Anyway, the one room we had really neglected was our Master Bath. It needed some major upgrades but we didn't want to spend a lot of money because we know we won't be in this house forever. I am on the search for our dream house but haven't found it just yet.
We've done bathroom remodels before and we know they can quickly get out of hand from the budget side of things. So...we really made an effort to keep things affordable.
We started by doing our on-line research to figure out how we could keep our old vanity and freshen it up. We looked at a lot of products but ended up settling on this really awesome stain that we purchased from Amazon: Java Gel Stain by General Finishes.
There are several tutorials out there on how to use this product but Paul most closely followed this tutorial from Monica Wants It. The biggest change he made was his application method for the poly. Paul didn't use the same poly as they did in the tutorial. He just used a regular oil-based poly that he found at our local Menards. He tried a rag, a natural bristle brush and a foam brush and wasn't happy with any of them. My Mom suggested he try a woman's nylon (as in pantyhose). This was an old trick she learned from some Mennonite women she knew when she refinished furniture 30 years ago. Paul was a bit reluctant to try it at first but it did work out great!!
We couldn't have been more pleased with how the vanity turned out!
It went from this:
To this:
Paul also put down new flooring, painted the trim, replaced the countertop, put in a tile backsplash, replaced the sink and the faucet, installed new hardware on the vanity and stained the trim around the mirror.
Here is the before:
And After:
Um, yeah. My husband is pretty darn great! And the best part is all of this (plus all the little extras to get it accomplished) was done for $289.43 - including tax. We did take advantage of some rebate offers that Menards was offering and this price only includes the portion of the materials that we actually used for this project (i.e. I only counted 25% of the cost of the Java Gel Stain because we only used 1/4 of the quart). The left-over materials will be used when we complete the bathroom in the basement and on some other unfinished projects that we have lying around.
So not too shabby for an affordable DIY Bathroom Remodel/Makeover. Now...what project should I ask Paul to tackle next?
