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Chaunie Brusie

Mom | Writer | Nurse

January 11, 2015 By Chaunie

Before Baby Project: Bathroom Makeovers

Did you catch that little “before baby” title? And did you catch that our baby just turned five months and our bathrooms are still missing doors?

Such is life with four children. Jim Gaffigan understands.

So, yeah, gutting our bathroom was our “before baby” project that got a little extended due to life and work and the fact that Sara came three weeks early. When we bought this house, our “starter” home five years ago (funny how that happens, isn’t it?) we knew we would eventually have to replace the bathrooms because the stick-on linoleum floors were completely peeled up by the tubs, with years of water, steam, and probably dog urine lurking underneath them. We could smell the mold it was so bad. Exhibit A:

before-black-mold

Cute, huh?

It took us only a mere five years to work up the savings + the gumption to get going, and by “we” of course I mean my incredibly talented woodworking/handy man husband, Ben, who literally did all of the work himself–

Right down to chopping down the tree that he then built custom cabinets out of. (Ok, ok, this is a shameless plug for him too–he builds everything from tables to kitchens and I happen to think he’s amazing.) 

Yeah. Sometimes I feel inadequate when I look around at our house that contains so much of his talent and skill, but then I remind myself that I built his babies, so we’re about even.

Ok, let’s start with the kids’ bathroom:

kid-bathroom-before1

KID-BATHROOM-AFTER1

KID-BATHROOM-AFTER-CABINET

KID-BATHROOM-AFTER-GRANITE

Granite: ANA Granite
Cabinets: Walnut wood, built by Ben 

And this organizational hack, which I was way too excited about:

after-kid-drawers

And then the master bathroom:

mater-bath-before2

MASTER-BATH-BEFORE1

MASTER-BEFORE-SHOWER

 And after:

master-after-full-view
MASTER-BATH-AFTER2

MASTER-BATH-AFTER3

Can you believe that’s just the natural color of the wood, completely unstained? Ah-mazing. And again, all of these cabinets, in both bathrooms, came from a tree that my husband cut.down.himself and then crafted into these works of arts.

master-bath-countertop

Granite: ANA Granite

master-granite

And this special toe-kick drawer is Ben’s speciality. Now you see it:

master-toilet-paper-drawer

Now you don’t:master-toe-kick

Also, does stocking up massive amounts of toilet paper make anyone else insanely happy? Just me? Ok, then…on to the shower.

master-shower

MASTER-SHOWER-DETAIL

MASTER-TOILET

This little project was my one and only contribution to the bathroom. Ben made these shower hooks out of the leftover wood and I hot glued some burlap and pearl buttons together. I know you’re deeply impressed.

master-hooks

Overall, I’m so happy with how it all turned out–for once, we were both totally on the same page as far as what we wanted and with Ben building everything himself and doing all of the work, we got away with luxury bathrooms pretty cheaply.

Details:
Custom Cabinets // My husband, who is for hire. Ahem. Email me at info@chauniebrusie.com.
Wood // Walnut, Tung-Oil finish
Granite // Remnants purchased from ANA Granite (for my local readers, they’re located in Flint)
Hardware + tiles // Home Depot
Bathroom 
accessories // Kohl’s, courtesy of my mother-in-law!
Shower hook DIY // inspired by The Shanty Chic

MORE READING:

  • 6 Things To Look Forward To When The Baby’s Older
  • Mom Whose Toddler Shot Her Received Special Gun Purse For Christmas
  • 6 High Chair Hacks For New Moms 
  • Valentine’s Day Craft: Love Jar

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts Corner, Life, Motherhood Tagged With: bathroom before and after, bathroom makeover, bathroom makeover ideas 3 Comments

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. dweej says

    January 12, 2015 at 4:29 pm

    They look AMAZING! Wow. I really wish y’all were closer so we could hire your husband to do our kitchen cabinets. We’re planning a complete tear-out in the spring/summer. Man, that would be awesome.

    Reply
    • Tiny Blue Lines says

      January 19, 2015 at 3:27 pm

      What?? Let’s do it! Than I can meet you IN PERSON!!

      Reply
  2. Luis Parker says

    March 29, 2021 at 3:11 am

    I love the designs and ideas. Job well done! I admire your husband’s work. Thanks for these ideas.

    Reply

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About Chaunie

Hi, I'm Chaunie and I'm glad you're here! I admit this blog is a bit rusty, as most circa 2010-blogs are, but like us elder millennial moms ourselves, I figure it can still get the job done, am I right? So here's the deal: I'm a mom of five kids, teen to toddler, I've been a writer for about 10 years, mostly penning health articles in exchange for money to pay my bills, but after I was laid off, I decided it was now or never and I'm writing my first novel in a month. And I want you to be part of the process with me. So subscribe and get weekly emails with my latest juicy drafts. It's going to be fun. Read More…

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