Bathroom overhaul: during

As promised, I have a few pictures of the project taken a couple weeks ago. The feeling as I took these was a real "ahh, I can see the end now, and it will be good." There is always a spot for me near the middle where I sort of wonder if it will come together. I used to think that it was a bit amateur to think like that, but I think it keeps me focused on doing my best work. I like that trace amount of fear that says, "Stay focused, or this will all go very badly."

So here we are about 80% through the project. The walls have gotten a first coat of paint. The cabinets have been painted and distressed. Tile is in, and as you can see in this shot I'm in the midst of grouting the floor (the hazy/wet tile is between washings). The tile is a black slate, and it is amazing. It does not have the browns and greens of the slate I've seen in the past. It is a very uniform graphite color. The homeowner selected a really great bowl sink and granite top that you can see here also. The water in the sink pours out the faucet like a pitcher pouring into a basin, and it really makes you want to fill it and splash your face with water like a commercial for soap.

The shower has a small stone pebble floor tile, which turned out really neat. Shower walls were done in black porcelain tile. This works out really well for a shower as it is a non-porous material. The faces of the tile are smooth and consistent. The same slate we used for the floor would have been really nice in the shower, but I worried about such a soft permeable material in a wet space.

This shower will be getting a hinged glass shower door and side lite. The finish will be a brushed nickel, and the glass will be clear. I can't wait to see it in place, as it should really finish it off nicely.

The last shot is a detailed look the woodwork we painted and distressed. It was a pretty detailed process, but overall not complicated. The cabinets as you can see from my last post, were a medium brown stained oak. This linen cabinet actually had doors that we decided to removed permanently. The large hinge slot holes were filled and sanded. Once painted they disappeared.

The paint process was a primer coat (which the guys at Sherwin Williams in Springdale were nice enough to tint and mix for me). I'd recommend when priming anything a dark color to put a dash of your dark paint in the primer to get your undercoat a bit closer in color. This sure helps when there is bleed through, or especially in this case a sanded through distressing.

After getting everything primed, I did two coats of the gloss black. One coat was just too thin to cover, but I expected that to be the case. Once the black was dry, we did the fun part. Using a sanding block I just knocked the paint off the corners of everything. I did it sort of quickly, since I did not want a factory look, but rather a naturally worn out product. I tested a few techniques on a scrap, and used a sample door that we were matching to, in order to get this figured out. The final coat was a water based poly. It helped seal the bare wood I had exposed and also to give everything a consistent sheen.

Feel free to comment or post any questions.