Accidental Makeover

Before	After

We finished one bathroom before ever moving into the house. It was the upstairs bathroom, and we needed it to be done before we moved in so that we would have at least one place to shower and pee. We did it black and white and in a style that fit with the Craftsman look of the back of the house, and for some reason it didn't take long at all for us to choose the look. By contrast, the second bathroom took almost a year to design. It has been under construction for well over a month now, and as I write this the workers are prepping the walls for tiling.

The construction of this last bathroom became a bit more pressing when we realized we would need the adjoining bedroom to house our new au pair, Karina. By a near miracle, our contractor managed to close off her room from the bathroom construction just in time for her arrival — truly a photo finish. Karina slept in Poppy's bedroom her first two nights while the paint in her own room dried.

So, in finishing the bathroom, we managed to knock out another room in the process. This is the downstairs bedroom, and I think the pictures tell most of the story. What you can't see in the "before" pictures though is the smell. When I first came into this house, I was sure it was occupied by homeless people. This room in particular had a smell that packed a wollup.

Window before	Window after

And the closet still doesn't have any doors on it, but we're working on that. It's an unusually deep closet, so I'm still considering adding some shelving. I read an ingenius tip for a deep closet in some shelter magazine. You put shelves in the back half of the space and hang clothes from a bar in the front half. Then if you need something from the shelves, you just reach through the hanging clothes. I'd like to try it.

Closet before	Closet after

Here is a quick breakdown of this room:

We replaced the window with the same Superior vinyl windows in the color Almond that we've used in the rest of the house. The door next to the window is a vintage door from architectural salvage stained dark and the frame is Craftsman style but new. The door to the bathroom is a single-light white lami from Valley Sash & Door in Burbank. We chose a modern door here because the rest of the bathroom doors are modern, as is the bathroom itself. The door frame is Craftsman style — but you know it's new because there wasn't really a doorway there before — just an open walkway with shutters and apparently some curtains. The light is a George Nelson knock-off from the annual Modernica sale. The bookshelves are Ikea and have been with us since Richard Drive. That's a whole other blog posting. The rug is from Home Depot. I went there looking for some industrial strength, kid-proof floor protectors and came away surprised at how many cool rug styles they have. The rug is thrown over hardwood floors — which we discovered under the old owners' carpeting and refinished along with the rest of the house before we moved in.

And here, a final pic of the room in use:

Karina, unpacking in her new room with Poppy, the day of her arrival.