[litlnemo]

While our kitchen project continues, I'm starting to turn my attention to... the bathroom. I would like to have the bathroom also finished before our house turns 100 years old in 2011. (We are going to have a 1911 party!)

I've posted the inspiration board here. This is going to need to be a very low-budget remodel, but I think it can be done. I am not sure how much IKEA I can make use of this time, though. IKEA's bathroom fixtures seem too modern, and unlike the kitchen fixtures, it seems fairly difficult to get a more period style out of the bathroom stuff. Some of the Flåren fixtures might work (though I hate the pulls on those and would have to replace them), but other than that... slim pickin's.

Still, I know from experience that there can be some very cool things to be done with IKEA stuff, and there is always the option of IKEA hacking...

(The shelves that will be hidden in the little cubby area between the door and the tub will be IKEA! They are behind a curtain anyway, so they just need to be plain. Maybe painted.)

Hmm -- I just discovered that IKEA has a web-based bathroom planner at IKEA | bathroom planner . Unfortunately, it worked great for a few minutes, then stopped working... it wouldn't show the 3D view anymore or visually add new items.

Speaking of plans, I attempted to work with Sketchup. Sketchup and I are not friends and it does not behave as I expect it to. But I do have some rough drawings that show part of the current plan.

1911 bungalow bathroom remodel 

1911 bungalow bathroom remodel 

1911 bungalow bathroom remodel 

This is low-budget so the bathtub and toilet will remain where they are. There are some things not pictured in the Sketchup drawings, such as the ceiling and overhead light.

Incidentally, the "room of house" setting for this project blog doesn't have "bathroom" as an option...

[NBeth]

Looks good! Even Target has some old fashioned looking stuff so I agree you should be able to do this on the cheap. Will the wainscotting really stop part way to the tub, or was that Sketchup misbehaving?

[jonshepi]

I love your inspiration board. I might have to steal it when we go to do our bathroom.

[litlnemo]

The wainscoting stopping there was me being annoyed with Sketchup and not running it further. It would go all the way to the tub.

Heh, Target does indeed have a thing or two that would work in this bathroom, or, at least, they did a few years ago when I picked up the light fixture for over the sink there. (Then I went to Rejuvenation and bought three shades that look nicer than the ones that came with the Target fixture. Though you can see from the inspiration board that I have my eyes on new shades now.)

I actually have a bunch of the fixtures already on hand, because I've bought them over the years.

What we don't have already:

• hex tiles for the floor
• sink (pedestal preferred, but...)
• ceiling light fixture
• what to do with the ceiling
• new toilet
• shelving (IKEA)

So you can see that the list of stuff to buy is not outrageously expensive. You can get the hex tiles for $5 sq/ft. Geez, I wish IKEA would carry just one sink that would work... I would give up the pedestal sink if there was something else that would fit, but there isn't really. The larger Ann sink is sort of a modern version of a period-style wall-mounted sink, but looking at it in person, it was just too modern-looking. Not that vintage pedestal sinks are that hard to find around here, but the ones in really nice shape tend to run around $300.

The ceiling... ah, the ceiling. Previous owners dropped the ceiling by about a foot, to run pipes and wiring up there that would serve the second floor (which was originally an unfinished attic). They cut a rectangular hole in the dropped ceiling, put a fluorescent light fixture inside the hole, then set one of those diffuser panels (like you would see in an office ceiling) inside the hole, resting on the edges of the hole. I don't know what on earth they were thinking. It's ugly.

Also, there is no diffuser panel there anymore, because one of our cats got into the ceiling and fell through the diffuser into the bathroom. Cats randomly dropping out of the ceiling are definitely an experience you remember!

So now there's just an ugly rectangular hole in the ceiling with a fluorescent fixture in it.

I figure we can cover the whole thing with either drywall, beadboard, or even a powder-coated tin ceiling, though I have some worries about moisture getting behind the tin panels and rusting them out.

[NBeth]

LOL on the cat! I had a friend whose cat discovered the spaces between the floor joists and the ceiling in the basement and would randomly emerge from one of the many gaps (it was a basement afterall!).

I think you can get "tin" tile that's really plastic. Icky except in your circumstances, when it would be perfect. No one will be able to tell and it won't rust .

	LOL definition LOL means Laugh(ing) Out Loud

[litlnemo]

Oh, you're right! I forgot about the plastic "tin" ceiling tiles. They don't come in all the awesome colors that the tin ones do, but I probably just want white for this.

Hmm, looking at homedepot.com, those tiles might actually be more expensive than the tin ones we got for the kitchen from American Tin Ceilings. I wonder if there's a cheaper source.

[litlnemo]

Argh. Stopped by Rejuvenation the other day and found out that the light shades I had my heart set on have been discontinued! They were the ones with a wide green stripe outlined in black. Instead, they now have narrow green stripes (different shade of green, maybe) and it looks much less cool. I need to get started on this before other items I want to use disappear.