Bathroom(s) progress – the floors!

March 07, 2013

I’ve been meaning to show you updates on our two bathroom renos and today is the day. And we’re talking flooring. SO EXCITING. ;)

I say “renos” but one bathroom is coming up from nothing and other isn’t exactly getting walls knocked down or anything, but almost everything will be new it in when I’m done. Which will be in four years I’m sure.

First up is the basement bathroom. I’m SO glad we had plumbing roughed in down here all those years ago! We paid for a half bath, just a sink and toilet, but we ended up getting plumbing for a full bath. (Score!) We didn’t realize that until later when we asked someone what the huge hole was in the floor (that I saw a huge spider come out of once and covered up from that point on). It was roughed in for a bathtub, but when we started the finishing process last year we knew a tub would be a waste of space down there:

basement bathroom

So obviously we went with a stand up shower instead. I much rather would have the space for a bigger storage room than a bath instead of a shower. So this bathroom is long and not very wide – only four feet wide to allow for more space in the storage and laundry rooms.

All along I had planned on tiling the shower, but when it came time to do the walls and framing I decided at the last minute to just plan for a standard shower. (We needed to decide on the size during the framing process.)

So for almost a year the bathroom has sat like this – the only things done were the drywall and shower. The hold up was two-fold – saving up the money to tackle the room and I was trying to decide on heated floors.

I had finally decided to just go ahead with them but after talking with the guys who helped us out with a lot of the work (and who were going to install them), I decided against it. The kit and the thermostat thing were going to be more than $300 all together – and for that price I decided we would just wear socks. ;) I mean, the tile does get chilly down there, but only in the winter, and we do have socks on most of the time.

So I saved $300 right there, and I don’t regret it at all. I love the thought of toasty feet, but I couldn’t get past the thought that if it breaks there’s nothing we can do about it. I don’t know how well those heating elements hold up over the years. Maybe in our master bath someday, but not in the basement bathroom.

Soooo…it was time to pick out tile. I had been eyeing the gray version of this stuff at Menards for months:

linen tile

I liked the linen, strie kind of look to it. But it was special order (when I want it I want it NOW) and it was not cheap. So I kept looking, and found JUST what I was looking for at Lowe’s:

Leonia Silver Glazed Porcelain tile lowes   

It’s called Leonia Silver Glazed Porcelain tile and I looooved it! The price was awesome too – you have to buy it by the box, but each box is $31. The Menards tile was almost five times as much! This tile is the same size too – 12 by 24 inches.

We spent about $90 on the tile for this bathroom and had plenty leftover too:

Leonia Silver Glazed Porcelain tile lowes

The grout color is called warm gray:

warm gray grout

It was hard to get good close up pics with the light but here’s an idea of how it looks with tile:

Leonia Silver Glazed Porcelain tile lowes

I love it! We went ahead and had the toilet and a vanity installed too while we were at it. I figured it’s almost done, let’s just do it.

I still have to finish painting and install baseboards and shelves, but it’s already looking so good! We love it – I’m just sharing the floors today because I want to hold off showing the rest:

Leonia Silver Glazed Porcelain tile lowes

We’ve already used the shower (OK, not we, together – me. Alright let’s just move on.) Anyway, it’s a tiny little thing, but it functions! It was helpful to use it because I realized some changes I might make, including adding some tile in a couple spots on the wall around the shower.

But it’s functioning GREAT and we love having a potty down there. ;) Which brings me to the next flooring decision we made in the powder room on the main floor. It’s a good thing we have the basement bathroom done because our toilet for the powder room has been sitting out in the garage for three weeks. Perfect spot for it really.

If you’ve been around for a while you know this is the bathroom that I just simply cannot finish. I shall call it that from this point on – The Bathroom That Will Never Be Done. Anyway, the main reason it’s been held up is because I knew I didn’t want to make all the changes until one big project was done.

