“I made a BATHROOM! From scratch. And the shower works!!!” That’s pretty much all I uttered to my husband for days after we finished our basement bathroom. Miracles do happen.
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So, if you recall our original design plan, we were going to hire someone to tile the bathroom floor and shower. Then, all we’d half to do is hookup the toilet and vanity.
click here to see sources for this design
But Home Depot gave us the run around during the measuring process. There seemed to be a lot of crossed wires about who to call out to measure the shower. At one point they referred us to the local company that does full bathroom remodels for them. They told us their projects start at $5-10K. Ha! No, thank you. I just wanted simple subway tile on shower walls.
So, I reluctantly decided to do it myself. (Remember, I quit DIY?!)
I’ll admit, I did not want to do it myself. I was willing to pay for the tile installation, but not for a gut bathroom remodel. There was nothing to gut or redo. It was a blank slate. But, honestly, I got impatient and sick of trying to find someone to tile the bathroom.
vanity | hand towels | rug
Then I realized we had boxes of cork flooring left over in storage. After a little research, I decided to lay down the cork flooring in the bathroom. That saved us from buying and installing floor tile. I only had to purchase polyurethane to coat the floor after it was installed.
With the floor installed, we were able to put in the vanity and toilet.
As far as the plumbing goes, everything was roughed-in when we finished the rest of the basement, so all we had to do was hook up a toilet and sink. Never-mind that neither of us had done either of those things before. YouTube to the rescue!
For real, we followed this video to install the toilet. The hardest part was working in such a tight space since our toilet sits in a tiny nook.
It feels a little weird showing you one of our toilets, but we like this toilet. It’s a one-piece toilet, which means the tank is not a separate piece. It’s a sleeker look and easier to clean. It was a little hard to work around in such a tight space, though.
For the toilet, we learned how to cut copper pipe and install a shut-off valve. It was like training for the sink because we had to do the same thing two more times to connect the hot and cold water for the faucet. All that was left was the p-trap for the sink drain, which was incredibly easy.
vanity | hand towels | aqua bath towels
Finally, it was time to tile the shower…all by myself. I did most of the work while my husband was at work. I hung the cement board (it was so heavy…my arms are still sore), filled in the seams with thinnest, coated it all with RedGaurd for waterproofing, and then tiled it.
I have my father-in-law to thank for convincing me I could do it myself. He had recently gutted and renovated two bathrooms and tiled the showers with the same process. What probably took him a few days, took me a month, but hey, I did it.
In addition to my father-in-law’s advice, I found the tutorials on Home Repair Tutor extremely helpful. They have a lot of video tutorials on waterproofing and tiling showers. They show detailed video of each step, which gave me the confidence I needed.
I’m so excited to show you this finished bathroom. That we made from scratch! I’m still wrapping my head around that.
Here are a few before photos from the framing and drywall stages:
The small square room on the right is the bathroom. Notice all the cut-outs in the cement to reroute plumbing pipes.
This is where the vanity is now. See below to find out why we had to build a niche in the wall.
Keep reading to see all the after photos!
When we finished the rest of our basement, we worked with our contractor to redesign the layout of this bathroom. It was supposed to be a basic long and narrow bathroom with the vanity, toilet, and tub all in a row. The problem was it made the bedroom in the basement small. So, we asked the contractor to move the rough-ins and reconfigure the bathroom.
The reconfigured bathroom turned out bigger, and we could have put a full tub in here if we wanted to. But since this is the fifth bathroom in our house, for a bedroom that we don’t use as a bedroom, we decided to put in a shower stall. That makes the bathroom feel even more spacious.
This bathroom is my favorite room in the house now. It’s so open and fresh. Plus, you know, I designed it :)
We choose this Windsor Park free-standing vanity from Home Depot. I fell in love with the blue-gray cabinet color and simple, but elegant styling. It came with a faux marble top, which was perfect for the clean look I wanted.
In the corner of the bathroom, we had to get a little creative with our contractor. There was one pipe that they weren’t able to relocate. The contractor wanted to build a big closet in the corner to conceal it. I vetoed that right away. Instead, I designed a wall niche that accommodated the pipe which angled out at the bottom of the wall. I knew I could always build shelves into the niche and do something more stylish than a closet.
I never built the shelves, though. The niche was still empty when we decided to put our house on the market. So, although the bathroom was done, it didn’t quite feel finished. But I wasn’t about to start building shelves while we were getting our house ready for the market.
hand towels | aqua bath towels | wire wall baskets |teal garden stool
Then, I happened upon these adorable wire wall baskets at Hobby Lobby.
They are the perfect size to fit in the niche to hold toilet paper, extra hand towels, and the cutest faux succulent for a little greenery.
wire wall baskets | hand towels | faux succulent
I left the bottom of the niche open to store extra bath towels.
This bathroom is so big when the Home Stager did a walk-through before our house went up for sale, she asked me if I had a long bench to put along the wall. I didn’t have a spare bench, but I think the teal garden stool looks great in the corner and adds a little more color to the room.
vanity | light | teal garden stool | wire wall baskets |rug
I also installed two towel bars to fill the long wall between the niche and the shower. Would you believe I had these towel bars on hand? I gotbought them on clearance at Target who knows how many years ago and never used them. Thankfully, I found them in storage, before I bought new towel bars (which always seem crazy expensive to me).
