Author: shaffer.722

Research

Starting vision after picking out all the materials.  I followed sort of the same theme I had in the Studio Space Project: both were small rooms that I filled with many objects, all proportioned and organized accordingly and in an aesthetic fashion.

Images of my chosen products on the website. I used these cover photos and the product description to find the hex code of each item.

I used a color comparison website to see the tile color and the vanity color side by side, so I could check the undertones. The tiles had a yellowish undertone, giving it a hint of ivory. The vanity was a neutral tone, with the RGB values being equal. Since the tiles were on the warm side, and the vanity was neutral, I needed another color with a contrasting undertone.  I made palettes for each of the product colors and blended them to make the middle color. From there, I looked up the hex code of the new color and adjusted it so the undertone was an acceptable shade of purple. Once I had the new hex code and color, I had to cross check it with the Sherwin Williams website to see if this color was in their system. Luckily, it was, its called spatial white and I found the color sample on display in a modern collection.

Here is the visual comparison of the products in real life. Once they are side by side, the ivory tone is much more apparent.

Before we placed the tile, I had to determine how high the shelf would be. We scaled it based on my height and we both agreed on a comfortable height of about 10 rows of tile under the shelf. Another reason I had to lay it out with the spacers to get the exact measurement from the bottom up.

Decorations

All of these were ideas of how to fill the extra wall space we had to spare. I liked them because they would provide another element of texture on the other side of the bathroom, creating balance. Some of them were far fetched ideas, but that’s all they are, just ideas.

The first one stood out to me because it looks like the squiggle mirrors I added in my Studio Space last minute. I also like the wood look, because there isn’t much raw wood in that room yet.

The rest of the line/block art just looks really cool to me, and I can tell they are protrusions so it would definitely match with my modern theme.

The driftwood pieces also would look really cool. Driftwood gives me a beachy vibe which is usually very nice, but I absolutely despise beach themed bathrooms. I find it tacky and too predictable.

This last piece fit just perfect.

My dad is the one who suggested it and I could tell that he understood the theme I was aiming for in décor. I told him I loved it and it was installed maybe a week later. I think it looks really special and unique. It sits above the toilet, as it should.

Iterations

The biggest setback in this entire process was the shower pan. We ordered it in October, along with everything else, but something happened and it never arrived on time. We only had winter break to spend on this project so we couldn’t wait for the pan to begin. We worked around it for every piece, because we had the dimensions but not the piece. Almost every aspect of this bathroom relied on the installation of the shower pan. The tiles had to begin at the top of the pan and the shower door had to sit on top of it, the floor had to be modeled perfectly around it, and the vanity had to go on top of the floor. We made as many sacrifices as we could before we couldn’t do any more.

The shower construction was another big struggle. The glass doors themselves were maybe double the weight of the vanity, and it was just me and my dad trying to carry them. There were 2 doors, one was longer than the other and we did the smaller one first. We installed all the bolts and wheels so it would slide until we realized we installed it backwards. The model was made for a right sided sliding door, but our bathroom needed a left sided sliding door. It was an easier fix than I though, we just built the whole thing flipped and backwards. Anyway, got the small door installed and up on the frame. The difference between the doors is not only the weight but the cut as well. The shorter door was the one with the handle holes, which we had flipped. The longer door had a notch on the bottom corner to connect with a piece that would be attached to the wall. We went to move the longer door over and it was very very heavy. The issue with these doors is that they are indeed glass, so they absolutely could not be dropped on the hard bathroom floor. Moments later, the glass door slipped out of our fingers and off the ledge where it was resting and I heard the corner shatter. Immediately my heart drops. My dad went off and I just sat there in shock. As he was cursing the sky, I inspected the broken bits and I realized it was still totally usable. The most expendable part of the door had broken off and it was still able to be fully attached to the wall without it. That was probably the biggest jump scare of the project and I am so glad we got lucky enough for it to be salvageable.

Everything else worked out just as it was supposed to in production and Im so glad there weren’t any more major catastrophes.

Production and Construction

My parents gifted this project to me. I got to pick out all the materials and colors and they left it up to me to design the whole room. Anything I wanted to make, my dad would start building it. They didn’t give their input on my design choices and I had a lot of responsibility to myself. I had a lot of fun with all this new freedom.

Old bathroom and “before” pictures. This room was decorated by the previous owners of the house and the had a very special sense of style. For context, the hallways used to have a yellow wallpaper with little girls in dresses on it.

My Dad did the demolition with my brother, because my brother is a big wreck-it kind of guy. Also, they were stronger so they could move and carry all the demo scraps out. You can see my dad wearing a mask because of the fiber glass in the walls. He had to rip open a wall to replace one of the water pipes.

Once my big strong demo men moved all the pieces out, we had a clean space to start building.