I thought about it long and hard and decided about a year ago to add hardwoods to this bathroom. We didn’t have them done when we had the rest of main floor installed a couple years ago, but back then I asked how much he would charge to come back and do it. He offered to do it for $300 total and I thought that was pretty darn good.

Fast forward to now and I asked him if he would still honor that price and he said no problem. So we got some help pulling up the vinyl floors, underlayment and removing the toilet and sink:

prep for hardwoods

I had planned on removing the sink myself but that turned out to be the biggest bear of them all – it was glue to the wall so it took a huge chuck of drywall off when they removed it.

Good thing that’s all getting covered up. ;)

It took the flooring guy just a few hours to cut, install and get the stain and then a coat of poly down. It was so fast – all I could think about was how long it took to do the main floor, so this was a nice surprise. He came back the next morning to do another coat of poly and we were walking on it by that night.

The animals were in awe:

cute

;) I thought that picture was cute of them checking him out while he worked.

It looks SO good. So so good:

jacobean stain minwax

You can see the ever so slight difference in the tone of the floors from the threshold on – hardwoods will darken over time and ours have already gotten quite a bit darker. But when you stand back and look you don’t really notice it.

I thought about doing hardwoods for quite awhile. I asked the guy who installed them initially about having them in bathrooms and he said it’s fine for powder rooms, but he hesitates to use them in main bathrooms with showers or tubs. I thought that made sense. I asked friends who have them in their powder rooms and all said they hold up fine.

I’ve also learned over the time we’ve had our hardwoods that they hold up to water amazingly well. At least our on-site finished floors. I’m thrilled with how they look!:

jacobean stain minwax

We used white oak with the Jacobean Minwax stain like the rest of the main floor. I love it.

But, like I said, it’s been sitting without the regular bathroom stuff for three weeks and I NEED to move on this room. I’m kicking myself for not getting the walls treatment up and painted before the floors – it was just too busy at the time and I spaced on it. Not a big deal though, I’ll just protect them like I do in the rest of the house when I paint.

So there’s the tale of the flooring in two bathroom renovations! One is almost done and one is just getting started. You’d think a toilet in the garage would spur me on, but no, I find plenty of other things to do. This weekend. For sure.

Sure.

Do you have hardwoods in a bathroom? How do they hold up for you? In our main baths upstairs we still have vinyl, but someday they’ll go to tile. I considered the wood-like tile for a while too, but just liked the one I found better (and it was cheaper).

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Comments

  1. I am loving the gray tile in your basement bath!! I am looking to redo one of our baths and this might work perfectly for the look I am thinking of. Can't wait to see the rest :)

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  2. Love that gray tile! I am a bit biased since we used something very similar in our laundry/mudroom and guest bath. We even staggered them like you have done. Staggering the tile (as well as the 12x24 size), makes such a huge difference in a room.

    Looking forward to seeing more of the bathroom transformation. :)

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  3. Oh my good gracious that tile you picked is AMAZING!!! Why haven't I seen that?!? I stalk the tile at Lowe's! ;)

    Can't wait to see the rest!

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  4. We have hardwoods in a 1st floor bathroom. They were there when we bought the house and honestly we hate it in there. I'm hoping to take it out and put tile in there at some point.

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  5. I loooove the new tile! It is gorgeous! I am going to redo the tile in my bathroom (it's currently a pinky beige - I know how you love pinky beige...HA!), and I think this tile is a definite contender for that space.

    I have hardwoods in my powder room, and they are great! I have no maintenance problems with them at all, and that is even with having a boy in the house. His aim is questionable...ahem. :)

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  6. We have hardwood in our powder room/half bath and I love them. Even with 2 boys whose aim is also questionable they cleam up just fine. Although I don't let them use that bathroom very often ;). I too have vinyl in our full/main bathrooms and can't wait to tile them one day! Love your new grey tile in the basement bathroom!

