Basement Bathroom Before & After

Another project on the list of “things I should have finished in the last five years but didn’t” is the half-bath in the basement of the Garrison house.

Sometimes when I look at pictures of what this house looked like before, am at a loss as to why I felt compelled to buy it. For way too much money.

2_Basement Bathroom sink 2

Continuing on the monochromatic color-scheme of the basement (before I got my hands on it) this bathroom was blue. Walls, door, doorknobs, and ceiling. The toilet and sink were blessedly white. Ish.

1_Basement Bathroom Toilet

The floor– shudder— I don’t even want to talk about what I found under those tiles, but suffice it to say I used a years supply of bleach to clean it up.

3_Basement Bath- floor up

I don’t know what it is with me and prison bathrooms, but they follow me everywhere.

I started on this re-model a few years ago. Which is to say I painted the walls red…

4_Basement Bath Red

Tiled the floor…

5_Red bathroom- tile 2

And called it good enough to pee in. Until last week, when– for under $100– it finally reached the rustic elegance it was meant for.

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For the light fixture I knew I wanted something fun, cheap, and fancier than you might expect to find in a basement bathroom, but not too over the top. Sara @ Russet Street Reno gave me the idea for this small shell pendant from the World Market with her dressing room redo.

I went for the smaller coffee colored fixture.

8_DSC_0855

MysteryMan, to his credit, only rolled his eyes at me once for the fanciness. He also wired the fixture to a switch instead of a pull-chain. Damn engineers are handy to have around, I tell ya.

The mirror was something I had laying around and seemed to fit, and the new sink was $77 at Home Depot.

7_DSC_0862

Slight improvement over this, I think…

2_Basement Bathroom sink 2

And if my house sells tomorrow, I’ll be glad I finished this room off right.

5 Responses

  1. Holy crap! I must admit, at first I thought the red paint was going the way of my ‘circus-nursery-oopsie’ paint job my dressing room first had, but I must admit you rocked it out! I love that you’ve done, and I would be thrilled to pee in there.

    Thanks for the shout out….that light fixture is worth it’s weight in gold, in my opinion. I think everyone should use it somewhere!

  2. The mirror is perfect for that space! That’s the coolest prison bathroom I’ve seen. So you’ll be leaving all the light fixtures in your house? We’ve been buying light fixtures for our house and we always wonder whether we will bring them to our next house or leave them for the next owners.

  3. Wow, great ideas for my own prison-ish basement bathroom. I absolutely LOVE that light fixture you chose, and the new sink and vanity is wonderful. Good to know I’m not the only one with clearly visible pipes running hell-mell through the bathroom. 🙂

  4. That is the most glamorous downstairs bathroom I have ever seen! Wow! The whole basement is looking lovely. I bet you get an offer fast. 🙂

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