Bathroom Remodel Part One: Vanity
Hello there!
Do I have a big project for you today! We are currently in the midst of renovating our bathroom, but we’re taking it in stages. This will be the first post of several explaining the changes we’re making to the master bathroom. This is our bathroom remodel part one: vanity.
Our home was built in 2006, and from what we know about it, it was a rental for many years. The owners we purchased it from lived in it for about five years, and they were definitely our spirit animals. They DIYed several areas of the home and made quite a few improvements. They were not professionals, but their skill level seems to match ours, and I don’t think we would have done any better/different with the changes that they made.
However, they didn’t do much to the master bathroom. They put down a vinyl flooring on top of the existing tile in the bathroom, but as far as we can tell, that’s the only thing they did. And the wear and tear is really starting to show, especially since it was a rental home for many years.
Initially, I had very big plans for the master bathroom. My biggest complaint is that the shower is extremely small, so we had the idea to knock down the wall heading into our master closet and steal a few feet from that area. We also wanted to replace the soaker tub with a freestanding tub, install some wainscoting around the tub area, replace the vanity, change the flooring, and switch out all fixtures and hardware.
While we are experienced DIYers, relocating a wall feels bigger than our skillset, so we reached out to get contractor quotes to get the job done.
In my naivety, I thought that the project would be around $12,000, maybe $15,000 on the high end. I’m sure you could imagine my surprise when the quote came back at a whopping $30,000!
Needless to say, we decided to scale waaay back on our plans. We’re still planning on switching out the shower and tub, but we decided to work within the existing area rather than removing the wall. To expand the shower, we’re planning on installing a smaller tub than what’s already there, and we currently have a wall separating the shower and tub that we’re going to remove.
All of these changes are within our capabilities (with the help of a plumber), so we (hopefully) won’t spend $30,000 on this renovation!
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Step 1: Remove the existing vanity
I initially thought about just painting the existing vanity to keep our costs down, but this particular vanity was in pretty rough shape. The drawer beds were warped from moisture, the top had several nicks and dings, and the interior cabinets weren’t very functional. So after much debate, we decided to completely remove and replace the existing vanity.
We also wanted a new light fixture and to do something with the mirror. As you can see in the picture, the mirror had a lot of smudges. I tried to clean it with different methods, but those streaks and smudges were always there. So rather than frame it out, we opted to replace that as well.
Big props to my hubby here. He did all of the grunt work on removing the existing vanity.
He removed the faucets, pulled off the vanity top (which was all one piece and heavy), took down the mirror, and removed the existing light fixture.
As a side note, I originally wanted to replace the one light fixture with two separate units over each sink. So my husband prepared the wall to separate the existing light mount into two, but we found that a stud was right in the middle of the left-side sink. Groan. So to save ourselves the hassle, we decided to keep just one light fixture instead of splitting it into two.
Step 2: Repair the wall
We really went back and forth on what to do about the damaged walls. When we removed the vanity top, the side pieces were strongly adhered to the wall, so some of the drywall came off when my husband took them off.
The new vanity we purchased came with a slab of quartz for along the back of the vanity, but it didn’t have side pieces, so we either needed to repair or cover the wall.
We went through different options available to us, such as installing shiplap along the side walls as well as the back, installing a different backsplash for the sides and back, or tiling the whole area rather than using shiplap.
Since we’re on a budget, we decided that repairing the wall, rather than covering it somehow, was going to be our most cost-effective option.
To repair the wall, I first used a putty knife to apply drywall mud over the broken areas. I let that dry for 24 hours, and then I used a sponge sander to lightly sand down the drywall mud. Then I applied the canned wall texture over the area and used the putty knife to gently smooth it down to match the existing wall texture. The texture isn’t an exact match, but it’s close enough that it isn’t an obvious repair.
After repairing the area, I painted that part of the wall. We are keeping the existing color of the bathroom, so I really just needed to touch up that area, rather than painting the whole room.
