ORC Colorful Mid Century Inspired Bathroom Reveal

If you have found me through the One Room Challenge, welcome friend! My name is Bridget and I live in the Chicago suburbs with my boyfriend, Colin, and our rescue dog, Rigby. We bought our 1958 ranch house in December of 2019 and have had so much fun renovating it on a budget. I would describe my design style as classic and preppy with a hefty dose of mid century flair. Interested in seeing more room makeovers? Check out our Retro Basement and Olive Green Guest Bedroom. In between renovations, I also post DIY crafts, recipes, and some random musings. Thank you for stopping by my corner of the internet. I hope you’ll stay awhile!

We did it! Along with hundreds of other DIYers and designers, we have completed our very first One Room Challenge. I have been a spectator of this online design event for years and it feels amazing to participate and complete a room! Especially when that room was a dysfunctional mess just 8 weeks ago. We are over the moon with how our colorful mid century inspired bathroom turned out and I hope you’ll like it too! You can catch up on all the posts from this challenge through the links below!

ORC Week 1 Design Plan for a Mid Century Bathroom

ORC Week 2 Demo Day

ORC Week 4 The Pocket Door

ORC Week 6 What We Learned About Tiling

ORC Week 7 A DIY Roman Shade

Before we get to the pictures, I want to take a moment to thank Linda Weinstein and Better Homes and Gardens for hosting and sponsoring this event. To quote the website, “The ORC is not a competition, but rather a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas”. These last 8 weeks have pushed Colin and I mentally, physically, and creatively, but it was ultimately so rewarding. I am also so thankful for the chance to connect with many other talented people throughout this process. So much inspiration!! We are already thinking about what room to do next 🙂

Now for the fun part. Before and after pictures! You have all patiently waited while I blabbed on and on about demo and DIYs for the last 8 weeks. But we all know this is the most satisfying part! It is truly amazing how the room came together in the last week. We both have full-time jobs, but every other second of the day was dedicated to finishing this mid century inspired bathroom. Let’s take a little trip down memory lane to see where we started. Moldy shower, no cold water, broken sink, plastic tiles falling off the wall, rotting vanity, uneven medicine cabinet, asbestos floor, and a door that blocked the natural light from the window.

Before

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Wasn’t she a beaut?! Here are a few progress photos from the last two months. Colin and I did all the work ourselves with the exception of moving some electric (Thanks Mike!!). And let’s be honest here, the majority of the hard work was done by Colin. Because he’s incredibly talented and handy and I am eternally grateful for him! Over the last 8 weeks we tore out the entire bathroom down to the studs, moved electric to install an overhead light and fan, installed level plywood over the subfloor, moved a pocket door from our kitchen to the bathroom, built a wet bed for a walk-in shower, installed hardi-board in the new shower then waterproofed the shower, installed dry-wall and taped all walls, tiled and grouted the shower and floors, built, stained, and waxed a custom vanity, DIYed a Roman shade, sanded and reinstalled trim, painted the walls and ceiling, and decorated the whole space. Whew.

Progress Photos

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Mid Century Inspired Bathroom Reveal

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IT’S SO PRETTY. And not gross anymore! Not that it would take much to be an improvement over the original bathroom. The best part is that it functions so much better. For one, the shower and sink work. Kinda important features in a bathroom. And how gorgeous is the vanity that Colin built?! We are also psyyyyyyched about the pocket door. It was a pain to move, but worth it. Now the natural light isn’t blocked when the door is open. In addition, Colin is pretty happy that he doesn’t have to bend down to see himself in the mirror. This is a feature he never had in his previous bathrooms. It’s the little things you guys!

While we are extremely happy with our new bathroom, remodeling during a pandemic was hard. We had hoped to get a glass shower door before the reveal, but it was just not in the cards. We need to hire out for the door and we did not feel comfortable having a contractor in the house during a pandemic. Hopefully by the end of the year!? In addition, the rug I love is back-ordered until late July and I would have loved to shop thrift stores for some unique pieces. I recognize these are minor grievances, but they needed to be aired! On the bright side, we were able to renovate this bathroom for around $3,000. Not bad! Below are sources we used throughout the room.

Sources

Tile

• Shower Tile: Tile Bar Jamaica Verde
• Floor and Niche Tile: Floor and Decor Festival White Matte Hexagon
• Trim Tile: Festival Ceramic Quarter Round

Paint Colors

• Walls: Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White
• Ceiling: Benjamin Moore Glowing Umber
• Trim: Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White in Semi-Gloss
• Vanity Stain: Minwax Golden Pecan

Fixtures

• Mirror: CB2
• Vanity Light: Build.com in Chrome
• Vanity Top: Home Depot
• Faucet: Build.com in Chrome
• Towel Bars: Home Depot

Decor

• Rug: Target
• Roman Shade Fabric: fabricguru.com
• Art Print: Biltmore Hotel Swimming Pool
• Picture Frames: Homegoods
• Towels: Wamsutta Hygro Duet Towel in “Spice”
• Amber pump bottles: Amazon
• Tissue box: Homegoods
• Chrome tray: Homegoods
• Room spray: Sydney Hale “Woods”
• Vase and plant pot: from a local shop in Door County, WI

Before buying this house, we had both lived in apartments with gross bathrooms for years, like 10+ years. So this feels extra special! Thank you so much for following along with this challenge and watching us renovate this mid century inspired bathroom! I am so grateful to each and every one of you for reading this blog. Make sure you take some (or lots) of time to check out the fabulous rooms by the featured designers and other guest participants. This has been an incredible experience and now it’s time for a celebratory cocktail!