutely set on finding some wood furniture to repurpose into our vanity, so that we could save money and have a custom look. If you’ve read the bathroom progress post, you saw how we found our ‘vanity’ on Facebook marketplace in the form of a dining room buffet. It definitely took some customization, but I just don’t understand why more people don’t do this… You end up with a totally unique and (hopefully) high-end look for way less!

All in, our vanity cost us $560. I am definitely biased, but based on my shopping around, our vanity would sell new at the store at $1,800 as a MINIMUM. I’d say that’s some pretty good bang for the buck!

Check out all the posts in the main bathroom renovation:

Hoarder House Bathroom Situation
Main Bath Design
Tile Trend – Black Hexagon Tile Floors
Main Bathroom Reveal
Main Bathroom Sources
Main Bathroom Budget

Sources

Black Hexagon Floor Tile
3×12 Subway Tile in Shower
Marble Shower Shelf
Vanity – Facebook Marketplace
Porcelain Semi-Recessed Sinks
Vanity Pulls
Wall Mount Sink Faucets
Bathtub
Bath and Shower Fixture Trim and Valve
Toilet
Globe Sconce Lights and LEDs
Mirror – Facebook Marketplace
Llama Art
Striped Turkish Towels
Towel Hooks
Toilet Paper Holder

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Which is why I am so very excited to share each element of the design and some of the decision making behind it. Starting with…

The Tile

This was the very first design decision I made for this bathroom. I knew from the get-go that black hex tile was what I wanted for the floor. I even wrote a whole post about my love for said tile.

I considered all of the above options but ultimately fell in love with the embossed black hexagon tile on the right (Soprano 8.62″ x 9.87″ Porcelain Field Tile in Black). I bought it here, but I’ve seen it under different names around the web like here, and here.

I was convinced this would be the showstopper of the bath and add enough texture that I’d feel comfortable letting everything else in the design remain calmer.

With the bathroom floor tile picked out, I went in search of a shower tile. I’ll be honest, I was looking for any white ceramic tile that would add a bit of bling but not really take any spotlight (or break the bank).

We ended up choosing this 3×12 subway tile from Floor & Decor and doing an offset pattern in thirds. I’m pretty happy with it overall, it does the job well and adds some subtle texture.

The shower ledge was a fun addition to this bathroom makeover. We had done a niche in our last bathroom, but it was a bit of a pain and actually didn’t add enough shelf space. So, this time we went for the ledge, and I have to say, I’m digging it! For the marble we used some marble threshold from Floor & Decor (I seriously love that place).

The Vanity

The vanity is my proudest accomplishment in this bathroom.  We purchased it from Facebook as a dining room buffet, complete with granite top for $300.

Then Jake cut holes in the top for porcelain sinks… Now I have a confession to make: at first I confidently bought these beautiful sinks from Houzz intending to use them on the vanity.

They look pretty legit, right? Well they are! The sinks came in and they were GORGEOUS! But also… GIGANTIC. Like I did not plan for how mammoth they would look on my vanity and how puny my prized possession would appear. I went to go return then and found out that I would have to pay for return shipping… which would cost the price of the sinks!!!! (Lesson learned, just shop Amazon. #freereturnsforever)

Luckily I sold them for 80% of cost on Facebook marketplace and found these much more appropriate sized semi-recessed sinks.

And I think they are proportionately just right for the vanity! It was seriously so stressful to shop for these sinks because after making one fatal error, you worry you’ll make it again. Plus, Jake and I had some vigorous debates on whether or not overflows are necessary… Do you think they are? Weigh in in the comments!!

Next I had to pick out the handles. I was wanting to bring the black up some from the floor, so I went searching for a modern looking matte black handle.

It turned out to be much tougher than I thought because the holes from the previous handles weren’t standard sizes. So I had to find handles that covered up the old holes! After hours of internet searches, I settled on these pulls from Amazon, and they ended up being just wide enough to hide the old holes on the drawers.

Of course I forgot to measure the handles on the doors and my new handles didn’t cover those holes as well, but we just added some wood putty and called it good

Since the moment I started designing this bathroom, I knew I wanted to try out wall faucets. I figured they were probably more difficult to install/plumb than regular ones, but I always like to help Jake learn new skills Ha!

Plus, with having the vessel type sinks, it was either that or a vessel faucet which I don’t always tend to love.  It was a little rough finding the faucets to buy. Basically (as the story always goes) the most beautiful ones were far north of $100, and I felt more comfortable in the $50-$80 range. I found a few that looked really nice in that pricepoint, but they had no brand and too few reviews. I’m all about giving something undiscovered a try.. but if that something is going to be holding water inside of my walls, I’d much rather have the peace of mind that it won’t leak everywhere.

After hemming and hawing quite a bit, we purchased these Kingston Brass wall-mount faucets. Now to be honest, I think the intended use for these faucets is for laundry sinks.  And I did not measure how far the faucet protruded. There was a very tense moment when Jake got the first faucet installed and the tip was closer to the front of the vanity than to the middle.

