Don't Lose Your Marble(s) - Bathroom Counter Top

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Other bathroom remodel posts:

Bye Bye Bye to 80s Tile - How To Remove Trim and Tile, Bathroom Renovation Part 1

She Only Wants Me For My Beadboard - Bathroom Renovation Part 2 

Trimming and Caulking and Painting, Oh My! - Bathroom Renovation Part 3 

Paint That Funky Mirror, White Girl - Bathroom Renovation Part 4

It's official: we are over the hump. The worst is over, the tub is back in place, and the walls are painted, beadboarded, and caulked.

But then there is that nasty countertop...

It actually looks inoffensive with the rest of the bathroom finished, but let me give you a reminder of what that baby looks like up close.

Have you ever tried to clean a tile-and-grout countertop? What about after putting on bronzer and blush powder, which unavoidably spills a bit and ends up - you guessed it - on the grout.

Bust out that toothbrush, my friend. You're gonna be scrubbing.

When we finished the rest of the bathroom, we decided to save the old vanity but replace the countertop with something that fit the room better and made it feel more upscale. 

We looked at marble composites, granite, solid surface, and regular marble. In the end, we liked a honed (i.e. not shiny) carrara marble that is white and gray, and pulls from the whites in the floor tile.

The first step in getting this bad boy in place was to remove the existing countertop. For the most part, this wasn't too difficult. Just a process of pounding upward until it broke free.

You may notice, however, that there are some gaps in the beadboard because we cut it to fit around the old counter. Thankfully, because the wall is beadboard behind and next to the sink, we knew we would be putting in a backsplash, which would cover the gap.

The counter top came pre-cut with the hole for the under-mount sink, which was separate. First, the countertop was glued onto the vanity, and then the back splashes were installed as well. We had free installation from Duca Tile, so they took care of gluing it down and caulking the corners.

They also used a two-part epoxy glue to mount the sink underneath the countertop.

Here is a close up of how the marble backsplash looks next to the beadboard we installed.

And here is a farther away shot that includes the sink along with the beadboard, trim, and mirror. 

And now for the fun part... before-and-afters! 

And another angle...

We still have a few tiny projects left - like replacing the beige outlets (we replaced the outlet plates, but the outlets themselves are still a darker color) and installing the hardware for the vanity. But, the big pieces of this bathroom are finally finished.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

• Would you use marble for a bathroom sink, or a different surface?
• Have you ever remodeled a bathroom? Where did you splurge vs save?

She Only Wants Me For My Beadboard (Bathroom Renovation, Part Two)

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I know you all are curious to see how this bathroom renovation has turned out.

...so am I.

When it came to what to remove from the bathroom, it was a pretty easy answer. Everything 1980s, beige-y and salmon-y, had to go (GOODBYE TILE!). But, then we had a few options for what to do once that was out.

Original plan:
At first, we planned on removing all of the tile in the entire room (including the floor tile) and doing a white hexagonal penny tile on the walls with a white-and-black basket weave penny tile on the floor (floor like this image). It would have been true to the era of this house (1910s = penny tile and marble all over the place).

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A change of heart:
But, after removing the wall tile, we took a good look at the floor and realized we really didn't dislike it so much. It was recently put in by the previous owners, so it is in great shape, and it has some white and gray in it, so we know we will be able to brighten things up by whitening the walls. By keeping it, we could make our bathroom renovation significantly shorter/cheaper, and avoid having to remove the tub and toilet.

So, we decided to keep the floor tile. Huzzah for slightly less renovation work!

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But what about the walls?
Next, we debated the wall tile idea. As it turns out, "penny tile" is much more expensive than its name suggests. We realized we would be shelling out four to six hundred dollars on the wall tile, alone. We didn't have a specific budget in mind, but we did want to be as price-conscious as possible at every turn, because this isn't a "forever home," so we want to be smart about how much we invest into it.

So, when the idea of beadboard popped into my head, it was really the price and time factors that confirmed it as a brilliant idea. For $80, we could get enough beadboard to do the bathroom with extra to spare, and it would take us less time because we found large pre-fabricated slabs of imitation beadboard at Lowes.

$80 vs $600... there was really no contest. So, we revised the plan.

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Getting down to business!
Once the walls had been patched and smoothed, we picked up the beadboard and started cutting it. We still had a large piece of the drywall that the old tile was attached to, so here's picture that show the color difference. I was immediately satisfied that this change would brighten and visually "clean up" the bathroom.

My in-laws came over to help us cut the beadboard to size. We measured each wall and cut it to size as best we could.

Then, we would bring it up to the bathroom and put it in place. If it wasn't a perfect fit, we went back downstairs to trim a little off.

Once we were satisfied with the fit, we glued the back with Locktite Binding Glue. We did a line around the edges and then every 4-6 inches in between.

We continued this process around the room, matching the pieces up as best we could. We tried to keep the pattern continuous by cutting the pieces so that the vertical "grooves"were always the same distance apart, even when moving from one piece to the next.

Once every piece was in place, we could still see some edges where the pieces met up.

Finishing touches:

The next step was to caulk all of the places where the pieces met up, including corners and one spot on each of the longer walls. We also painted all of the walls and beadboard, so that the everything would be wipable. The beadboard came pre-finished, but it did scratch during the installation process. I also read in reviews that it would smudge easily if it hadn't been sealed well with a few coats of paint. So, paint we did. We used Satin Snow (a white with cool, gray tones) and got to work. 

Once this process was finished, we could already see some major change in the bathroom. Next up was finding the right trim to put on top of the beadboard, cutting it to size and painting it, and dealing with the mirror and countertop! More to come...