New upstairs bathroom reveal

Our brand new upstairs bathroom addition is finally fully functional – yay!

But first let me back up a bit…

When we walked through the ‘ol farmhouse before buying it we knew a bathroom was needed upstairs cuz let’s face it, we both have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, one of us has two bad knees and, traipsing up and down the stairs in the middle of the night while half asleep was asking for trouble for either one of us one day not to mention the worry of guests traipsing up and down as well.

Over the past four years many other projects took precedence over the bathroom addition and the thought of tackling this major of a project ourselves was daunting until earlier this year when CountryBoy decided it was time.

He went from merely adding a half bath in a closet that was designated as a half bath when the room addition was built several years ago before we bought the farm to turning the entire room into a bathroom. Wait, what?!

Needless to say I didn’t argue (much) as visions of a grand soaking tub far outweighed my thoughts of a second guest room!

Here’s a quick reminder of what this room was originally…

You can click HERE for another behind-the-bathroom-scenes blog post to get caught up.

And now, without further ado, here is what the room looks like now (taken from the same angle)…

Ah, my soaking tub! (I can literally lay down in it and my feet barely touch the tub wall. Swoon! Oh, and I found it on Wayfair for 50% off the original price – SCORE! The tub filler? No discount and almost the price of the discounted tub. What can ya do but love it anyway!

I wanted a simple look and highly contrasting colors in there so I chose white semi-gloss paint for the walls as well as the for the base of the custom-built vanity. I wanted the contrasting color to be dark so we used two coats of American Oak stain on the window trim and countertop and I chose oil-rubbed bronze fixtures and a dark vinyl plank floor.

We left the original 1/4 in plywood paneling on the walls, added tongue & groove flooring on the ceiling and to cover the plywood seams I wanted a relaxed board & batten look.

When I’m soaking in the tub I can gaze out the window at the tree tops and the sky. SO relaxing!

Here’s my view when at the sink…

As I mentioned, the vanity was custom built by CountryBoy. We couldn’t find a vanity that we liked nor did we want to spend the ridiculous asking price for said vanities. So, I browsed Pinterest and found a vanity that I liked and CountryBoy made it happen. A huge bonus? It was mostly made out of scrap wood and cost next to nothing!

There’s a TON of storage as all five drawers are functional and the two shelves provide great storage for towels and such. The vanity top is a piece of birch that he cut down to size and the leftover pieces were made into the drawers. After he cut the hole for the sink I sanded it down, put two coats of stain on it and two coats of polyurethane.

The whole design of the bathroom started with the faucet…

I saw this four years ago when we were remodeling the kitchen and I hoped it would still be around when we tackled the bathroom. Isn’t it perfect for the ol’ farmhouse?

Looking from the tub wall you can see the original ‘closet’ where the intended half bath was supposed to be …

Here’s the before…

Obviously, we took the wall down and CountryBoy extended the remaining wall (opposite the toilet) to meet the flat part of the ceiling. (If you noticed the hurricane wall sconces beside each mirror in a previous photo you can see in the above photo where they previously hung. I think they look much better in their new location.) You’ll also notice in the previous photo that he framed out around the door which we still need to purchase. Once that is in he can finish the trim work around it and the bathroom will be finished. He also reworked the entryway, making an awkward large step into two smaller steps. Much easier on the knees!

A couple of the projects I worked on for the bathroom was this shelf unit…

The cutout in the wall was already there which I figure was probably intended for a medicine cabinet. Since the cabinet was not there and we had a huge hole, er, rectangle, in the wall I came up with the above solution – storage for magazines and essential oils. I found some scrap wood for both the shelf and the square dowel rods, measured, cut and painted them and then I cut notches in the frame to slide the shelf and dowels into. CountryBoy finished it off with the stained trim.

The other project was salvaging some wooden shutters that were once hanging in a shed that we tore down.

They sat in the shop for several years collecting all sorts of dirt and debris. CountryBoy wanted to burn them a long time ago but I knew I wanted to use them one day for something special. That day came with the new bathroom.

It’s a long story but there’s a window in our bathroom (that we added back in to allow light into the upstairs landing) but now that it was going to be a bathroom we needed something to allow for privacy. Enter the dirty, filthy shutters!

I’ll be honest, CountryBoy thought I was nuts even attempting to salvage and use them. He wanted me to hang curtain. Nope. Not the look I’m going for, ha!

After scrubbing (with the awesome Thieves Household Cleaner!) I measured and cut the tops and bottoms to size and enlisted CountryBoy’s help in measuring and cutting the sides. I then painted everything but the louvres, added the hinges then handed it off to CountryBoy to hang…

I need to get a new tilt rod for one of the panels and a hook but otherwise I think they turned out great!

They will stay open until we have company but it’s good to know that one can have a bit of privacy if needed.

So there ya’ have it – our new upstairs bathroom!

I absolutely LOVE how it all came together and how it turned out. I also think CountryBoy outdid himself on this one – from the plumbing to the finishing!