After some stress and regret over not planning better, Jake saved the day and figured out how to remove the knuckles off the faucet and install it straight into the plumbing in the wall. See how the one below from the Amazon picture has an extra piece? That’s what we had to remove. And now it comes to about the center of the sink, which is good enough for me. So major lesson learned there.

Another fun thing about this faucet is that the head turns. I don’t know why but that really tickles me. And those cross handles with hot and cold labels… are they they cutest?

Tub & Shower

Picking out the bathtub was weird… Like part of me could care less, but the other part wanted as clean and minimal lines as possible. And then you have to pick between acrylic and steel and read all the horrible reviews about everyone’s tub cracking. It’s just tough. But I bucked up and picked out this one from Home Depot. And it’s been nice so far! No complaints. It’s our first acrylic tub, which is different. So the jury is still out I guess…

Finding the right shower/tub fixtures was a little less weird, but about just as stressful. Basically, all the ones I liked felt like too much money.. And the ones I liked that were cheaper didn’t have name brands. I learned from Jake that plumbing items are one area where quality really counts. (I guess that makes sense, leaky tub valves sound like bad news bears) And sometime the best way to judge quality is by the brand.  We settled on a chrome Pfister trim kit and a corresponding valve.

Toilet

Why did I make a separate section for this?? I guess because it didn’t fit in any other section… This was literally the first purchase we made for the Hoarder House on the day after we bought it. It works great, it’s seen a lot… What else is there to say? It’s a Kohler from Home Depot.

Lights

This was one of the more fun items to pick out… I have really been feeling the globe lights that have a bit of mid-century vibe going.  And after sifting through google shopping (does anyone else use that feature all the time like me??). I found these fabulous globe lights from build.com.

I totally forgot to read the instructions though, because it turns out they need these super specific led’s. In the end, I was really glad because the inner frosted globe comes with the light. But it caused us a few days delay to order the LEDs off of Amazon.

Funny story, Jake added the wiring to install these sconces (because I am OBSESSED with sconces and would ask him to put them in every room if I didn’t feel too guilty). But we didn’t test the lights until a week or two after the wiring was done and the drywall was up and painted.  The led bulbs came in, we put them in the light and flipped the power on… They lit up! Yay! Then we flipped the switch down… and they still were on……

So yeah, that was a sad realization for Jake that he had accidentally wired them to always be hot. The worst part was that particular piece of wire was a big pain to snake through in the first place (because in Chicagoland EVERYTHING has to be in conduit). So, you can only imagine that it was doubly hard to take out and replace with the walls up.

Suffice to say we spent a full 8 hours one Friday pulling wire… But eventually we got it fixed and now it works like a proper light. On. And then off.

Accessories

I got the mirror off Facebook Marketplace and painted it black. You know those really sleek looking thin metal frame mirrors from places like West Elm? Yeah that was kinda the look I was going for. But the space required a really specific and non-standard width so I had trouble finding a mirror the right size.  And I really didn’t want to pay the primo price for a custom one. So this one will do for now, I may keep looking for a slightly wider one in the future. But this one was just $20 plus a can of spray paint

This fun llama art was my last purchase for the bathroom. I bought it at Home Goods but I’ve also seen it at Target.  I think it adds a bit of whimsy to the bathroom. He seems to say to me: let’s not take ourselves too seriously!

I bought the towels off of Amazon. They are inspired by all the Turkish towels I’ve been seeing on Pinterest lately. I’ll let you know if they actually work as towels… ha! Haven’t tried them yet.

The towel hooks came in pack and they are pretty simple. But I like how they bring the black up onto the walls a bit. Same thing with the toilet paper holder. Simple, black and sleek.

And finally, the shower curtain came from Home Goods. And we bought a chrome tension rod at Menards for the shower.

I hope you’ve enjoyed following along as we renovated this bathroom. One done two to go!!

Sources

Black Hexagon Floor Tile
3×12 Subway Tile in Shower
Marble Shower Shelf
Vanity – Facebook Marketplace
Porcelain Semi-Recessed Sinks
Vanity Pulls
Wall Mount Sink Faucets
Bathtub
Bath and Shower Fixture Trim and Valve
Toilet
Globe Sconce Lights and LEDs
Mirror – Facebook Marketplace
Llama Art
Striped Turkish Towels
Towel Hooks
Toilet Paper Holder

Check out all the posts in the main bathroom renovation:

MAIN BATHROOM POSTS

Hoarder House Bathroom Situation
Main Bath Design
Tile Trend – Black Hexagon Tile Floors
Main Bathroom Reveal
Main Bathroom Sources
Main Bathroom Budget

The post Main Bathroom Sources appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

But I still wanted to pop in for a short video to talk to you about the floors we chose and what we like/dislike about them. And, to show you a kitchen progress update.

Happy weekend all!!!

The post Video Update – 10/19/18 appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.