The towel bars were the perfect length, the right finish, and matched the style of the vanity light.
And here’s the finished shower:
trellis shower curtain | nickel valve and shower head
I opted for 4-in x 8-in subway tiles. They’re bigger than standard subway tiles, which meant fewer individual tiles and fewer grout lines. Also, four of them fit perfectly across on the side walls. Fewer tiles to cut! There were matching 4-in x 4-in tiles I used on alternating rows, so no cutting there either. These tiles are considered modular tiles because two “half” tiles when put together equal the exact width of a full tile. So instead of cutting tiles in half to create the staggered tile pattern, I used the smaller tiles.
The only tile cuts I had to make were for the back wall at the corners. I used this snap tile cutter. It worked well, and I didn’t waste any tiles.
I did waste a handful of tiles trying to cut one with handheld tile nippers to fit around the shower head. It just took some practice to get it right.
I chose Delorean Gray grout and matching shower caulk because the tiles are off-white. Several people that reviewed the tiles on the Lowes website were disappointed when they used white grout because it didn’t match the tiles. The gray grout contrasts nicely with the tiles.
To finish the shower, I installed a nickel finish shower valve and shower head. That was the easiest part of the whole shower.
Because of the width of our shower stall, I had to settle for a plain white shower rod. I would have preferred nickel, but at least the white disappears against the tile.
I ordered a stall-size shower curtain liner and trellis shower curtain from Amazon. The stall size is only 54” wide and is slightly longer than a standard shower curtain, so it goes all the way to the floor. My original design called for blue curtains framing the shower, but since we’re selling this house, I didn’t want to make that investment. My color options for stall shower curtains were limited, but I think this gray geometric looks nice.
For the finishing touches, I added the small over-dyed rug in front of the vanity and hung two art pieces that used to hang in our mudroom (they were the perfect size for over the toilet and towel bars). Instead of white towels, which I thought might look too stark against the off-white walls, I used aqua bath towels.
That’s it. A ton of pictures of the smallest room in our home. I’m so proud of myself for sticking to it and figuring it out. DIY projects are tough, and it’s easy to lose your motivation. I know with this bathroom, I had trouble getting up the courage to even start. But once I finally started, it all felt easier. All my worries and insecurities melted away once I started taking action…one step at a time. And now it’s done, and so pretty!
Jackie, this is awesome!!! You did an amazing job!!
Thank you Stacey.
It looks amazing! And i love that you did so much yourself, AND that you sound like a girl after my own heart – look good but on a budget!! Very realistic reno/makeover – just great!!! :) :)
Thank you Carol!
Your bathroom is beautiful! You did an awesome job.
Thank you Joy!
Wow, I’m in awe, Jackie! You are one courageous lady! I’m not sure I’d ever have the guts to tile a shower by myself. But you did, and wow, you did a fantastic job, both on the actual work and the design! Just gorgeous. Love the colors and the accessories. Love it all! Great job! Though I’m not surprised. I love all of your decorating!
Thank you Deb! You could totally do this too. I just took it one step at a time.
Love it! A-grade sure for nailing it darling! I love how fresh, bright and crisp it looks. I’m a sucker for white space so this is awesome. I really, but really love the color of that cabinet. Simply amazing!
Once I chose the vanity, I knew the room had to be white. It’s been fun to experiment with white walls throughout our entire basement. I love how they let the color of furniture and accessories be the focal point.
Clean, fresh, and uncluttered. Buyers will fall in love with it.
I appreciate your comments at the end of the post. Who knew that you would have worries and insecurities!
Thank you Karen. I worried way too much when I should have been taking action. Next time I won’t procrastinate so long.
What a beautiful bathroom! The crisp white on the walls with the cork flooring along with the gray and teal—very nice. Great job!
FANTASTIC JOB!!! CONGRATS on a beautiful well-done DYI!!! You used all my favorite looks — BEAUTIFUL!!
Great job! Looks awesome. Jeff is an awesome Pitt guy, he has the best tutorials, you can’t go wrong with his videos and instructions.
Nice job! Buyers should really like it! Looks clean and updated. I was going to ask you what paint color you used on the vanity (I love blue grays) but I see it was already that color when you bought it.
Hi Jackie,
Super great job with the bathroom! Designer look and feel. Very lovely and cosy; I’m sure buyers will also love it. Nice colour scheme and combinations.
Looks great! I really like your gray color choices and combinations. Harmonic and cosy.
Looks beautiful! Very impressed. I understand why you’re floating on Cloud 9! Good luck with your move.
Awesome job! Looks great! Is your home on the market yet? I hope you have a quick & successful sale, and look forward to your next home adventures!
I love those baskets instead of shelves. Brilliant idea! You really did great job.
Thank you. The baskets were so affordable too. I may have to go grab a couple more, since I’ll be leaving these two with the house.
Amazing! Thanks for the inspiring ideas :)
You did a wonderful job Jackie! And you must be so proud that you did it yourself!!! I was wondering, what kind of poly did you use to seal your cork floor? I have a cork floor in my kitchen and never sealed it.
Thank you Robin. We used Pro Finish Water-base Polyurethane in Satin. If you still have the manufacturer’s directions for your cork floor, it’s best to see what they recommend.