maven&meddler

I’ve done enough remodeling over the years that you’d think I’d know: twice as long and twice as expensive. This one has just about driven me twice as crazy, too.

It started out like all good things, with good intentions of simply replacing ugly hallway carpet with ceramic tile…  done by the brother of a co-worker. Then it seemed so logical to carry the same tile right on along into the seriously ‘70’s hallway-guest bath.

Famous last words or something to that effect.

At least this one is done and that only leaves the master bath to be completed this week.

I painted, and painted, and painted. Actually we had already painted but once the granite countertop was in place it was obvious that the colors would ‘do’ but to my artists eye were all wrong. I wasn’t after merely nice, I was after some drama. I didn’t pick green amazon granite for nuttin.

This bath was the very last of all the house - built in about 1970 - to be remodeled. It was so 70’s, with a dark wood vanity and white tile with white sinks and white everywhere, with shiny wallpaper that it made you want to puke. Oh, yeah, and vinyl flooring.

Here it is now:

That isn’t exactly black behind the pivoting mirrors, it’s called ‘stealth jet’. Ha, how apt in an aviation household! The other walls are a layered, two paint effect that amounts to a shimmery bronze. The narrow wall behind the potty is a deep metallic purple. We had to play around with color temperature on the recessed lighting to give the proper amount and type of light. The room also has a ‘solar tube’ that adds daylight.

The previous vanity countertop was the lower height common in those days. We picked it up to the standard kitchen countertop height. There had been a simple flat wall mirror above a countertop of old white tile, with two oval sinks breaking it up so that you had no useable space.

A single medicine cabinet was on the right wall.

As you can see, we ditched the second sink to provide more useable countertop and show off the wonderful patterns in the green amazon granite. We’ve more than doubled the functionality of the cabinet this way, too.

Even better, instead of a medicine cabinet at all, we added a stroke of genius … a pull out just like I have in my kitchen:

It glides out effortlessly, and has all these wonderful acrylic trays that make life and makeup in the morning a breeze. This more than quadruples the storage that the single medicine cabinet provided.

The sink is orange. Yes, you read that right, and I don’t care. It works.

We went with the brushed nickle on all of the fixtures, in keeping with current trends which I think will hang in there for a while.

The tile is all porcelain, and we continued the same decorative motif with tumbled marble and irridescent glass insets that we used in the hallway, lending a nice sense of continuity.

Tile motif in the shower features the same tumbled marble, ceramic tiles, shale and irridescent glass as the hallway floor.

We kept the original tub, but tore out all the old white tile surround, shower door and fixtures. We went for a very Euro clear glass door to preserve the sightline to the wonderful tile on the shower wall. The sides of the shower tile, outside, are capped vertically by a couple of leftover strips of the green granite. 

So, kudos to my tile and granite guy, Tyson. For those who wonder, I’m responsible for the overall concept and design … for better or worse.

Stay tuned for the master bath.