Bathroom Face-Lift

When we first moved in, the teeny 8' x 6' bathroom was high on the list of rooms to update. I say 'update' vs. 'reno' because we're not at the point where we're bringing in the sledgehammer and tearing down walls (sledgehammer = reno).


This is the only respectable bathroom in the house. The other bathroom is in the basement and is quite scary. It has been deemed 'Finnegan's bathroom' and has been outfitted with his litter box. Finally our cat has some privacy, a substantial upgrade from his previous bathroom which had been located under my desk in our apartment.....


So, we have 1 teeny bathroom that needed some work. The main thing we had to work with was the very blue tub, toilet and sink - these are staying until we have the time and money to reno. These pieces are actually kinda cool - the sink is especially neat albeit very tiny. The sink size offsets 'big blue' which is an exceptional throne, made way before the concept of 'water efficiency' had been considered.

Perhaps most striking was the 'stone' tile flooring. Don't be fooled by the 'realness' of the stone - it's actually a vinyl tile!  I'm a nature lover, but this is ridiculous. It's very random and doesn't go with anything except the brick wall outside the window.  It's gotta go.


I learned from our neighbours and the previous owner that the wall tiles used to be pink with a grey border.  I guess they had all the tiles painted black and white in an effort to update the bathroom. I didn't know you could paint over tile, but I'm ever so glad they did because it looks great, and the tiles are in good condition.


The other consideration is the lack of natural light in the bathroom. Grant and I were spoiled in our last bathroom (apartment) because we had a huge window that allowed tonnes of light in. I'm including a picture of that bathroom below because it was the nicest apartment bathroom I've ever known (and I kind of miss it). I'm totally a white bathroom person - nothings says clean and sanitary like white.

So maybe I won't have my dream bathroom any time soon. But that's ok. It's fun to see what one can do with a small, dark bathroom with a huge blue toilet, without 'renovating'.


First, we attacked the floor. We found a very inexpensive black and white vinyl tile to overlay on top of the stone. I would have preferred a smaller pattern, but this is all we could find. What an instant difference!

Next was the paint. The walls were painted an off-white, which when juxtaposed against the white tile made it look yellowish. I covered all the walls and ceiling in a white paint to match the tile. In small rooms I always paint the ceiling the same colour as the walls. This makes the room feel bigger.  But the room was looking a little too white, so to pack some punch, I painted the window frame and sill black. The window had to be scraped first, which revealed a rainbow of previous colours, including purple, pink, grey and tan. I love discovering the colour-history of rooms.

Finnegan 'helping' with the painting.

Add a new light, a cotton shower curtain cover, a new temporary (aka. cheap) tub facet (the old was very cool but leaked incessantly), some artwork and a stain-glassed window frame and we've got an updated bathroom!