Boys Bathroom Remodel - Howe We Live

The boys bathroom is complete and we are thrilled with the way it all came together. During our remodel a couple of years ago, it was the only room that we didn’t touch; it didn’t even get a fresh coat of paint. We figured with a 3 and 9 year old inhabiting it, there really was no reason to include it in the construction budget, and I’m glad we waited. When a leak in the laundry room finally forced our hand a bit earlier than planned though, we enlisted the help of my friend Kendall once again. She did such a great job helping me with my office, I knew I could trust her to help us create a bright but boyish bathroom on a budget.

Keep reading for all the sources. Photos by M. Shanti Photo
The bathroom fixtures were about 25 years old in here, and included late 80’s style gold & chrome faucets, shell shaped sinks and pretty flimsy cabinets from Home Depot (I can’t believe I didn’t get pictures). Like I said, it was fine for the boys, but if we were going to redo the bathroom we figured we may as well do it right, so we had a contact Kendall knew build this custom vanity. When people hear custom cabinetry, they always assume big bucks, but if you’re patient and search around, you can usually find someone who does decent quality work for a reasonable price. For instance, the guy who built the vanity in here is a full time police officer who does this on the side for fun and extra money. His prices were great and quality is wonderful. We just had to be patient since he does this on the side.
We also enlisted the help of a friend/neighbor to do the tile work. He is a stay at home dad but also does beautiful tile work on the side, and gave us a fair price. In our old days pre-kids and before we were business owners, Art and I would have just done the tile ourselves, but life is a bit too chaotic for that now. Oh how I wish blogs and social media were around 18 years ago because I’d impress you all with our DIY work. We used to do all of our own home projects including retiling our entire kitchen floor, counter and backsplash. Kendall came up with the backsplash tile design which I love, and after the grout fiasco in Taylor’s bathroom, I knew I wanted to go as dark as possible for a boys bathroom. I love the way it makes the white subway tile pop and how uniform it makes the black floor look.

Being flexible on the countertop helped us save some money too. Instead of buying a whole slab that half would go to waste, we used a remnant piece the finisher had in his shop. I just told him I wanted something white and he sent me a couple of pics of what he had and that was it. I didn’t even see it in person before the day he installed it, but as you can see it worked out perfectly. He was happy to make use of it and gave us a very good price to finish and install it. Kendall brought in a few accessories to spruce it up, and I spent a couple of hours searching Amazon to find all the finishing touches like towel bars and lighting fixtures. I’ve learned a lot about making design choices over the past couple of years, and for the first time choosing all this stuff was actually really fun.
I love the darkness of the cabinet and the flooring against the bright white walls and tile, and overall the room feels bright yet moody, without feeling dark or sterile. The darker floors and cabinets do show dust and water marks quite easily, so I do regular wipe downs in there every other day, but nothing too difficult that I’d choose a different color next time. Out of all our choices, I’d say the only thing we were a bit disappointed in are the bone knobs from Anthropologie and the sconces. As you can see in the picture above, they have a heck of a time staying on tight and constantly come lose, so they always look crooked unless we tighten them up every day. They’re a total pain and I’d honestly never buy hardware from Anthro again. Installation is difficult too, as they all come on a long bolt that needs to be shaved off once installed. I think I’ll eventually swap them out. And in terms of installation, the sconces were a pain for Art to install as well. The bolts that came with them were really short so he had to go to the hardware store and get some new ones. The reviews on Amazon indicated this was an issue, but other reviewers had said the problem had been resolved. We must have gotten an old batch with the short screws. Not the end of the world by any means, just a hassle. Once installed though, we loved them and they are so pretty when turned on. You can also adjust them so they stick straight out or drop down like we have them. You can also switch them off by hand, so if you were using them as a bedside light, you could switch them off without getting out of bed. The boys bathroom is now my favorite room in the house I think, and I love that with a little creativity and patience, we were able to get it done well within our budget.