GUEST BATH
upstairs
There's a lot of details about this bathroom we love. There's also a lot we don't. We love the stained glass window, the original wall and floor tile and the cast iron sink. I don't think anyone ever really maintained this bathroom, so there is a ton of work to do in here to make it pleasant for any guests.
First thing's first - the medicine cabinet. We believe this is the original or close to the original medicine cabinet. It is made out of steel, and the craftsmanship is amazing. The problem is that it has been haphazardly painted. Someone painted it with a brush using latex paint and looks pretty bad.
The only way I can think of to fix this is to strip all of the paint off of it and start over. I'm using a citrus paint stripper and a razor scraper.
It took 4 applications of stripper and a lot of scraping and mineral spirits, but I finally got all of the paint off. I sanded it by hand with 220 grit and now it's ready to be sprayed with primer and then painted. I have a lot more to do in here, so the mirror is going to stay like this until I finish some other things so the new paint job doesn't get messed up.
After the cabinet was thoroughly washed and dried I applied an oil based metal primer and then lightly sanded it.
I used a thick enamel paint and applied 2 light layers with a brush. I was careful not to leave any brush strokes. For the third and final layer I used a 4 inch roller for smooth surfaces.
The second messy project in here is the 100 year old cast iron sink. It has some pretty terrible rust spots as you can see in the pic below.
I think I can salvage the sink, but we're going to have to lose the overflow. It's pretty rusted out. The first step was to clean and remove any loose rust. I also used a rust dissolver and scrubbed the rust spots as best I could. Then I sealed the rust with a rust sealer.
I'm going to use 2 different types of bondo to fill in the holes. The first one is made for deep holes. I applied it as per the directions and let it dry.
The goal here was to just fill the big holes as best I could with 2 thin coats and then sand it smooth after it dried.
The next step was to use a topcoat bondo and fill in the imperfections. You can see in the pic below what that looks like after sanding.
The area that was rusted is now perfectly smooth and matches the curve of the sink perfectly. The next step is to apply a 2 part white glaze to the sink so that it looks brand new.
If this was a sink that was used every day I would hire a company to reglaze the sink. But because the wear and tear will be very minimal I'm using this DIY product instead.
It's a 2 part epoxy and should do a pretty good job of making this sink look great. Here it is after 3 coats of epoxy.
THE WALLS
The plaster walls and ceiling are in pretty bad shape, so an entire room skim coat with drywall mud is going to be necessary. Here are just 2 examples of how messed up the walls and ceiling are. This is what 100 years of patching looks like. When it's finished the walls will be perfectly smooth. They will be painted with a specialty primer specifically made for damp conditions and then painted.
All of the divots and problem area have been skimmed. Once this dries thoroughly I will knife on another thin coat of mud and sand where it's needed and it'll be ready for priming.
PAINT
BENJAMIN MOORE
French Beret - Regal Matte Finish
A cross between darkest gray and navy, this smart, saturated shade conveys unerring style. Infinitely fashionable, it transforms a space with timeless elegance.
We chose this dark gray for a couple reasons. The first being that the grout in this room is a light gray and with walls being a light color, it makes the grout look dingy white rather than gray. The dark walls will help trick the eye into seeing a lighter grout than is actually there.
The other reason was to make this original tile and stained glass really pop.
Before I cut in all of the edges I need to do some work on the doors. As you can see in the pics below these doors and trim were stained many years ago, but I don't think they were ever sealed. Over the years the stain has been rubbed away, so they definitely need some TLC.
These are the 2 worst looking doors in the whole house, so I decided to sand them down to the bare wood and start fresh.
I used an orbital sander and the a palm sander to finish and get in the corners. Then I used citrus stripper and mineral spirits on the moulding.
After sanding I applied Varathane gel stain in Hickory. It's a dark enough color to cover some inconsistencies in the wood, but light enough to show the grain.
I used an oil based polyurethane with a satin finish after the stain dried and it really brought out the wood grain.
The pic below is after one coat of poly. After this is completely dried with 3 coats of poly I will do the same to the other door.
Now it's time to prep the second door for stain. I start by sanding off the previous finish down to the bare wood.
There's a lot of wood filler on this door. I fixed a giant hole in the wood on the trim next to the door latch, and someone else filled a lot of nail holes. The problem is that the wood filler is way lighter than the wood. If I stain this now, you'll see every nail hole and patch. I broke out the acrylic paint and mixed it to mach the door color. I'll use a gel stain on the door - the thing about gel stains is that they sit on top of the wood rather than soak in. So this paint fix just might work. The final step is to use the citrus stripper on the panel molding and clean the door up and then it will be ready for stain.
You can see in the photo below that there are only a few patched holes that need some work. Everything else the paint took care of pre stain. Now that it's finished being stained, I can go back with acrylic paint, fix the blemishes and then polyurethane.
HARDWARE & FIXTURES
Because the walls are dark in this bathroom we want the light and fixtures to pop, so instead of black we are going with traditional chrome. Chrome can be kind of a pain to take care of but since this is a guest bathroom it will get a small amount of use and should be easy enough to care for. Below is the light fixture that will go over the medicine cabinet.
I installed a new toilet and scrubbed the rust stains on the tile. I also used a tile fix epoxy paint kit to fill any holes and cracks in the tiles and matched the color.
Once the hardware arrives I'll also change out the PVC pipe under the sink to chrome so everything matches. We will be getting the entire house repiped in the coming year, and when we do that I'll replace the valves and shower hardware with period reproductions.
Finding the right faucet took some time. This sink is set up for 2 separate faucets - 1 for hot and one for cold. We wanted something that looked historic, but with an upgraded modern feel. We picked this reproduction set created by Strom Plumbing.
BEFORE & AFTER
