The Ashley Maria Blog: Bathroom Renovation

I felt like this project would never get finished, but it is complete and I am so happy with the way it turned out! We made our upstairs 1/2 bath into a full bath and boy did it make a difference! It is so airy and bright and SO MUCH BIGGER!!

Here is what the old half bath looked like. It's not horrible, but with the potential to make it into a full we knew it would not only be convenient, but also put value onto our house when it was time to sell.

Demo began shortly before the holidays. You will see from these pictures there was a linen closet directly outside the 1/2 bath that would need to be removed.

There was also about a foot and a 1/2 of awkward space when you walked up the stairs. So that added to the size of our new full bath!

Once that demo was complete. The new wall was able to be put in. Charger of course would need to inspect to make sure it would be big enough. We left the toilet in the original part of the bathroom until after the holidays. Hello pregnant women who uses the bathroom every 2 hours was not about to walk down stairs in the middle of the night.

Once the holiday's were over, our contractors got back to work. They removed the toilet (which like I said before.. hi preggo women was not too happy walking down the stairs!) and started re-configuring the plumbing. The new walls, window, and lighting was also put in. My father in law (who's a plumber) put in the shower and the new tile was able to be finished. Also the whole room was painted.

I originally wanted the shower tile to be a beige, but then returned it all and decided to go with a white subway looking tile. I love that choice. It just fits and matches the sink! The vanity and medicine cabinet were the next things to be

One thing I had not taken into consideration when planning this construction was this new wall. The paint that should 'match' we did not have, since the hallway paint is the same paint in the stairwell and downstairs living room. When we moved into the house, we couldn't decide on a color, so left the original paint. Ut oh.. So what to do when you can't match paint, make an accent wall of course!!

The accent wall is actually wall paper that I originally purchased for the nursery, but decided against using. We will get around to painting the rest of the hallway one day, but let me just stare at my faux shiplap looking wall for a few minutes!!

Last step before I could come in and work my design magic was hooking up the plumbing and installing the sink and toilet. My father in law and dad did this step.

and finally it was finished!! I changed the knobs on the original vanity to these vintage looking faucet knobs. I was most excited to fill the medicine cabinet up with all our toiletries. When you go without a whole bathroom for months, you celebrate the little things like not having to pull your advil out of a reusable grocery bag.