Updating my Master Bath

I have been updating this villa I bought when I moved to Florida two years ago. It's basic updating -- paint, flooring, and I did an entire redo on the guest bath (that was shown on 3/11/16), but really the basics. So far, I have completed the guest bedroom, guest bathroom, and my study (still need to put up pictures in those rooms). I was ready to tackle my master bathroom and bedroom.

I thought of many ideas for the master bath, from gutting it and reconfiguring the space to a simple replacement of the vanity. To gut the bathroom and rework the space I knew it would cost a lot -- a lot, and I do not want to spend that kind of money (would rather spend the money on travel), and I wanted more than replacing the vanity's countertop.

 Originally, I started with a tired looking vanity.

And then I had my niece painted it with Louis Blue chalk paint.
The counter part of it had two sinks, and I only needed one. I also wanted a glass backsplash instead of the same material the countertop was going to be made from. I noted this nformation for my idea on how I wanted my bathroom to look. Really, really needed a new faucet and the mirror was showing signs of wear with black showing around the edges. I had also been taking note of the seamless shower doors and really liked the look.

I did not need to replace the toilet nor the tiled floor. The walls had previously been painted, but I decided to have my handy woman Ruthi give the walls another coat of paint. Same pale blue that was already on the walls. I also talked with Ruthi about adding a splash of color to the room, and I wanted it to have the same colors of a painting Al completed years ago and hung in the bathroom.

With these colors in mind, I decided to have the vanity painted again to match the royal blue in the painting. Talking over my decision with friends and the person in the paint department at the store I decided to go with Rustoleum's high gloss enamel paint. It would give me the effect I wanted.

I learned about the high gloss effect before I decided on the rustoleum. First, a friend of mine said she knew a lady who had a dresser and instead of painting it, she talked with Maaco (who does the auto painting) and they painted that gel type paint on the dresser and, supposedly, it looks awesome. I thought of contacting Maaco, but it was too much trouble. (Remember, I like things nice and easy).

I also could have bought regular glossy paint to match the color in the painting, and then I would have had to seal it with polyurethane to give it the high gloss I was aiming for. (Still, too much work, too many steps.) Rustoleum won. Two coats and done.

Here it is in process with Ruthi painting the cabinet and the doors placed elsewhere (you can see one inside the cabinet. By this time I had the countertop replaced with one long slab of Corian with one bowl and faucet. Really like the product but because of the vanity I could not have a deep bowl, which I was disappointed about.

Major work is completed. The next step was to put the backsplash up.

I found this really cool glass backsplash at the local flooring store. It had all the colors of the painting and I thought it would go really good with the royal blue paint.

This was so easy to put up. Both Ruthi and I worked on this. The flooring store said to simply buy GE clear silicone caulk for bathrooms and kitchens. All we did was measure and mark where we wanted to place the glass tiles, put the caulk on the wall and hold it in place for a few minutes before going to the next piece to place on the wall. What was different about this glass tile that I bought was the back side was wavy and the front side had a protective film on it that was to be left on until the tile dried to the caulk. (We left it on overnight before taking the film off).

Also, I learned this from redoing my kitchen in Illinois. I bought the square glass tiles because they are easy to work with. It's easy to replace one tile rather than an entire strip. I love the square glass tiles.

So far I've got $1600 into the countertop and faucet, $10 for the paint, and $200 for the backsplash. I am not doing bad with my budget.

I will continue with the project tomorrow. It does look awesome and I am getting used to the pop of color in my house.

Until tomorrow....have a great day....