B & A: THIS SMALL BEDROOMS POTENTIAL REVEALED!

At DND, we always love a good Before & After. There is something magical about seeing the possibility of what a room could be. When I bought my old 1844 house, there were many rooms that felt a little tired and dated. When I saw this space I wanted to lighten and brighten it up.

BEFORE

AFTER

Hereʼs what happened:

– All new walls and ceilings, although it doesn't show up in the before picture, all of the old plaster in this room was cracked and heaving on the walls and in the ceiling. New drywall and paint really changed the look.

– White paint! One of my favourites, I painted the walls, ceiling, floors and trim in white. This truly transforms a room!

–  One way to instantly brighten up a space is to expose more of the windows. Removing the sheers and full length drapery panels and going to custom made linen roman shades in the windows allowed more natural light to flow in.

– Room layout: the furniture placement in the 'after' picture is very different. The bed is placed in front of the window instead of on the wall on the right. Creative space planning had to happen in this room to fit that large antique cabinet you can see in the first picture.

There are terrific water views out both these windows! Iʼm going to be switching around the furniture in this room to see if I can capture more of the view! I'll be sure to share those results on the blog later this summer.

BEFORE & AFTER: BATHROOM GETS A MUCH NEEDED RENO

This bathroom got a much needed makeover. Here's a BEFORE picture:

The plans were to replace everything in this bathroom.The room was opened right to the studs to do the proper wiring for the fan and lighting. The updates included: a new white hex tile floor, new drywall/paint/trim, new tub/shower, new toilet, new sink/faucet, new light fixture, new medicine cabinet inset into the wall and all the other small accessories like towel bar and a bit of artwork.

Here are a couple more before pictures.

Here is the AFTER!

BATHROOM ROUND UP: 3 STYLISH & AFFORDABLE SINKS

Over the years when designing bathrooms, I've looked at many different sinks and vanities. Each bathroom is unique in the style and the size you can fit. In my bathroom above I was fortunate to have the original pedestal sink to use and I love how it looks. The only draw back to a pedestal sink is the lack of storage. I've had lovely vanities custom made for several clients, and lean towards a white vanity with marble tops and nickel faucets – a classic, timeless look for any bathroom. These vanities (shown below) are some store bought options, and two even come with marble tops. All you have to do is make sure it fits, buy a faucet and get the plumbing hooked up. Retailers seem to have a better selection to buy off the floor, and there are a variety of styles and sizes. These are 3 I think are stylish and affordable:

1.  Pedro 60" vanity with double sink and marble top/backsplash for less than $800, doesn't include the faucets but comes with everything else, for a double vanity this is a great price. From costco.ca

2.  Malaga 27" vanity – comes with everything except faucet $519 marble top and backsplash.  From rona.ca

3.  Hemnes white sink, 31-1/2" – this doesn't have a marble top or faucet, but comes with white sink for $299. I'd personally add on two back legs.  From ikea.ca

BEFORE & AFTER: AN OLD BATHROOM GETS A NEW LOOK

A bathroom renovation can become extensive pretty quickly. In my case I not only renovated the bathroom, but I actually moved the second floor bathroom to a new location. The house was built in 1844 and had several additions over the years. The original second floor bathroom was over an addition, and when the house was being gutted, all the plumbing was being redone. Since the plumbing all had to go, I also wanted to move all of the new plumbing to be accessible in the basement of the house (previously pipes were running out into crawl spaces and under additions). I was able to layout the house so this worked, and I was so happy to have all the brand new plumbing easily accessible in the basement. The planning of the bathroom took some figuring out. There was a very small room at the front of the house that I felt like would be the best spot to take over for the bathroom. I wanted to use the original pedestal sink and claw foot tub – I especially loved the old chunky hardware on the sink and the tub. There was a time when I thought I wouldn't use the sink, but I'm so glad that I did.

Here is the original bathroom in it's first location before the renovation.

This is the small room that I thought should be the bathroom. Here it is before.

Here it is with me trying the sink in the space, I wanted to see how the sink and tub would look in here. The guys kindly moved the very heavy tub and sink into the space so I could get an idea of how it would look and fit.

I decided I loved it. The start of the plumbing for the tub:

Here is a close up of the sink hardware and electrical wiring being done above it.

And when the changes really start...new drywall, lighting is now in....and PAINT! At this time I also had the base of the claw foot tub painted black.

And finally the finished, renovated bathroom.

Small bathrooms

For some reason, I always seem to have homes that have very small bathrooms.  The one shown above is so small that it required the smallest sink I could find.  Luckily I was able to find a tiny vanity that also had a small amount of storage below.  In my opinion, the key to adding storage in a small bathroom is to use the largest medicine cabinet you can fit above the sink.  Or you can add a large wall cabinet like this one.

In another recent renovation I was looking for a very small wall mounted sink. This shot was my inspiration, and I managed to find a sink like this one.  I'll be showing it in a blog post in the next month or so.

I also really liked the look of this sink, however I thought it was a bit too modern looking for my current home.