Our Powder Room Renovation

I waited a long time for this project. We’ve renovated most of the rooms on the main floor of our house. It’s easy to see how one change can snowball into more! We redid our kitchen and mudroom three years ago. You can see the changes in this post. Once those rooms were finished I instantly regretted that we did not include the powder room too because it felt dated once the other spaces were completed.

I’ve been building a Pinterest board for my powder room ever since. I was tired of the vanity, the builder-grade tile, and the paint color. I wanted this space to complement the other spaces on our main floor. I enlisted the help of my favorite decorator friend, Gerry Zeiler Peker, to help me source the materials and put it all together. It’s finally finished and I can’t wait to share the details of this project with you.

I’ve always wanted a furniture piece for a vanity in the powder room in place of the pedestal sink that our builder installed. A unique piece of furniture becomes the structural focal point.

The challenge was that because of the small size of the room and building code requirements, the vanity had to be on the smaller side so there was enough distance to the toilet to meet code. Most dressers are 36 or 48 inches in length which would have been too long. Gerry found this sweet bedside table at a vintage market in Lucketts, Virginia on one of her usual hunts for antiques. At 30 inches high and wide it was the perfect height and length to become my new powder room vanity. The dresser was painted blue. I repainted it Benjamin Moore Black Iron #2120-20 in a satin finish to match the tile floor and sealed it with varnish to protect the finish.

From all of my Pinterest boards I knew I wanted to do an attractive black and white tile floor. Gerry encouraged me to select this tile pattern. I’m not sure I would have chosen it on my own but I love how it turned out. It’s the right balance for this small space. What a difference from the before picture!

We installed shiplap behind the television in the family room during our renovation three years ago so bringing that element into the walls of this space was a no-brainer. One of the many things I’ve learned from working with Gerry is the importance of continuing the flow of common elements throughout your spaces to create harmony.

With the vanity, the tile floor, and the shiplap walls coming together, we turned our attention to the lighting and fixtures. Gerry encouraged me to stick to a simple overhead light fixture. We both liked these traditional sconces. Because of Covid, the sconces and the wall mount faucet were super-difficult to procure and had to be installed well after my contractor completed the rest of the project.

We chose a simple and modern toilet paper holder and towel ring in keeping with the fixtures from our kitchen renovation.

I always envisioned having a vessel sink sit on top of my vanity. My contractor cut the bedside table to fit the plumbing on the inside of the furniture. The bottom drawer is still functional but the top two are not. Most of the vanity-top vessels we looked at were deeper and rounder — but this one is graceful with beautiful lines — I also liked that it was made of stone and not porcelain. It’s shallow but it works for a powder room where the main purpose is to wash hands.

The tall antique mirror was the last element to go in. Funny story about that. As I mentioned earlier, there was a long delay in the arrival of the light sconces because of Covid shipping delays. My builder cut the holes but installed the fixtures much later. He didn’t realize the lights would be tall (he assumed the shade would be below) so he felt bad about how high he had placed them. Gerry’s solution was to get a super tall mirror to emphasize the height of the space and make the height of the fixtures make sense. I love that she was able to turn a potential mistake into a victory for this project. The height of the mirror makes this small squat space taller and it complements the tall window on the opposite wall. An antique mirror is also unexpected in this sleek, modern space. I love how unique and beautiful this space turned out!

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