We've known since doing our home inspections that there were a few cracks in the grout in our master bathroom shower. It was on our to do list to caulk the cracks, in case they were deep enough to be causing leaks, and we were already planning on eventually redoing all of the bathrooms in the house, including re-tiling the master shower, although the master bath was going to be our last priority out of the three baths.
Well, now we're going to have to move the master bath up on our to do list.
Saturday, after we installed a new dryer vent in our crawlspace (and rerouted it so the vent was only about an 8 foot span, instead of the 25+ foot run it used to be), my husband went to go take a shower. Which resulted in us seeing a drip coming from the ceiling in the laundry room, right through the drywall.
We'd already removed the popcorn from the laundry room ceiling, but hadn't done anything else with it, so we decided to just go ahead and open it up to see if we could identify the source of the leak. Considering the drywall was already squishy from a couple of weeks of leaking on it, we knew we'd be replacing it anyway.
And yes, as we'd expected, the leak was coming from just to the side of the drain pipe. Good times!
So Sunday we made another trip to Lowes for some bath caulk, caulked all of the cracks in the shower really well, and ran a fan in the laundry room, pointed at the hole in the ceiling for several days to dry out the subfloor.
All seems to be fine now, and at least for the moment the caulk seems to be doing it's job and stopping the water from getting through the cracks. We're still keeping the bowl under the pipe in the laundry room though, just in case. And we'll probably be researching how to re-tile a shower very soon, and ripping everything out to redo it later this summer.
But in the meantime, this brings me to the point of this whole post, our downstairs bathroom. The bathroom we were going to make our first priority. The bathroom that is about tied with our 3rd upstairs hall bath for ugliness, but since it's the bathroom that everyone visiting our house will use, we wanted to tackle it first. It's also the bathroom that features a tile color that my husband likes to refer to as "snot yellow."
Since we now have to tackle the tile in our master bathroom first, we need a quick fix for this downstairs bathroom. So we're going to redo it in two phases.
Phase 1: remove the wallpaper, paint the walls, buy some inexpensive bath mats, towels, shower curtain and accessories to either cover up the ugly tile color, or find a way to embrace it.
Phase 2: tear out the tile floor and shower surround and re-tile it, remove the popcorn ceilings and refinish or replace the vanity. Probably won't happen for at least a year, given our master shower now taking priority.
But it's the "find a way to cover up the ugly tile color or embrace it" that we're struggling with at the moment. The yellow tile isn't so bad that I'd call it "snot yellow" like my husband does. But there's no denying it's an ugly gold-ish yellow color, which is not exactly easy to work with, let alone try to cover up.
So I've thrown together a couple of options in Photoshop, to try to visualize what we can do quickly and inexpensively in Phase 1 to improve this bathroom that all of our guests will use. And I'd love to get your opinion in the comments on which you like best as a quick fix!
Option 1: Try to cover up the ugly tile with navy and teal bath accents. Paint the walls a bright white, along with the crown moulding and baseboards. Use a window curtain style shower curtain, with white liner, to hide as much of the shower tile as possible. Hope the teal accents make the navy look less nautical (a direction I don't want the bathroom to go is nautical, but navy seems to be a good color to hide-but-not-clash-with the yellow tile).
Option 2: Embrace the yellow tile and go for a grey and yellow color scheme. Paint the walls a light grey, and use darker grey bath accessories. Maybe it will look like we like the golden yellow tile? Or at least can work with it, instead of cover it up as much as possible?
Option 3: Embrace the yellow tile, by still going with a grey and yellow color scheme, but bring in even more yellow, to try to overpower the ugly yellow with prettier shades of yellow.
Note: all bath accessories images borrowed from Target.com, except the garbage can/soap dispenser bath ensembles are from BedBathandBeyond.com and the yellow flowered shower curtain is from Amazon
So, which option would you go with? Right now my husband is leaning toward option #1 and I'm leaning toward option #3. But really, we just can't wait to get to the phase 2 of this downstairs bathroom overhaul, and pick brand new, non-snot colored tile! After we fix the leaking master shower, that is.
17 comments:
I would lean towards #1 like your husband, love the blue and teal combo!
Option 3 is the best one. :-) Also, you can glaze the tiles and make them white using the "Miracle Method" if you don't want to completely tear out and retile.
Leaks are no fun! I like #3, but would echo another commenter - tile can be painted! Our tub and tile was pink and now white. The only thing is you can't scrub it with like, ajax and a metal brush, lol.
@Debbie and @Penga - Yeah, we've definitely considered the painting/refinishing tile options. But those don't change the shape of the tile, and since we're fixing up this house for us to live in forever, we want to do it right and just overhaul the bathrooms to make them what we really want. I'm OK with a several phase bathroom renovation to get it where we want, but I know we'd still be wishing for different tile, even after we spent the money to refinish them. Might as well save up and spend a little more to only have to fix the tile once!
I'm partial to number 1, but I've been told that I have masculine tastes in home decor, so maybe that's why I agree with your husband. All of the options you picked would work - good luck coming up with a decor scheme - I can't wait to see which one you choose!
Oh being a homeowner :-P I like option 3 as the previous 2 commenters said. I think it softens the yellow rather than over powering it.
Adding another vote from Twitter, so they can all be tallied up here!
obxwife Jessica
@MsColaBee My computer is dumb and wont let me comment but I vote option 3!! :)
Glad you found the leak. Caulk is a great thing as we are learning right now, too.
I think you're in the right direction with the bathroom. Cover the sin with coordinating things!
I really like option 2. You could even add the white curtain between the grey like in option 1. I think it just makes the tile take a background to the bold grey color. I don't like the blue at all with the tiles since you can still see them on the floor/in the background. Option 3 is ok. I'm not really a bold print shower curtain person, so maybe that's why I don't like it as much as option 2.
Option 2 or 3. I think the grey accents make the yellow look lighter/less prominent. Or maybe that's just my computer screen :P
I like all three options. I'd suggest an extra-long waffle shower curtain. It will totally cover your tile. Then your bathroom really isn't offensive. Painting the vanity white or another color would give it a modern pop with a new wall color. We redid our entire bathroom minus the shower and tile. I'm not wild about the white tile or the cream jacuzzi tub (everything else is white). But we threw up an extra-long shower curtain and voila. It is gone.
What cute mockups!! :) I like #3!
I like #3! In the house I grew up in, the only room my parents hadn't renovated by the time we moved out when I was 14 was the main bathroom. The toilet, sink, and bathtub were all that exact shade of yellow!
I vote 3 because it's light and airy while still covering the tile.
i really like 3 :) it's cheery and one of my favorite color schemes.
Have y'all thought about premade tub surround inserts? I'm sure that's not the technical term, but you basically drop them in over the existing area. I also have NO Idea how much that costs- I've just seen the commericals! Haha. However, if that's not an option, my vote is for #3- brighten it up in there!
A plumbing contractor can help you cover up ugly bathtubs. If you do not have a contractor, you can cover your tub with a towel and use a chalkboard paint to make it look like a new tub.
Post a Comment
I would love to hear from you!