Hi Friends!

It’s been so long. We’ve been so busy! Summer has come and gone and we’ve refocused on the house and the blog, so we’re happy to be sharing again!

We’ve been getting lots of questions about that dingy little bathroom that we transformed into what feels like a Scandinavian spa, so without further ado- we present you our small, but mighty (and dreamy) new bathroom. Read on for mistakes you can avoid, and the finishes we chose. 

Wait, wait, wait, let’s go back and remember what we were working with.  We completely gutted this 5′ x 8′ space and added a long, horizontal window.

We love absolutely everything about this scandi minimalist space, but trust us, if you have the ability to add a window into your bathroom – do it. This one we got for a discount because it had been custom ordered by someone else who ended up not needing it. Their loss was our gain! Having to fix the siding outside after turned out to be a bit costly in terms of labour, but again, would.not.change.it.for.the.world. 

We were on a budget (everyone is, right?) but like a SERIOUS budget, because we were renovating THE ENTIRE HOUSE. Butttt when you have a small space, guess what?! Materials don’t cost that much! So then we went high end on the hexagon marble, had a hook up for the subway tile, went basic hardware store on the fancy looking tub, sprung for the window and then tiled and grouted the whole damn thing ourselves….the night we moved in. *insert tired but happy emoji here*

If you’re here for the style, we’ll get right down to it: Marble hex tile for the floor, white subway tile on 3 walls, white grout all over. Tips on the marble hex tile – some of it is white, some is blue and some is grey. Try to pick one shade and ensure all the packs you choose resemble each other. We were SO careful and then ended up being short a pack, so Kaara ran out, picked up another and they were SO much whiter than the blue we had sorted through PILES of tile to find. It ended up blending well, but for a few days Kaara could barely look at the bathroom floor because of the glaring patch of white amongst the blue-ish grey. Oh, and seal them. They’re super soft and scratch easily. 

Last note on the style side, these “Hub” hooks from Umbra. I don’t think we need to say anything more.*swoon*

We’re obsessed with the walls. Our contractor tried to talk us out of tiling the mirror wall, and we are SO happy we pushed back. Pro: They’re insanely shiny and it’s like being in a room full of mirrors. Con: It’s like being in a room full of mirrors and it’s your job to clean them. 

Alright, alright, back to the basics for you eager DIY’ers. We chose a cost-effective tub from Lowes, but we loved the angles and it was really roomy. In our old posts we were tossing around the idea of just having a walk-in shower. THE RELIEF WE FEEL THAT WE WENT WITH THE TUB. 1) It’s cheaper. WAY WAY WAY (thousands!) cheaper. 2) We freaking love baths. What were we thinking?!. We almost let style overrule function, and that’s a total no-no. If you’re even considering changing your only tub into a shower…. strongly reconsider. Also, if we have kids one day, we didn’t think they would love our euro shower as much as we did. Kids, so picky. 

Let’s talk toilets for a second guys. Pfister, I’m sorry, you make beautiful looking toilets, and we wanted it to work out so badly, but it was you and your over engineered defective toilets x 2, not us. We tried the Pfister Fullerton guys, and unfortunately had to back out and fight to get our money back. As Stacy’s brother recommends, and Kaara should have listened; go with the known brands like American Standard, Delta or he really recommended Toto but we could not find one that fit in our space. We wound up, in a very desperate moment with American Standard. Remember the cheap, good, fast triangle. If it’s good and cheap, it won’t be fast. We didn’t have time to order what we truly wanted and landed on the fast and cheap side of the triangle. It’s still reasonably good. 

Sink is from Ikea, it’s the smallest GODMORGON with the BRÅVIKEN sink top. We love it. One thing to note, we went with a high end Grohe faucet in brushed nickel and the drain stopper thing that came with the Ikea sink and the overflow drain… both chrome. Wah wah. The things you learn people, the things you learn. It must be said though that we love our Grohe faucet and wish we had time to have ordered the Grohe for our shower controls too, but Grohe = high end = special order, and our plumbing was going in the next day.

Those two things do not go hand in and hand, and thus we picked up what turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL Pfister faucet that has wonderful temperature, pressure and looks and the price was a steal. So as long as it holds up behind the wall for many many many many years to come, we will count this as a total win, because we L-O-V-E our shower. You can buy the same shower controls here.

For such a small bathroom, it feels really bright and the storage under the sink is the key to making it work. Let us know if you have any questions and please if you use our images, give us credit. Thank you!

Klem,

Kaara & Stace