Modern Mix

My wonderful blog friend Nita, from Mod Vintage Life, has started a new Link Party called Mod Mix Monday.  She is challenging all of us to link up how we have combined the old and the new.
I am up to the challenge.
I almost hate to post one more time about my master bathroom, but that is where my mix takes place.  Just in case you have not seen it yet, here is a picture of my bath redo.

Here is a close up of the items on my bathroom vanity.  I love the look of crystal in the bathroom.  The crystal just comes to life with the lighting and all the shiny surfaces.  Some of these crystal pieces are newer.  The jar with the lid is only about 10 years old while the glass with the Q-tips was my grandmother’s from the 1920’s.  The vase holding my make-up brushes is a Good Will find and the perfume bottle was a gift from my sister.  But all of the bathroom is new and much more modern.

While I love my marble, it stains easily.  So to avoid rings I have a crystal coaster with my other crystal lovelies.  Most of these crystal pieces are functional as well as pretty.

I will be linking up to Nita’s party at:


Thanks for reading,
Traci

Out With The Old . . .

. . . guest bathroom. 

I bet you are asking yourself, aren’t they in the middle of replacing wood floors?  Why are they moving onto the next project before the floors are done?  What are they thinking?

This is the classic example of one project growing into five projects. 

Project 1) The wood floors that need to be replaced are in the dining room and the front hall.

Project 2) The guest bath is at the end of the hall and we want to run the wood flooring into the guest bath. 

Project 3) In order to replace the bathroom floors we have to tear out not only the floors but also the tile walls.  And since we have to take out the toilet and sink to do the floors and walls already we might as well replace them while we are at it, they are pretty dated.

 

So the demo begins.

Did you notice that we have the toilet drain covered up with a paper plate?  I was afraid Zoey would fall in.

Thankfully this bathroom has a window that opens into the backyard so all the debris went out the window rather than through the house.

Tasha doesn’t hear very well these days so she is always checking out our projects regardless of the amount of noise we are making while Zoey picked a lull in the demolition to check out the progress.

Project 4)  Moving the water lines closer together so they are hidden behind the sink pedestal.  This is a pet peeve for me so I convinced hubby that we need to move the shut off valves closer together so you can’t see them from down the hall.  Sounds easy.  All hubby had to do was remove a little bit of sheet rock so the plumber could work.

Project 5)  Unplanned removal of sheet rock.  When hubby removed the small amount of sheet rock the back of it was covered in mold.  Not good.   So instead of removing a small part of the sheet rock hubby had to remove almost half of three walls along with all the insulation.

Apparently when our house was built 27 years ago they forgot to seal up the outside wall where the clean out for the drain is located. 

We could see daylight around the hole.  It is a good thing we live in a dry place or it could have been a lot worse.

 

So after all the sheet rock and insulation was removed hubby put the sink in place.  We needed a boost after all the mold.

Hopefully there will be some in with the new soon.

Thanks for reading,

Traci

Design is in the Details

One of the major challenges in remodeling our master bathroom was the tub!  It is a wonderful Kohler soaking tub, worth about $3000, cast iron, placed in concrete so it is almost impossible to remove, and the most comfortable tub I have ever been in.  Needless to say everything on this bathroom was planned around the tub. 

But when I went to replace the hand rests, pictured above, and the drain mechanism I ran into a huge road block.  Kohler did not make the pieces in an Oil Rubbed Bronze finish and they still don’t.  They make them in the bright brass, but I already had those.  And I had already replaced all the other plumbing and light fixtures in the bathroom so there was no going back.
So now what?  My husband says I will paint anything that stands still long enough so it was no surprise to him when I said I was going to paint these brass big boys.
Unfortunately I have misplaced one of my camera cards and all the pictures of the process where on that card.  So I will just list the steps I used.
The Steps
1) Of course I started with a good washing and sanding.  Brass usually has a lacquer coating so I made sure to sand down to the actual metal.  This is have a picture of.

2) I sprayed them with a metal primer and sanded lightly.
3) Then  I sprayed them with two to three light coats of Oil Rubbed Bronze, sanding very lightly in between coats.

4) Then I repeated the process I used on the mirror frame and the half  bath faucet, dry brushing a mixture of copper craft paint and glaze to each piece.  I kept a piece of the new oil rubbed bronze fixtures handy for reference as well as a damp rag so I could wipe off the copper if it was not looking like I wanted.  Which happened quite a few times.  This is also the same technique I used on my vanity bench but while it looks great in person it just doesn’t show up in the pictures.

5) I finished it off with three light coats of spray polyand let them dry completely before I reinstalled them.   I stress the “completely” part of the drying process because that is always a weak spot for me.  I can’t tell you how many pieces I have ruined because of my lack of patience.

But not these beauties, they turned out perfect.


6)  Enjoy the tub!

I will be partying at:

Link Here

Thanks for reading,
Traci

Mastering a Bathroom Remodel

Thank goodness it is done!  It took me almost as long to take, retake, view and manipulate the photos of the finished bathroom than it did to do all the work.  Well not really but it felt like it.
So without further ado, here is my finished master bathroom!
I am thrilled with how the arches above the tub and shower turned out, they soften up all sharp angles and echo the arch on cabinets doors.

And I am tickled pink that all that carpet has been replaced with beautiful tiles laid on the diagonal and the outdated pinkish tile counters have been replaced with a gorgeous marble.

The ugly florescent lighting is now gone and has been replaced by discrete recessed lighting.  The fixtures, obviously stolen from a Vegas casino, are no more and I am delighted each time I turn on the water using the graceful oiled rubbed bronze faucets.

Even the toilet handle is special and it matches.

The shower is now a relaxing retreat instead of a leaky dark cave.

And our mirrors are beautifully framed.

The over the tub lighting looks inviting.


And gone are the bright brass vertical blinds and tub fixtures.

Just in case you forgot where we started from, not that I have, here are the side by side comparison shots.



I hope you like my new master bathroom as much as I do!
I will be showing off my bathroom at:
























Thanks for reading,
Traci