Two weeks of 12+hours and this is what I have to show for it.

And it turned out better than I even expected.

Everyone loves BEFORE and AFTER shots but this is the best I can do because of course I was already just about to start painting when I snapped a quick photo. The only other relevant photo I have is from the real estate site when we bought the house.

I absolutely hated everything in the bathroom, from the colour of the tile to the horrible particle board cabinets bursting at the seams to the biggest threat to my everyday wellbeing; the plastic flooring. If I had the means I would have ripped everything away but my wallet said NO to the 10 000€ completely renovation so I had to come up with something else. I played around with all sorts of ideas and finally came up with a fairly solid plan to give this bathroom a new lease on life for at least a couple years.

I started off with scrubbing the bathroom two times, scraping off silicones and then one final clean with a painters cleaning solution stuff to prepare for the tile paint.

Moderns tile paints are pretty darn good IF you do the cleanup really really well, get several even coats and let the paint cure for a month to fully stand the test of time. I learned the hard way (while painting some kitchen tiles) that even the tiniest bit of silicone smear somewhere on the tile is a fucking catastrophe.

Tile paint is such a bitch to work with because it dries super fast and on a glass tile it shows all the imperfections on the paint job really easily but after many many days and three coats I finally got it done.

Next on the list was tacling the old ass particle board cabinets. Cleaning, sanding, spackling, glueing and finally painting with a gorgeous colour called Peacock. I painted the cabinets inside and out, top to bottom because I do not want to see that fucking disgusting particle board!

I picked up two different types of door pulls in a shiny brass colour to replace the ugly wooden pulls. chef’s kiss

Definitely the hardest part of the bathroom to spruce up was the plastic floor; you can’t paint it because it just will not stay, and replacing it would be quite expensive and it wouldn’t make sense to do just that and not re-do the whole bathroom. A year in waiting and trying to come up with a solid plan, I finally figured out a beautiful AND cost effective way to make the floor look prettier; wood tiles.

After lots of research and thinking about doing it all from scratch, I came upon a rare sighting of unfinished wood tiles meant for the garden in a very reasonable price. I send the man to the store to bring me about 8 square metres worth of terrace tiles.

While the cabinet paint was drying I finished the puzzle and cut a few pieces to fit around the toilet et cetera. Unfinished wood is a no no especially in moist environment so I used a very high quality (German so of course) translucent cognac coloured wood wax to treat the surface twice and then applied a final layer of clear hard wax oil to both sides of the tiles.

I am extremely pleased at how the floor turned out and even though I can see the plastic on the sides of the walls and through the slants, it’s a million times better because I don’t have to touch the nasty plastic with my bare feet every day. What you can’t see in these pictures is the shower that is around the corner because I do have to make a separate wood piece with no plastic grid underneath because can you imagine how disgusting it would get with my long hair getting tangled in there! I’m gonna make one big tile so it can be easily removed for cleaning and re-treating with wax as needed.

I am going to replace the wall lights, get new towel rods, change the door handle and at some point get a new faucet and shower head but all the hard work is done now.

Bathroom renovation on a budget is finished for now and I’m very pleased with the results and in myself for getting it done so well in my not-so-humble opinion.

Off to another project!