Clean and White

 Last year around the time my dad was diagnosed with cancer, our contractor began the huge project of demolishing our children's bathroom (which also doubles as the bathroom our guests use).  It desperately, desperately needed renovating!

It was the only room on the main level without a window. I remember when my mom built the house, she'd hoped to put a window in, but with a standard fiberglass shower insert, they couldn't make it work.  In a house this bright and open, the bathroom always felt dark and closed!

A few years ago the exhaust fan began working only spottily.  With so little ventilation in such a highly-used room, I had to adopt the practice of scrubbing the shower free of the mildew that would pepper the ceiling.

The exposed-bulb-light-strip was original to the house, but my husband and I had replaced the original mirror, countertop (pink formica to this dappled granite) sometime when Finn was a toddler. I had painted the cabinet cream, and the walls a sage green.  

Somewhere along the line, a Person Who Shall Remain Unnamed cracked the cabinet door. The sink cabinet was low, which was great when my children were itsy bitsy, but Finn is already taller than I am at 15, and I suspect he's got more growth to accomplish.  It was almost comical to see anyone brush their teeth or wash their face at this sink, crouched so far over.....it just didn't work for our family of older children!

We started to joke that the bathroom was demolishing itself: one day the toilet lid just fell right off.  And the linoleum on the floor (also original 1993) had started to peel up and back. The bathroom never "felt" clean, even when I scrubbed it to within an inch of its life, and that annoyed me. Ew.

Over one of our 20th anniversary dinners (we had several!) in 2019, my husband casually suggested we redo the bathroom. I almost fell out of my chair.  My husband is THE most frugal person.  At the time, we had several other large house projects happening, so we waited until the dust settled on those, and got our contractor (who is also our across-the-lane neighbor, a Mennonite, and one of the most wonderful humans you'll ever meet--not to mention a top-notch builder who does a beautiful job with everything) to take a look and give us a quote. I got cold feet after receiving the quote, but my husband encouraged me to just go forward with it.  So we did.

Paul started demolition the week my Daddy was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. He gutted the entire room down to the studs.  It was epic. After that week, I came home, asked my mother-in-law to stay with my children for a day, and literally picked out every single thing for the new bathroom in one fell swoop, an unprecedented approach for me. But I knew I'd have to spend a lot of time traveling and in Charleston, and I wanted to have it all picked and off my plate!  Fortunately, I had a pretty strong vision for what I liked.  That helped. Also, my husband had no opinion at all, on anything, so I was given carte blanche on the whole project. I appreciate that about my husband. :)

Hexagonal marble tiles, a window, beveled subway tile: a beauty to behold. I'm really happy with this bathroom and so grateful my husband insisted we go ahead with this project.

The window has just been fabulous! I wanted an awning-style so that there's no visual interruption to the view out the back of the property (it's all our family farmland, and the window is very high, so no privacy worries).  We have more-than-adequate ventilation, and bright light!  I don't really like normal subway tile, but I love the beveled tile because it adds dimensionality, and it's really not much more expensive than regular subway tile.  We used white grout on the walls because I don't like contrast between white tiles.

The countertop is quartz. I discovered that I don't like granite, but I do like quartz.  It's simple and very easy to care for, and though it's sort of a luxury finish, on a cabinet this size it was not too expensive at all. 

I had the cabinetmaker build something very simple and a lot taller than what we had before, and kept my fingers crossed that I would like the color that I chose (ran to the paint store, picked out Benjamin Moore's "Smoke," and gave it to the cabinetmaker--he used that color for his lacquering). I was so relieved when it came in and looked exactly like I wanted it to look.  I don't usually gamble so recklessly with paint colors.  This is probably my favorite color in the world, a soft blue-grey. The little cabinet pulls are pretty little trinkets from Anthropologie.

Went for a taller toilet, too.  

I appreciate the nod to bathing that the painting implies.  I bought that painting several years ago with a whole group of others at the thrift store, and it definitely belongs right here.  (Here's the story on that amazing find!) It needed to be framed, but I didn't feel like committing to a frame, either mentally or monetarily, so I used a fun trick: black duct tape to cover the raw edges and staples and paint smudges. Viola, looks great. 

Now this tiny little space is so bright and pretty. And when I clean it, it feels clean!

Major thanks to my husband for the encouragement and to Paul for his beautiful workmanship.