Master Bathroom with Hotel Style

How To Add Style to a Bathroom
With Paint And Ingenuity

You don’t need an entire remodel or a construction company to make your master bathroom feel fresh, new, or like you walked into a high-end hotel. We recently featured this bathroom facelift on an episode of Today’s Homeowner. The homeowners, Ryan and Chloe, lived with a concrete subfloor for over a year after their son flooded and ruined the carpet. They just didn’t know where to start!

Replace Flooring

While we could have put down tile on the concrete to match the existing nearby tile, they were really looking for something new and different. So we started by removing the old tile with what we call a chipping hammer. It easily removed the white tiles in fairly whole pieces, so the process didn’t take very long.

In its place, after some subfloor prep, we put down vinyl plank flooring in a brownish-gray stain. I’m really starting to love vinyl tile floors. Easy to install, easy to clean!

Update Vanity

The original wood-stained vanity had been there since the house was built in the early 90s and had some obvious wear on it. Plus the male homeowner is tall and was really hoping to make it taller. So what we did was remove the vanity top, add 2×4 bracing along the back on top of the existing vanity and then we ran a smooth piece of 1×4 flush with the front. To cover the transition from existing vanity to new add-on, we used a thin piece of trim, like screen mold. (Watch this how-to video for the step-by-step.)

Then I went to work with my paint sprayer* to cover up the old wood stain, make it look current and fresh with white paint (Behr Irish Mist), and conceal the new wood.

Ahh so refreshing!

Change Hardware

As you may have noticed in the above picture, we also changed out the hardware on the vanity after painting. I know I’d said it before, but changing cabinet hardware in your bathroom or kitchen can be so inexpensive, but pack a big punch in the overall look of your room. Especially true when the predecessors were scratched up polished brass with ceramic accents!

Here the homeowners went with a subtle aged bronze drawer pull that ties in nicely with the warm floors. We also added hardware to the false drawer fronts at the top where there were none before.

Timeless Faucets

After adjusting the height and look of the vanity, we replaced the original faucets with new, timeless brushed nickel faucets. This is total opinion not founded in any research, but I feel like brushed nickel is classic and always will be. Sure I’m obsessed with the current brushed brass/gold look, but brushed nickel plumbing fixtures will always be in style!

Normally I’m a supporter of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t replace it.’ But in this case, if you know what decade your fixtures came from just by looking at them (and you don’t want that look) it’s a quick process to change them out and update the look, feel, and maybe even function of your bathroom sinks. And that’s a huge win when it comes to quality of life in my book!

Wall Color

If you’ve ever been to a swanky hotel, they always have great neutral colors on the walls. Usually in the tan or gray family. They’re calming and relaxing, just what you want in a room you spend a good deal of time in! So while we were working to update so many other elements in this bathroom, the homeowners decided to change the walls from a blah orange-brown to a light, greige called Revere Pewter.

And that concludes another episode of “do one, do them all” room updates. Ha! Really though I feel like I say it a lot, but projects like this bathroom update can be done over a year-taking on one aspect of the makeover at a time as your time and budget allow. Basically any change is better than no change! And I hope this inspires you to make a change in your home today!

(For all of the details on how we completed this project, watch the full Today’s Homeowner episode here!)

Thanks for Checking In! ~Chelsea

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