Powder Room – One Room Challenge: Week 3

If you are new to my blog, welcome! I’m Sanda Stojakovic and I’m the author of My Design Playbook. A year ago my husband and I bought a 1970 Colonial house that needed many updates but we were so excited about this purchase that we knew we could turn this house into our home. Ever since we started on this journey to modernize our house I realized that we really enjoy this type of work and it quickly turned into something we love doing together. Follow along as we renovate our powder room over the next few weeks for the Fall 2020 One Room Challenge and mark your calendar for the final reveal on November 12-22th.

Spring 2020 ORC | Fall 2019 ORC

Previous weeks can be found here: Week 1 and Week 2

The powder room is finally starting to look a little prettier! Last week we were in full demolition mode and this week we were in full installation mode. We finished installing chair rail and wainscoting and the room immediately transformed from a dull box to a room with character and visual interest.

Even in such a tiny space, wall moulding has a big impact.

I also spend a good amount doing my least favorite and most tedious activity; caulking all the trim work. Caulking any baseboards, trim, or moldings that are going to be painted will look better if you use caulk at their joints or where they meet the walls. The caulk will give a smoother, more uniform finish to all painted trim, and will give my paint job a much more professional appearance. For those reasons, I never skip the caulking step.

We also removed the old vanity and installed the Carrara Marble Top vanity and that completely gave the powder room a new luxurious vibe. The brushed gold faucet sink is my favorite pairing with the carrara marble top. There is something about gold and marble that makes it such a timeless and classy combination. I don’t think those two will ever go out of style and age beautifully. This was one of those small wins in the project that motivates me to keep going. As you can see from the image below, we also routed our plumbing to as the faucet is now right aligned instead of left aligned. The pull bars on the vanity are chrome which I’m either going to spray paint gold or replace with new ones. I’m currently leaning on buying new ones unless the sprayed version turns out better than I thought.

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As you can see from the image on the right, we were also finally were able to close the huge hole the old vanity mirror was hiding. In order to smooth out the dry wall we used to fill in the hole; we spend a lot of time sanding. Ensuring that the wall is flush and void of any bumps or craters is an important step in prepping the wall for wallpaper installation. The goal is to have the wall be as smooth as possible otherwise any deviation in texture of the wall will be visible through the wallpaper.

THE DESIGN

I also spent a significant amount of time sourcing items for the powder room and this flat lay only shows a glimpse of it. The French/Japanese or Japonisme style full-color wallpaper is regal and romantic so I want to add a bit of masculinity with pops of black and amber.

To incorporate black, I will be adding a black picture frame and black candles. I was thrilled to have scored this amber soap dispenser bottle after visiting several Target stores. The amber is uniquely intriguing and matches the heron birds head almost exactly. If you have not read Week 2 post you might have missed how I scored this lotus dish at an estate sale for $5, currently selling on Chairish for $495. I will be using this lotus dish as a soap bar holder. I also found this neutral bathroom rug and these brass/gold Safavieh scones at target as well making target the winner of this weeks sourcing hunt.

A close contender to Target has been Facebook marketplace. Let just say the Facebook fairy godmother delivered again, and this time exactly the type of mirror I needed.

Sourcing mirrors can be very difficulty because it’s not easy finding one that is the exact length and width needed but when you check Facebook Marketplace many times a day like at complete stalker you are bound to get lucky. If you are in need of some tips for sourcing items on Facebook marketplace, I wrote some here that have worked well for me in finding vintage art and mirrors.

Here is the updated project to-do list:

• Remove towel and toilet paper holder
• Remove vanity and light
• Install chair rail
• Install trim work
• Sand walls
• Choose paint color for trim
• Paint trim
• Prime walls
• Install wallpaper
• Paint ceiling
• Install vanity
• Source vintage mirror
• Install lighting
• Install exhaust fan
• Install trim on door
• Order towel and toilet paper holder
• Order small rug
• Order sconces
• Order towels
• Photograph room for reveal

Thanks for reading! For daily progress updates, follow me on Instagram.

Check out other room transformations here.