Step 3: Install vanity
Our new vanity base was very close in size to our old vanity, so sliding it into place was fairly simple (besides needing to remove the baseboards); however, we decided to keep the existing flooring, and the new base was slightly smaller than the old one, so we were going to have a gap in flooring.
To resolve this, we took the vinyl flooring all the way back to the wall and set the new vanity on top of it, rather than on the sub floor it had been sitting on.
When putting it in place though, we also encountered some trouble with the plumbing cut outs on the new vanity.
I don’t know if our plumbing is extra large or something, but it did not fit through the cut outs on the back of our new vanity. We talked about cutting into the back of the vanity, but I didn’t want to ruin that back piece for no reason. So instead, we completely removed the backing, so when you open the vanity door, you see wall rather the back of the cabinet.
That solution has worked out well, but now we have this extra backing piece that I don’t know what to do with.
After installing the vanity, we went to the wrong next step. We installed the quartz back piece (which is the correct next step), but then we installed the faucets before installing the shiplap wall.
In our defense, we weren’t going to be able to install the shiplap right away and I was tired of going to the kids’ bathroom to brush my teeth. Because of our haste though, installation of the shiplap wall was a little more difficult.
Also, at this point, make sure you do your caulking around the backsplash, before installing the faucets!
We waited to caulk until the end, and it was difficult to maneuver the caulk gun around the faucets. So learn from our mistakes! I would suggest the following order:
Install vanity
Install backsplash
Caulk around backsplash
Install shiplap wall
Install faucets
You can do it the way we did, but it’s slightly more difficult.
Step 4: Install shiplap
Now that your vanity is in place, it’s time to shiplap those walls!
I researched a lot of different ways to make a shiplap wall, and ultimately we decided to use the tongue and groove shiplap that locks together and leaves the natural gap.
The reason we went this route was because we don’t have a tool to rip plywood to the correct length, and the already-cut plywood pieces cost almost as much as this product, which was already primed white, and installation would be much quicker without worrying about creating consistently-spaced gaps.
To install this product, my husband cut each piece to the width of the wall. In some places he used one whole piece, and in others he used two boards to make it across. He staggered the joints when he used two pieces so none of the joint lines were too close together.
We also didn’t want to have a lot of nail holes to fill, so he nailed each piece into place along the top groove, which was covered by the next piece that sat on top of it. The only nail holes that needed to be filled were at the very top of the wall, which I filled with a putty knife and wood filler. After the filler dried, I lightly sanded it with a sponge sander.
When he made it to the area with the vanity light, he needed to cut a hole in the shiplap to accommodate the light box. He used a piece of paper to trace the size hole he needed, and then he used a jigsaw to cut out the space. He then continued all the way up to the ceiling with the shiplap, and I caulked just around the top. I opted not to caulk down the sides of the wall because I didn’t want caulking to fill in the joint gaps. My husband did a good job of measuring each plank, and I think it looks great without any caulking along the sides.
The shiplap was already primed white, but at this point I added just one coat of our trim white color so that everything would match. Because this product is so smooth, I used a sponge roller to paint in order to minimize the appearance of brush strokes.
Step 5: Finish up
At this point, we were almost done with this project! All we needed to do was install the new light fixture we got at Home Depot (with Edison bulbs) and the mirrors.
I originally bought round mirrors that mounted away from the wall, but we quickly found out that they stuck out too far and our side medicine cabinet mirrors would not be able to open. So instead I found these beautiful oval mirrors that installed flush against the wall. The mounting hardware is on the back of these, so you don’t see any screws or anything around the frames, which I love.
For this portion of the project, we spent around $1,428:
Vanity (Costco): $900
Faucets (Lowes): $200
Shiplap (Lowes): $90
Light fixture (Home Depot): $88
Edison Bulbs (Amazon): $20
Mirrors (Amazon): $130
It’s a good chunk of money, but a lot less than our contractor quote. So there you have it, our bathroom remodel part one: vanity. This area of our bathroom turned out so beautifully, and I’m so excited to move onto the other projects we have planned for our master bath. Stay tuned, and I’ll share our progress as we get more done!
