Before: Master Bathroom

One of the last rooms in a house to get a make-over always seems to be the master suite. Why is that? Probably because it's one of the last rooms in the house guests will actually see. But, I'm here to put an end to our dated bathroom.We haven't decided whether we'll be doing a remodel with some demolition, or just fixing what's not ideal.

Let's start with some before pictures and ideas of what we would like to change, shall we?

Here is the view of the bathroom from our bedroom. There's a sleek pocket door to separate the two spaces. As you can see, there is some lovely burgundy carpet that runs through the "dressing area" of the bathroom; the same carpet that is in our bedroom. That has to go! It's great quality carpet, however, even a compulsive vacuumer like myself can't keep it looking clean. Just like dark hardwood floors always seem to look dirty, every thread, tiny piece of paper and speck of dust shows up on this dark carpet.

As you enter the bathroom there are two closets, one on either side. These will be staying. My husband keeps all of his clothes in the bathroom so that when he gets up he doesn't have to wake me up, too. Most of the time I'm already willing myself awake with a giant cup of coffee, but there are days when he's up before me. :) Ideally these closets would be upgraded with a new organizational system, but that might have to wait.

There's the opposite closet peeking in. Next to it is a built-in bench under a large window, both of which will be staying. There's a water-based heat vent under the bench that has no other place to go. And to the right of the bench is a built-in dresser/linen storage. My husband uses this as his dresser, but the upper half seems to just collect stuff, because it's so large and deep. I hope to reconfigure this and recess the top half, but we need to keep it at least this wide to accommodate all of the clothes.

Here's another view of that wall in the mirror. I love the window, so we'll just add some fabric in a lovely pattern to make it pretty.

And this vanity. Oh, the vanity. Where do we start? Well, I suppose I could have at least cleaned it before taking pictures, but it just adds to the point that it needs to be replaced, right?! The veneer is peeling on the two bottom drawers, it's almost too big (again, collecting stuff), and the counter top. Who really thought a tiled counter top was a good idea? Little 4"x4" tiles means LOTS of grout to attempt to clean, and after years (I'm guessing 15-20 years) of wear, the grout is just gross. I've attempted to re-seal it, but it really just needs to be removed.  

Let's move on to the shower area:

Again... where do I start? Let's talk about the tile here, too. This is the same size tile that's on the vanity top. But now it's in an almost 4'x4' shower, and there's SOOO MUCH GROUT! I have literally scrubbed this shower and bathtub with toilet bowl cleaner. Ask my mother-in-law. And it still didn't come clean. Not cool. The bars have got to go. Have I mentioned we're the first young family to live in this house since the original owners in the 1960's? I replaced the shower head with this quick fix a few months back, and it's nice, but water still pours out of the faucet handle, which I can only assume is not good.

Remember I said the bathtub doesn't come clean. Ugh... don't judge me. I really do try. Funky shape, too, huh? I would love love love to have a soaker tub, because I still enjoy my baths and probably always will. My husband would like a large walk-in shower, so I'm working on finding a compromise. After months (years?) of dreaming of remodeling this space, I have already tried to squeeze in a separate tub and shower. Not gonna happen.

Opposite of the shower sits the toilet. I'm not sure why I looks so squat, but it's not in real life. It is however the only original toilet left in our house, and I'm ready for it to retire. To the left of the toilet is a cabinet for toilet paper storage and whatnot. I love all of the built-ins in our house, but sometimes I really think they encourage us to collect the unnecessary, like shampoo. I'm notorious for using 3/4 of a bottle of shampoo and opening a new bottle because I'm so excited about it, then storing the almost empty bottle in this cabinet. OK, so maybe that problem can't be solved with less storage, but I think there's a possibility! I envision open storage for our towels and some baskets for soap, toilet paper, etc.

This south-facing window lets a lot of light into our bathroom, but also needs to be dressed up with a valance of some sort. And while we can see it, I would also like to take out the bulkheads about the shower and above the vanity. Mmmkay?

So there's the before. I'm going to look for design options and will put together a design board soon. And hopefully not too long from now I can include some AFTER photos! ::fingers crossed::