There is a lot to do in order to waterproof walls in preparation for a shower, I had no idea. First, we had our baseboards. The old shower was full size shower area, basically a big porcelain box. Since it was all one piece, and no tiles, the baseboards had no waterproof protection. We needed a plastic covering because we planned on doing individual tiles. Overtop of the plastic is a lightweight cement board. These cement boards act as a solid base for another waterproofing layer. The boards are secured with drills and the drill holes are covered in a specific kind of caulking to make sure the surface is completely flat. The next layer is a thick teal paste. This paste acts as the main waterproofing element, and we had to make sure it dried completely before continuing. It takes about 24 hours to dry completely and you’ll know its dry when the color lightens. We had two rotating fans running in the room for the rest of the day and overnight. We couldn’t work on anything else in the bathroom for that time because the teal paste released unhealthy chemical fumes when wet.

During this waiting period, I began painting other things.

This is a before and after of the hallway right outside the bathroom. We unhinged each of the closet doors, I primed and painted them, replaced the gold hinges and handles with black versions, and then put them back on the doorframe. I also painted all the trim in the hallway so they would match the doors. The shade I used is called Panda White and its used as an accent color around the whole rest of the house, inside and out.

If you’re wondering why their is a plastic walkway on the floor, it’s there to protect the carpet from our shoes and from water trails. The room to the right acted as our material room, because the bathroom was far too small to hold everything. We also had the tile saw set up in that room, and a tile saw uses water to cut through the stone and marble. Our entire top floor is carpeted so we covered everything in plastic to avoid water damage.

Once the rest of the wall was dry, we were able to start laying tile down and finally started the process. This was my favorite part because I got to learn something new and it looked amazing. The hexagon pattern was my favorite because the marble gave it a lot of diversity in the room. These tiles were sold in sheets, not individual pieces, and each sheet was really heavy which is why they needed to be supported temporarily by the wood plank.

For the white rectangle tiles, they were laid out on top of tile cement and separated with those tiny green plastic sticks. This guaranteed that each space between the tiles was equal and once the grout was laid, everything would be perfectly symmetrical.

A bit after the tiles were strong enough to hold up of their own, we added the silver tile borders I picked out to line the walls and the edges of the shelf. We worked in sections and managed our time where each of us was always working on something every minute. While my dad was laying more tile, I was grouting the tiles that were already dry towards the ceiling. When he was cutting more tile, I was poking the green tab sticks between each of the tiles he had just laid. He taught me along the way and if he showed me how to do it once, I never needed any more direction.

We multitasked between the tiles and the flooring. While we waited for the teal paste and other tiles to dry, we also laid the floor panels and they were all drying at the same time.

I was giving the most responsibility with painting, because that has been my specialty with all the past projects I’ve helped with. While I was in another room painting the doors and the dismantled laundry chute, my dad was working with the plumbing, tried to make sure there were no leaks in the new pipes. Obviously, the water had been shut off in this corner of the house while we were demolishing the old shower and sink, but with the new repairs, he was worried it wouldn’t hold once the water was turned on. His repair was also a self-weld because the length and shape of the pipe had to be very specific to fit in the space provided.

We had a plan to test for leaks. Since the water tank was all the way in the basement and the bathroom was on the top floor, it has to be a two person job. The plan was for me to be sitting next to the tank in the basement, and my dad would be upstairs watching the pipes and we were connected through a phone call. I turned the handle of the tank very slowly, enough to be able to hear the water pressure flowing. There were a couple leaks but since the water pressure was so low, it wasn’t spraying out or anything, just a trickle. My dad would tell me to turn it off, then I would have to turn on the downstairs sink to relieve the rest of the built up pressure still in the pipes. We repeated this process many many times until the pipes successfully held water, even at full pressure.

After the pipes were all good and solid, we moved the vanity in. Only the base though, because the marble top had to be attached separate. Also the top was much heavier.

Those pipes that were sticking out of the floor got in the way of the back of the vanity which was a problem because the vanity couldn’t go completely against the wall if the pipes were in the way. All we did to fix this was cut a bigger hole in the back so that the pipes fit inside the vanity and could connect to the sinks while still being hidden.

The counter was an easy thing to move, it wasn’t as heavy as I thought. My dad stuck down the adhesive strips and then we set it down on top, letting the weight of the marble do its thing in securing itself.

The shower was a difficulty and a half, as I said in the Iteration. We had to learn from our mistakes and make it work by manipulating the tools and parts it came with. We installed the top rod fairly easily, we only had to take it all off and start over 3 times. These mistakes happened because I was following an instruction pamphlet that was meant to install the door on the wrong side. The rod was up, then came the rolling mechanisms and their stoppers. Then we had to attach the other side of the rolling mechanisms onto the actual doors and mount them onto the rod. After that there were just tiny things to attach and restore. We caulked the edges and the water flaps and left them to dry overnight.

In the midst of the shower chaos and while it was drying, we began to paint the walls with “Spatial White”. When you were in the room, the color looked magnificent, it matched perfectly with the other tones in the room. Once you left, however, you could tell how different the shades really were. Walking out of a yellow toned hallway into a purple toned bathroom is a bit of a recognizable change but you get used to it.

Padre in action after the first coat of paint. The contrast between the white doors, the black accents, and the grey walls in beautiful.

After my put in a new toilet, we reinstalled the newly painted trim and laundry shoot and we were finally done.

All that was left was the accessories, like the mirror, the toilet paper rack, and whatever else.