Our Cottage Style Family Bathroom Details

I realized there have been some projects making their way off the list in our Main Bathroom. So I thought it would be fun to share some progress with you all today. We opted to build a “Cottage Style Family Bathroom” vs. an ensuite. The existing house has a small bathroom with a stand up shower, so we knew we wanted to add a tub. We also wanted to have a bathroom connected to our master, but it wasn’t in the budget to have a true en suite. We now have the best of both worlds with a pocket door into our room (which still needs a lock!) as well as a main door into the hallway for kids and guests.

We built custom storage out of a garage sale side table and 3 pieces of laminated pine. I think they were about $12 per board. You can read more about that adventure here. I never wrote (or video’d!)  a tutorial, but if you want me to I will. Someone say you want me to!

Things more or less look like this most of the time, but for a galvanized bucket of all our swimsuits sitting under the shelf. I must say I love hot tub season! The basket holds hair brushes, curling irons and my blow dryer.

The color scheme in here is pretty tone on tone- whites and this pretty color. What is that color? It’s not mint, but it isn’t really teal or turquoise… sea glass? The walls are BM Ocean Air.

I must say I still love our octagon and dot floors, and I also still love the dark grout. I was nervous about a white floor looking dirty all the time, because I had that issue when I painted our stairs white in our last house- but I am happy to report with 3 kids and a cat, they really aren’t bad. Our friends put a central vac sweeper port in their bathroom (totally just made up that name) and I think they are genius’!

I filled holes and painted the reclaimed window sill. Praises.

I love subway tile! So classic and awesome. We took it up to the ceiling, which meant going up as high as 9 feet. It was totally awkward to tile and grout, but worth it! Also, our shower usually has more shampoo, razors, and 38 floaty toys stacked around the edge. I removed them for this photo. They are hiding on the other side of that pocket door- aka our room.

One day when we finish drilling our tiny screw holes, I am going to show you how we saved about $700.

Here is a quick scientific review of this room*. Budget, splurging and saving are all relative to what an individual has to spend. In our personal situation I feel we were able to create a more custom look and feel, for a reasonable over all cost.

Where We Splurged

• Extra Long and Deep Tub
• Marble Top Vanity (this is kind of true. We actually paid much less than what this would have typically cost, because we found a great deal, and then it was also $150 off. But technically we could have gone super basic with laminate… and maybe saved about $150-$200 max. However, the vanity fully elevates this room IMO, was the perfect size, and is hopefully built to last!)
• Floor Tiles ( baby splurge. Still about $5/sf but could have been closer to $3 based on other options we were looking at. Also worth it to me though!)
• Faucets (sadly, our pretty sink faucet is currently BROKEN! within less than a year and we are dealing with the manufacturer to send us a replacement. Honestly, we always seem to have issues with new things, like when the first vanity arrived with all the paint peeling off. I wanted to cry.)
• The toilet paper holder and towel hooks. Paid full price and just wanted chrome and didn’t price compare. I think the towel hooks were $12 each. We have 2. lol. For me, it is unusual to pay more then like $4 for something like that. Honestly, by the end of a build you start to hemorrhage money. What’s another $20 here and there. aka $1000…

Where we Saved

• Labor- hands down we saved a lot because we did everything ourselves. ALL. OF. IT. which is also why everything isn’t done. I recommend everyone take into account the time line when weighing the benefits/downside of DIY’ing large projects.
• Storage- we built that cabinet for less than $40 all in.
• Mirror- repurposed from another room
• All of the accessories were on sale, gifted or thrifted.
• Lighting
• Ceiling- pine is 1,000 times easier than drywall. This is the only room we did drywall in and we suck at it. Also we lost our sanity because it’s just a dusty, meticulous pain in general.

In summary, I would absolutely do a family bath again. Bathrooms are seriously pricey… at least they can be! By putting our resources into one larger bathroom, we were able to customize it in a way we truly wanted, while still keeping on budget. The one thing we REALLY need to finish- aka, my January goal-is the transom above the door and trim on the inside of the bathroom… I still haven’t ordered glass… sorry guests. #DIYlyfe

Thanks for sticking with me. Any Q’s feel free to ask. I have included the previous posts about this room- which should have source lists available.

I head back to teaching Ballet this week after a year and a half hiatus- so I am trying to get my life organized. So far we are back into the homeschooling groove, but I can’t seem to shake this headache I’ve had all day. Off to make a smoothie and drink 5L of water!

-Miss Ash

P.S.- Read more about how this room progressed here.

P.S.S- did I drape a bleached drop cloth over the shower rod for design purposes? Why yes, yes I did. And now I may be planning to make a shower curtain.

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