Modern Powder Room Reveal

The Modern Powder Room Reveal is here! Check out all the before/after pictures of the powder room plus get sources and details on the powder room remodel cost! 

I’m beyond thrilled to share the tiniest bathroom renovation with you guys. If you’ve been following along since the first post on this space, thank you! What I had hoped would be a three to four month project, ended up taking us ten months (but who’s counting, right?). 

Hilariously enough, I forgot to vacuum the floor after we installed the towel rack. Don’t look too closely behind that trash can! Oops!

So, before I jump into the modern powder room, including what we did and why, let’s walk down memory lane. 

Before Pictures of the Powder Bathroom

The main door to the right is the powder bathroom door. That door couldn’t open completely and while having the dryer door open too. It’s a very tight space and we knew we needed to address that in the bathroom renovation.

Of course, the flooring had to go as well as just about everything else. 

We were “lucky” enough to have four bathrooms with carpet when we first moved in to this house. “Lucky” right?! 

DIY Powder Room Remodel

Like I mentioned above, the space is very tight. We knew we needed to address that and we figured the best way to make more space was to add a pocket door. I don’t love pocket doors in general because I feel like they are less functional than a typical door, but in our case, the pocket door is MORE functional because it makes the laundry room more functional. I can actually open the dryer door now without worrying about whether the bathroom door is shut or not. Yay!

We ultimately decided to hire out the install of the pocket door because the door frame needed to move over a bit and, at the time, it just seemed more efficient for us to hire it out. I’ll do a big price round-up below, but the labor and supplies for the pocket door ran just under $1,000. 

We chose to go with a light-filtering door hoping that it would help offset some of the black tile in the space. It’s not a well-lit room at all but I do think the frosted pocket door helps it not feel like a cave. 

The bulk of our money and time were spent on tile. I fell in love with the hexagon marble floor tile and bought that first. There wasn’t a natural break between the bathroom floor and the laundry room floor, so we tiled all of it. We had one slight issue with it and that was that we stained the marble accidentally in a few spots but I was able to fix that with a homemade marble cleaning solution. Laying the marble wasn’t bad after we got the hang of how to cut it and how to deal with the individual marble mosaics around each hexagon. There were a few times that we got confused on the pattern (it looks like it doesn’t have a pattern, but it does) and we laid the marble down backwards. Ultimately though, we didn’t run into that many issues. 

After wavering for quite some time, I decided to go for tiling the whole wall and wanted to do something unique with the wall tile. We spent hours and hours installing the vertical black wall tile with a large gap. I think it looks amazing but it was a JOB. To lay tile like that, you have to install support boards for every single row. Those boards have to be installed and left installed until your mortar dries. Then, once you go through that whole process (which takes A LONG TIME), then you get to try your hand at grouting a traditional grout line as well as an inch and a half grout line. You need different grout consistencies for both of those. I wouldn’t recommend laying tile how we laid it unless you are aware of the time investment that you need. I’d say that whatever time investment you need to lay a typical backsplash, then times that by five and you’ll have the time needed to lay this one. 

One thing that I think really stands out in this space is that it is FLOOR-TO-CEILING tile. That’s another reason the time investment is so high. But, it’s killer, really, it is! The black tile has a handmade look to it, but I don’t think it’s actually handmade, or maybe it is; not sure! Anyways, there are some major variations in the tile which I personally love. 

The next big thing that I decided on was the vanity. I had bought a modern vanity off of overstock, and blogged about it in this post on modern vanities. Ultimately, I felt the color of the vanity wasn’t what I wanted. Well that and I wanted a heavier wood. I ended up selling that one for a loss and buying a gorgeous walnut vanity from Room & Board. It’s beautiful and I think the darker wood really works well with the tile. 

The vanity didn’t come with a countertop. I went to a few quartz countertop companies in town and finally found the perfect white and gray quartz countertop remnant. It cost me around $200 with the fabrication. I actually planned on doing a wall-mount faucet but had some issues with the plumbing for it, so I had to take my countertop back to the fabricator to have the faucet hole drilled out too.

For plumbing fixtures and bathroom fixtures in general, I went with brass. I love continuing to add brass in my spaces. I think it adds the warmth that this space definitely needed. 

Let’s talk a few minutes about the bathroom accessories. I changed out the toilet knob to a brass one. It’s a detail that I think is so fun! The sconce in the space is black and brass and, if I’m honest, gets a bit lost in the space visually but I love the lines of it. You have to really look at the sconce to see it, but I love it anyways. The trashcan was an issue! It’s such a tight space between the vanity and the toilet and between the toilet and the wall that I couldn’t find a trashcan to fit! After returning a few that wouldn’t work, I started thinking about using a planter pot there and went to go look in my stash for one. Instead of a planter pot, I found my late grandmother’s vintage ice bucket. I couldn’t decide if I felt bad for using it as a trash can, but ultimately, I just decided that it makes me smile every time I go in there to see it BEING USED, that I’m just going to use it! 

I opted for a towel hook instead of a towel bar or ring because of the minimal space. The towel is one that I’ve had for years and just gets better with age. The soap pump is a pretty, handmade-looking piece from Target. 

I debated on the mirror for awhile and actually bought two of them to try to figure out what I wanted. Ultimately I decided on a slim, minimal mirror and I couldn’t be happier. 

The last few accessories that I brought in are: a vintage rug (because I had too!), a handmade ceramic vase that I picked up from a flea market and my boob art from Wink Wink Studio. I like a bit of quirk in my spaces and I smile every time I see that art. My mom thinks it’s weird, but I’m here for it. Are you?! =)

Modern Powder Room Accessories and Sources

Adrian Walnut Vanity

Black Wall Tile

Hexagon Tile

Black and Brass Sconce

Under-mount Sink

Single Hole Bathroom Faucet

Vintage Rug (similar)

Vintage Brass Ice Bucket (similar)

Vase (similar)

Towel Hook

Toilet lever

Toilet paper holder

Boob Art

Button Wall Switch

Switch Plate

Soap Pump

20″ x 30″ Rounded Edge Mirror

If you tune in to the Your Home Story Podcast that goes live tomorrow, then you’ll hear me say that I didn’t keep a budget for this project. I bought item by item over the span of months so I didn’t have a clue as to what I was spending. I was a bit surprised that we spent as much as we did but I did pick to do a few things that were higher in cost (install marble flooring and wall-to-ceiling wall tile). Anyways, here’s the powder bathroom renovation cost breakdown.

Modern Powder Room Remodel Cost

Wall Tile $800

Floor Tile (includes laundry) $1914

Supplies (caulk, mortar, nails, switches, etc) $400

Vanity $1285

Light $550

Mirror $250

Art + Framing $250

Decor : $125

Pocket Door $292

Pocket Door Labor + Supplies $850

Faucet $235

Plumbing Issue $250

Countetrop + sink 300

Approximately $7500

Is that more or less than you expected? Just curious! 

Well, I think that wraps up the Modern Powder Room Renovation! We are thrilled to have this project done. I pinch myself every time I walk by. That’s how a project should end up right, right?!