February 23, 2017

Guest Post: Tiny Half Bath Reno

hey y'all! we're on vacation and doing our best to pick up on those laid back cali vibes 😎 (as soon as we leave disney lol) but in the meantime, i've got a guest post from amy of life on hill st. amy is a fellow design lover who is in the midst of a home renovation with two little kids. aka a saint! she actually approached me a month or so ago and her timing couldn't have been better! after i looked at her site, i quickly knew what i wanted to hear more about - her teeny half bath from the hill st house. it's a good one. thank you amy!!

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Hello all! This is Amy from Life On Hill Street and I'm super excited to be guest blogging for Meredith today! She asked me to write a short post about a bathroom renovation I did on my last house. I honestly didn't write enough about it at the time so I'm thrilled to have the opportunity now!

A few years ago, my husband and I bought a 150-year-old Dutch Colonial and decided to do a DIY renovation/restoration of the whole thing. One of the coolest projects we did (and the only one we outsourced to the pros) was our half bathroom.

Like most old houses, ours didn't come with a bathroom on the first floor. It was pretty much a no-brainer that we would add one, there was just the problem of where to put it. Although we didn't have adjoining neighbors, our house was essentially a tiny, three-story row house and space on the first floor was at a premium. After much consideration and an, "are you sure about that?" comment from our realtor, we decided to rip out the entry hall closet and make it a bathroom.

Easier said than done.


The closet was 3 1/2' by 3'. After plumbing and framing went it, the entire room was less than 10 square feet! This of course created some design challenges, and the nagging worry that once everything was installed, nobody would be able to fit inside! Luckily, I found this amazing toilet from Toto where the tank system hangs in the wall between 2x4s. And I found a tiny European sink (similar to this one) that was so small I originally thought it was a water fountain!


The finishing touches included black and white penny tile on the floor, glossy black bead board half way up the walls and fun Scalamandre zebra wallpaper in Serengeti green.


I knew the bathroom would make a statement simply because it was so small, so I thought I would add to the fun by including some memorable paper. I'm always finding wallpapers, patterned tile or dramatic paint colors that I love, but simply couldn't commit to having everywhere. So when I have a small, relatively confined, space I tend to take bigger risks with the design.


In the end, we got a lot of compliments on the "tiny" bathroom. Even the inspector came back and took extra pictures to show future renovators what they can do with a closet. Mostly though, we were just happy to have an extra bathroom in a more convenient location.

...ok, and we liked the wallpaper too!


To read more about the mini half bathroom project check out this post, or this one

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thank you again amy, i love what you did with this closet and the design choices! 

4 comments:

Life On Hill St. said...

Thank you so much for having me guest post - it was an honor and a ton of fun! I'm glad you liked the tiny half bath! Enjoy Cali :)

Lacey said...

I adore this and in our built in 1920 house, we're having the same problem with no first floor bathroom! I have been toying with the front hall closet idea and am thrilled to see someone else was brave enough to go first. Question though... without a closet in the hall, what do you do with all the jackets we need to have here in New England 11 months out of the year?! Did you add a closet elsewhere or just use other closets upstairs? Maybe we just need to cut down on the amount of jackets we have, but taking the closet away would create another issue. On a more fun note- I ADORE the glossy black and zebras! SO great.

meredith said...

Loved having you Amy!!

Life On Hill Street said...

Lacy -

Thanks so much for the kind words! We also live in a chilly climate with harsh winters so I understand your hesitation. I will be honest, it was a definite sacrifice to lose our hall closet. If you can't tell from the pictures, our entry hall was TINY so the decision to turn our closet into a bathroom was not one we took lightly. On the other side of the front door (not pictured) we installed coat racks for our jackets. We also had a bench in our entry hall (shown in the lower right hand corner of the last picture) where I put four straw baskets to house our gloves, hats, boots, dog leash/baggies, etc. At the end of the day we were very happy with our decision! I hope that helps - let me know what you decide to do!

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