Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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A Dreamy White & Gray Bathroom With Box Molding

Okay, so maybe the red bathroom Melissa and Ian inherited with their house isn’t bad enough to deserve a nod to The Shining, but it was pretty killer on the eyes. Fortunately they remedied things with an awesome redo that they sent our way. Here’s their letter:

Hi John and Sherry! We bought our second home up north in good ‘ole Canada in April of 2011 and started our DIY magic – or whatever you wanna call it ;) So far we’ve done 2 bathrooms, an office, a guest room, and our bedroom and I still feel like we have tons to do (I’m sure you know the feeling). However, we’re really happy with how our bathroom turned out. Let’s start at the beginning. Here is what we had to work with:

Ian Before Shower

Where to begin? The pink floors? The vanity that was about as tall as my lower thighs? I was barely able to wash my face without sitting on the floor.

Ian Before Vanity

The room looked a bit like a rainbow exploded in it. We don’t do rainbow guts.

Ian Before Bathtub

In all reality there were no words. We just knew we wanted to change the ENTIRE thing. I had been saving up tons of ideas and we pretty much knew what we wanted: a ‘spa’ feel with light, bright colours, and a clean look. We also really wanted to incorporate a little bit of architectural detail somehow. We had seen paneling done in a variety of different forms, and we figured this might be a good place to try it out. We ended up choosing picture frame style wainscoting. Overall, this process wasn’t as difficult as it sounds.

Ian During Paneling

Sooooo… here it is: our pride and joy!

Ian After Bathtub

We did a lot of other things besides the wainscoting ourselves – just to stick to our tight budget – like doing the shower tile pattern ourselves, making our own curtains, and searching high and low for the best priced materials and fixtures (the tub is from Costco and the mirrors over the vanity are from HomeSense – which is also known as HomeGoods in the states).

Ian After Vanity

Thanks again for being a huge inspiration for a young couple like ourselves. All the best, Melissa and Ian (oh and Clover, our 85 pound golden doodle who thinks of herself as an 8 pound chihuahua).

Ian After Shower

Oh to have a bathroom that large and that gorgeous! Nicely done Melissa and Ian (and Burger gives two paws up to Clover, to whom he gives all the credit). You can see more photos of their beautiful bathroom on their blog, where they’ve also got a full source list as well as a breakdown of projects like the paneling and the curtains.

Psst- Got a before and after of your own that you’d like to submit? Send your best pictures, links to any blog posts, and brief description to [email protected].

Psssst- We’re sharing our latest Clara-conversations over on Young House Life (she’s definitely the comedian of this family).

Comments

  2. Cheryl says

    Lovely!

    But I’m another one that worries about the chandelier over the tub. Usually I’ve heard that bottom of light over tub must be something like 8 feet above tub or the light must be several feet away from being over the tub. I assume the distances required are so someone cannot be in the tub full of water and reach the light (to avoid electrocution issues). Are building codes different in Canada?

    Reply

  15. Jen @ Migonis Home says

    This is my favorite makeover ever! I am in love with every choice you made. The marble and white is such a stunning combo… And hello?!? Why would someone live with such a crazy red bathroom?

    Reply

  20. Julie S says

    Whoahhhh… that is one amazingly well done remodel. It does NOT have the mismatched undertones or fixture sheens that most DIY low-budget bathrooms have. Thanks for linking us to it!

    Reply

  21. Ally says

    Beautifully done, Melissa & Ian! I AM CANADIAN, too…very proud of you guys :)

    I had to laugh when I saw how the previous owner accessorized their toilet tank. At first glance, it looked like the 7 Dwarfs in Viking Helmets? After seeing the larger pics on your own blog, I see it was actually a very ornate candleholder :)

    xox

    Reply

  24. jane says

    Unrelated to this post, but… I just saw a sneak peak of your book cover on amazon – John, is that you giving bunny ears to Sherry? How hilarious (love it!) – and how *you*! You should definitely share it out to the readers to start building the excitement for the impending book arrival! (but you probably have a post written – and queued up – about it already, LOL)

    Reply

  27. Melissa and Ian @ Living Beautifully says

    We are so overwhelmed with all of the incredible comments on our bathroom :) A MASSIVE THANK YOU to John and Sherry (Clara and Burger!) for featuring our master bath. We can’t thank you enough and are honoured to be featured on your incredible blog that we read daily and have used as a major inspiration :) All of your readers are so support and wonderful!! Thank you all SO much- this has totally made our week…and has inspired us to do another bathroom, maybe sooner than later! lol! Much love, Melissa and Ian (and Clover!)

    Reply

  28. Kelley says

    This transformation is amazing! Those original window treatments were what my dad would call “aggressive.”

    Reply

  31. B says

    Beautiful!!!

    Does anyone know what paint color was used? I tried to check their website and didn’t find any info.

    Reply

  33. Sherry says

    Wow, just wow! They really did a professional job. It’s downright stunning! I might need to know where they got those curtains from. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  35. Rachel says

    BEAUTIFUL! But…am I the only one who noticed that the shampoo bottles are on the FLOOR in the shower?? I think that’s a very common thing that people overlook when renovating bathrooms. We just bought a house, and our master bath shower is huge, but there is nowhere to put anything. Don’t forget about shelves, folks!

    Reply

    • Melissa and Ian @ Living Beautifully says

      Hey Rachel! We actually decided against putting a shelf or anything like that in permanently, since we didn’t want to ruin the look of the walls. We decided on getting a separate stool or shelf that we can put it and move around ourselves, we just haven’t found the right one yet ;) We did consider it though, we all know how annoying it is to bend down for shampoo ;S lol…
      p.s we recently found a great wire caddy at HomeSense (Home goods in the US) for $9 that suction cups to the walls…perfect!

  36. tracy a says

    Wow. Absolute wow! The before is awful (those curtains? they deserve an ugly award), but the after is incredible. And about the name thing…I married a man with the last name Ashley. People I have known my whole life all of the sudden can’t remember that my name is Tracy, doctors reading my chart all of the sudden get confused at why that comma separating names exists! It is crazy! Good thing he’s worth it! :)

    Reply

  39. Paulina J! says

    One of my favorite reader redesigns so far. Also very educational. I had no idea Costco sold tubs!

    Reply

  43. Laura says

    Hi. I really enjoy the reader redesign posts. They give me lots of ideas. Is there a way to look at older ones without going back through all the posts? Maybe a special section just for them?

    Reply

  44. Elnaz says

    I am an Iranian living in Tehran. Today, for the first time I saw your website and I liked the idea and your lifestyle. I wish you success and happiness.

    Reply

  47. how2home says

    We have been so busy for the past week….and now we are catching up with your blog and came across this. WOW…we love it! The bathtub is stunning with the stand alone glass shower. We want it all!

    Reply

  48. Rachel says

    Its insanely stunning room and this tub seems really awesome. The work is just fantastic. BTW never make any mistake in my name, I’ll gonna sue you. :P LOL!

    Reply

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