The crash project to create a vintage style black-and-white bathroom is: Done! And oh my gosh, did we have fun. One of the highlights, for sure, was at the very end, when Aunt Mary Anne and I were decorating. I remembered that I had just seen a bag of vintage costume jewelry in another bedroom, which Mom had picked up at an estate sale. We used it to bling-ify the bathroom, giving it a sparkly girly-girl lift. Aunt Mary Anne thought to put the vintage earrings right onto the shower hooks. We created: Shower Curtain Rod Ring Bedazzlers! LOVE!
Aunt Mary Anne rocks! She is the the most AMAZING decorator in the world. I learned SO MUCH from her. Note the shower curtain. It — and the pink sculpted towels — are both from the Target Shabby Chic collection. As part of my “get this bathroom done in 7 days” constraints, Target and one nearby antique mall are the only places I shopped for decor. I went right for those sculpted Shabby Chic towels. She also guided me to buy the deeper pink towel (“Home” collection, I recall) and to layer them. She then draped a costume pearl necklace over — clipping the earring at the bottom.
Target Shabby Chic sculpted pink hand towel with costume jewelry. Aunt Mary Anne sees this photo and says, “What happened to the earring?” At left: A peek at the $98 white vanity countertop from Lowes. Cultured marble = plastic, but I like it!
We initially thought that we would use a sliding shower door. I actually have it, and am stuck with it — Lowe’s will not take it back because it was a “special order” (even though it was very simple and was in a stockroom waiting somewhere. This annoys me to no end. Shame on you, Lowes, you lose mega points off your otherwise near-perfect score for overall wonderfulness for this ridiculousness.) We changed our mind to go with a shower curtain, rather than a sliding glass door, to give my mom more space to maneuver in the relatively narrow shower area.
Above: The Lowe’s vanity that I painted black using Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations — the whole project turned out great. I want to paint everything using the Rustoleum kit process! New pulls and knobs from Home Depot. Kohler Fairfax lav faucet from FaucetDirect.com. Soap dish: Vintage, from a rapid-fire shopping trip to Peddlar’s Mall in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Wastebasket: Old popcorn tin that Mom had saved. Aunt Mary Anne is mortified that we did not have “real” wastebasket liners, available from Bed Bath & Beyond, and that we had to use an old Target bag instead. She is a totally convincing role model about “do it right.” Vintage bracelet around the hand towel. Paint colors: Regular Gray (wall) and Alabaster (trim), both from Sherwin Williams. The gray has a bit of pink in it – when the sun comes through in late afternoon, it even looks a bit lavendar.
Jeremy laid the tile. The grout is Delorean Gray, from Tec — a wonderful grout color. The threshold of the shower is Carrera marble. Yum yum yum.
We even styled the top of the toilet. I found the big, heavy round vintage shaving mirror at Peddlar’s. Mary Anne and I are both super detail-oriented. She totally approved of the fact that I replaced the stock toilet flushing lever with a satin-nickel one from Moen. Toilet is American Standard, comfort height — the complete kits from Lowe’s. We actually replaced the toilet in the hall bath, too. However, they IMMEDIATELY started exhibiting problems. BOTH of them. IMMEDIATELY. They run after you flush and you have to jiggle the handle to get the tank to fill. This is also Ridiculous and will have to be remedied. Shame on you, American Standard and Lowe’s, for selling piece- of-crap crappers.
Rug also is Target Shabby Chic. Mom had the infuser around. She loved the bathoom. She said it was “just what I dreamed of.” 🙂
Mary says
Love the use of old jewelry, would never have thought of adding that to the shower hooks! You have the same great floor tile as I do!
Doris says
OMG, that is the exact floor tile I’m trying to find, with no luck. Please mention where you bought it from.
Awesome bathroom very inspiring.
Jenny (VintageSugarcube) says
LOVE LOVE LOVE this! Especially the bling bling added to the shower hooks. You the hot sizzle Pam! 🙂
Jane / MulchMaid says
Oh, Pam and Aunt Mary Ann, you did GOOD! That little jewel box of a bathroom is just lovely! You’ve shown me the floor tile I want for my main bath and the grout for it, the way to accent the shower beautifully, and most importantly, that you CAN have it all, even on a super-short time line. I love the limits you set for yourselves and the way you pulled it off, even adding accessories. Great work!
Jennifer says
Bathroom looks terrific! Thanks for taking us all along for the ride! The American Standard problem may be more Lowes/Home Depot than American Standard. My plumber tells me that the Moen faucets I bought at Home Depot are not really Moen quality but a lower grade/price made just for those stores. Still, shame on them for putting their name on something so lousy.
Gene Brake says
Love the black vanity and the black inset tiles. Great job. As to the issue with the American Standard toilets, we are grappling with the same issue. We bought three of them from Home Depot and within a year of them being installed, began having issues with them running. They have a 10 year warranty, but of course, that apparently applies only to the parts, not they labor. I had a plumber out to repair them and it was 350.00 per toilet to repair, as they had to replace the inside flushing mechanism. It would have been cheaper to buy a new toilet. I will NOT buy another American Standard. I’ve written to American Standard and have sent them the bills, so we’ll see if they make it right.
Olivia says
Just FYI, replacing the guts of a toilet can be a fairly easy DIY project. I’ve done it and I have no plumbing expertise. Also, maybe Pam has already checked it, but if the toilet is constantly running the first thing to check is the length of the chain from the handle to the stopper in the bottom of the tank. If the chain is too short or is getting caught up some how it will hold the stopper open and not allow the tank to fill.
pam kueber says
Thanks, Olivia, for the tips!!! We will try this.
Chase says
Pam – The bathroom looks fantastic, I love the black and white theme, especially paired with the Carrera marble. Very nicely done!
Just to throw it out there, we have had problems with replacement stoppers on the toilets where the chain was too long and the excess dangling portion would get sucked down the opening and keep the stopper from making a complete seal, allowing the toilets to run. I hope you get this worked out, and let us know how it goes!
Leslie says
An amazing 7 day transformation, I enjoyed the journey! Wish cute Aunt Mary Anne lived closer so she could drop in and help me. Great job ladies.
leeann says
Tina is right-we’ve had great luck with Lowe’s-maybe the problem is location…a ‘big city’ Lowe’s might be more accommodating based on heavier customer traffic.
leeann says
BTW-its FAB!!! and we are totally inspired!!
Nancy says
It’s beautiful! And amazing how quickly you did it. I especially love the shower curtain ring-bling!
Jeanne says
Love it! I’ve been waiting and just thought I’d check one more time before I go down to my basement to clean. 🙂 So you completely took out the bathtub and made it into a shower? Nice! I LOVE the tile. The grout is a perfect color.
And I ALWAYS use all my Taget bags for wastebasket liners in the bathroom. haha! It’s cheaper than buying them and they are more durable that grocery bags (which I use my own reusable bags anyways).
I still cannot believe you did all of this in seven days.
Tina says
Try another Lowes, or try to exchange it for something. Lowes took back a couple of “custom” windows we actually had for a couple of years, but we did exchange them for other windows. I’m surprised they’re not more accommodating to you.
Tina says
Oh! Where are my manners! I meant to start with… GORGEOUS! What a great job you did. I am very impressed!