Remember that DIY Bath Remodel

I realized today that I never posted any finished pictures of my do-it-yourself bath remodel. I mentioned it nearly a year ago way down at the bottom of this post.
  

The photo on the left shows the room at it's very best... blah even at Christmas, and what were they thinking with that honking big sink in such a tiny room? At the time of my post last year, it looked like the photo on the right. I had pulled up the 1980's marble floor tiles and (as expected) found wonderful 1930's hex tiles underneath.

And then I started pulling tile off the walls. Oops. Guess I'm not going to be slapping new tile up over that backing. 

So I hired a handyman to help me with the wall board and a bit of carpentry.

While he was working on that, I decided I needed to strip 80 plus years of paint off the doors and door hardware. That old crock-pot works great to get the paint to loosen up from the nickle plated brass hinges and door knobs. Just put the metal pieces in the crock-pot with warm water and a bit of dish soap. Turn it on low and let it "cook" for several hours. The paint softens up and slides right off.  

Once the handyman was done I added some glass tile for a back splash, and painted the walls a bright sunny yellow.

The whole color scheme was worked around this fabric I fell in love with and had to have for a shower curtain. Designed by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery, it is from the Retro-Spective line described as "bringing you back in time, ...features designs from the 40's with the original colors of that period". 

I thought the yellow was a little too mustardy for the walls, so went with a shade more like lemon pudding. 

Now that I have lived with it for several months, I must say I don't love it. Kind of wish I had chosen something a little more

And I may get around to painting in there again this summer. Fortunately it's not a big space to paint.

I do love this cute little basket I made out of fabric scraps. It's all wrapped - not a bit of stitching. 

And the work to strip the doors was probably worth it. Of course there is no telling how many brain cells the chemicals and lead paint killed off.

This was my real nemesis. Don't let anyone tell you it's easy to drill through ceramic tile. Even with a great drill and the correct bit, it took hours. Never again.

But I adore the top down/bottom up shade. It is just the color of the tile and lets in lots of light, and a view of the trees and sky, without letting anyone peer in. All in all I'm happy with the project, and would definitely DIY again with some handyman help.