I haven't talked a lot about the colors and materials that I picked. I've made several trips to the marble shop to pick a design, but its not as easy as you'd think. Since it's man-made marble you can choose the colors and the design, to a degree. I'm told that the design is pretty random because the colors are dropped in and "stirred" into the base. So there's not a lot of control over the outcome. What I want for the shower walls and the vanity top looks something like this:
White with gray. Pretty simple. And maybe not even this busy.
What I don't want is something like this:
I like it, sort of. But I couldn't look at it every day. Or even every other day.
I'm currently not planning on having any cubbies or niches built into the walls of the shower. I know this is controversial. What will I do with all the bottles? Well, in the past, the bottles were everywhere. On the shower floor, on the built-in seats, and balancing precariously on those little ledges that are supposed to hold a bar of soap. I guess we'll just have to get rid of some bottles or add a corner shelf or maybe one of those "over the door" baskets that you can throw out when you get tired of it. I have my eye on a teak corner shelf that goes right in the shower and has a matching teak wood shower stool. I really like the idea of using some natural wood in the makeover. Some of the stools have a shelf underneath the seat for stuff. Or I could even use a water friendly basket to hold all of the bottles. I think it'll be fun to switch out the shower seat and change the shelves or baskets whenever I'm ready.
I want the cabinets white or dark gray, but I think white has more staying power and I can add any other colors to the room with pictures, towels or baskets. The cabinets are getting a complete makeover. Along with paint, they're getting new pulls, knobs, hinges and drawer tracks. The new pulls and knobs are polished chrome to match the faucet and shower head. I might have gone overboard on the shiny stuff, but I think this bathroom is going to be beautiful and will probably make the rest of the house look like a flea market!
This is the best I can do with the hardware pics. The knobs aren't really bigger than the pulls!
I jumped in to help The Professional today. He was sequestered in the bathroom sanding, painting and putting up molding. I felt bad for him and I was worried that the dust and fumes would do him in, but he didn't seem too concerned.
I gathered my sandpaper, sanding block and a pair of gloves and got busy sanding the doors and drawers. I did my sanding outside with the north wind whipping through my frizzy hair. I'm not sure I did as good of a job as he would have, but it eased my conscience a little bit.
I used the sanding block on the flat parts of the doors, front and back, and flexible sandpaper on the trim and edges. The flexible sandpaper is great because you can fold it and mold it to the shape of whatever you're sanding.
I used 150 grit for the initial sanding, then I went over the corners, edges and grooves with a 220 grit to smooth any spots that got roughed up too much.
It took me about an hour to sand all the drawers and doors. The Professional took over from there. He'll prime them with an oil based spray can primer, lightly sand them with a fine grit paper, and then paint them with a water based semi-gloss paint.
I didn't have a clue how much time and detail was involved in getting a new shower and a fresh coat of paint. There's a lot more sanding, caulking, priming, puttying and mudding than I ever imagined! I've painted plenty of walls, and even some small cabinets but I've never been completely happy with the results. Now that I've learned some new techniques I'm going to go back over some of my work and touch it up!