SPRING 2022 ONE ROOM CHALLENGE - WEEK 8: Lily's Bathroom Reveal!

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While I love all four seasons here in Canada, Spring will always be my absolute favourite - a time of new beginnings, transformations, fresh starts and of course … the One Room Challenge! After renovating our seventies side split over the past 2.5 years, we’ve finished everything inside and out with the exception of one room - our basement bathroom. We knew that the challenge would give us the final push we needed to finish this final space before summer.

If you’re new to our work and our blog, hello and welcome! My name is Carley Brandon, Strategy Manager for Canada’s best telecommunications company (and Most Giving Company in the World) TELUS by day, Redesigner by night, “Love” to Grant and “Mommy” to Matthew and Lily and our fur babies Poppy, our seal point himalayan, Stella, our European Doberman, and Mr. Finnigan Flowers, our wheaten terrier around the clock. I cannot forget our feather babies (our heritage breed chickens) Lacey (AKA Cluck Norris), Linda, Petrol, Viola and Fanny. We live in Orillia, Ontario, Canada and have been updating our cozy 1970s side split over the past two years.

This is my tenth One Room Challenge space after participating in the Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2020 and Fall 2021 challenges including 5 bedrooms, a stairway library, cottage bunkie, laundry room, backyard and side yard.

“Before”

In order to fully appreciate this redesigned space, please take a look at Week 1, Week 2, Weeks 4 & 5, and Weeks 6 & 7 of our challenge progress. Here are a couple of pictures of what the space looked like before - a DIY special with multiple access points for shut-off valves in need of an update and some creative solutions.

Grant in full demo mode

Design Direction

Earlier this Spring we renovated our main bathroom (blog post coming soon), designed with Grant and Matthew in mind with masculine black floors, graphic wallpaper and a green vanity. We used the same mural that we used in our former home in Matthew’s room, also a One Room Challenge space.

For our downstairs basement bathroom we wanted to go in a completely different direction with floral wallpaper and hints of blush pink for Lily and I - girly and fun! Years ago when I was fairly new to the One Room Challenge I saw this beautiful powder room designed by Laura Design Co. I loved the marble floor, gorgeous floral wallpaper and classic fixtures of white porcelain and chrome. When I was thinking about designing our bathroom I immediately thought of this again and knew it would serve as major inspiration.

We purchased enough white subway tile for both bathrooms and decided on soft carrara marble for the shower and main floor only in two different patterns to add some interest. While all of the hard elements would be simple and timeless, the drama would come from the wallpaper that Lily selected - this colourful floral pattern from Rifle Paper Co.

Redesigned Finds

For those of you who have followed me on Instagram or through our blog, you already know that Reducing, Reusing and Recycling - “Redesign” - is at the heart of everything I do. I always try to use what we or clients already have and love and incorporate vintage and antique elements to achieve a look that is curated over time. So many items in this pretty little bathroom had a previous life which was a great exercise in sustainability.

We kept the original window and door and refreshed them with new framing and a coat of Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace white paint as they were in great shape and sourced marble floor tiles (leftover from someone else’s bathroom project) a toilet, sink and Kohler faucet - all from Kijiji. We sewed a shower curtain from a fabric remnant and layered in several vintage and antique items including glass tray, glass vase, pottery vase, crystal bud vase (turned matches holder) - all from Grant’s family’s antique store Antiques on 11. A vintage Turkish rug adds colour and warmth on our marble floor.

original art by lynne millar

Original art by orillia artist Tanya Cunnington

Thank you!

Thank you Lynda for organizing this event and for Apartment Therapy for supporting as media sponsor.

Thank you to our family:

  • my brother and contractor Paul from Brancon for his amazing problem solving skills and for completely rebuilding this room literally from the ground up

  • Grant’s Mom Therese for sewing our soft and pretty custom shower curtain

  • Grant’s Dad Ralph for loaning us his truck to transport building materials and pick pick up our Kijiji finds

  • our daughter Lily for helping make the final selections for the space

  • and last but certainly not least, Grant. I may have slightly broken his heart when I asked him to gut his own DIY bathroom but he did it anyway ;)

We are so happy with how this space looks now and Lily has officially claimed it as her very own private bathroom.

I’ve been joking with Grant over the past few months saying “We’re in the home stretch for our renovations - home stretchy stretch!”, half joking, but after this project we’re done with the big stuff. Yes it will take us a few weeks to put the rest of the house back together and clean up and yes we have some small projects to finish like the hardwood stairs but as we step back and look at everything we have achieved together it feels pretty amazing.

Now that the dust has literally settled I’m going to pour over all of the other One Room Challenge spaces. I’ve cheated a bit with a quick preview on Instagram and WOW - I can’t wait to see them all!

Carley

Source Guide:

“Chantilly Lace” trim & door paint, Benjamin Moore via Housser’s Paint & Wallpaper; construction, flooring & shower tile installation, Paul Brandon of Brancon; wallpaper, Rifle Paper Co.; candle, robe, robe hook, toilet paper holder, matches, hand towel Homesense; shower hardware, brass toilet flush handle Amazon; shower curtain fabric by Celerie Kemble remnant, brass waste basket, Wayfair; Ebay; herringbone marble tile (shower floor) Home Depot; marble tile floor, Kohler Memoirs sink & toilet, Kohler sink faucet Kijiji; brass shower drain, grout, Tilemaster; white subway tiles Sunshine Carpet & Flooring; window & door frame, baseboard, Orillia Trim & Door; vintage Turkish rug, light, Etsy; blush pink soap dish, Goye Artiste Ceramiste; vegan soap, The Nature in Us; brass bracket pivot mirror, Rejuvenation; glass tray, glass vase, pink pottery vase, crystal bud vase (match holder) Antiques on 11 North; original oil painting of Iris, Art by Lynne Millar; original art in glass frames, Tanya Cunnington; art framing, The Shadowbox; flowers: pink ranunculus Elegance of Nature; door & trim painting, shower curtain design, floral arrangements, magenta peonies, interior design, styling, Carley Brandon Designs; photography, Rowell Photography, Carley Brandon Designs.