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  7. Love how the bathrooms are coming along. We are in the midst of two bathroom renos in our new place as well. The grey tiles in yours look great! Can't wait to see the rest

    Jenny
    www.simcoestreet.blogspot.ca

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  8. We have hardwood in our master bath and have no problems at all. Love your grey tile too!!

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  9. I really like the tile for the bathroom. The color is different but so pretty. One day we're going to have our wood floors refinished & I want the color you have!

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  10. The hardwood and tile looks great! Wish we had a basement bath!

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  11. A bathtub would take up too much space on that bathroom. It was a wise decision to not continue installing one. Regarding your hardwood flooring, the reason why it holds up water well because the wood itself has been dried to the proper moisture content for its end use. Still, different woods exhibit different moisture stability factors.

    Kristopher Diss

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  12. That tile is awesome! Great job! It looks really expensive!

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  13. I absolutely love finding hardwoods in a powder room! I think it flows so nice with the rest of the floors. Veryy nice touch!!

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  14. we have hardwood in our main floor powder room. it's gorgeous but we have a little boy so i purchased a.. potty rug. it's gross, i know. but it goes in the wash every day and it saves my sanity. i don't want to rush my baby growing up but i hope he stops being messy really soon.

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  15. The bathroom floors are AMAZINGGG!!! I am thinking of doing the wood-look tile in our bathroom this summer. It's a lot cozier looking than plain white or stone tile.

    Your pets are amazingly cute too. :)

    toddlindsey.com

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  16. Oh, man, you gotta change out that shower surround for a bigger shower! We did that in our bathroom--there was extra wall space on the side just like yours, and a teeny shower surround, just like yours. Anyway, we busted it out and put in a bigger one and it is WONDERFUL! You wouldn't believe what a difference a few inches makes. Life changing!

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  17. The tiles look great! I'm looking towards renovating my kitchen soon and this tile and the brown wood-like one are my 2 choices! Seeing this makes me want to lean towards this one more! It's lookin' good dear!

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  18. Love your flooring choices, Sarah (no surprise there). ;-) The tile you chose for the basement is similar to what I saw at a Homearama this past summer, and I was equally smitten - beautiful! We had hardwoods in our old house (half bathroom), and never had an issue. They look lovely. Isn't that the way it always is with lingering projects? The solutions end up being much easier than you originally thought. :-)

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  19. LOVE that tile. I saw a version of this tile (or who know it may have been the same tile) at The W in Atlanta and I loved it then too. I am loving the new 12x18 sizes I am seeing. I can't wait to see your finished bathroom.

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  20. LOVE that tile. I saw a version of this tile (or who know it may have been the same tile) at The W in Atlanta and I loved it then too. I am loving the new 12x18 sizes I am seeing. I can't wait to see your finished bathroom.

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  21. LOVE that tile. I saw a version of this tile (or who know it may have been the same tile) at The W in Atlanta and I loved it then too. I am loving the new 12x18 sizes I am seeing. I can't wait to see your finished bathroom.

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  22. Love your new floors! It's so nice to get things CLOSER to finished! (And I'm sure it'll be nice to get your toilet out of your garage! :)) we have hardwood flooring in our powder room, so far it's been great, but we just built this house 5 months ago, so we'll see how it holds up long term! Fingers crossed!

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  23. I love that tile and just saw it myself at Lowes last weekend! I'm considering doing it throughout the entire house, but I don't want it to look 80's ish, if you know what I mean. I love how it looks in that small bathroom though!!! Thanks for all the inspiration!

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  24. I love that tile! It makes me want to rip out the tile in my kitchen and put some new stuff down! We have hardwood in our powder room and it's held up great (it's almost 20 years old).

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  25. I am in love with that gray tile! Hardwoods are always awesome. I tested the same minwax stain on my stairs, but it came out black. :/ Oh, well. That's why they make paint!

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  26. Not sure if you have seen them but Home Depot has a beautiful hardwood simulated ceramic tile. It really looks like hardwood but it's tile. We'd love to put it in our kitchen some day. But it is expensive and special order. I thought I'd mention it in case you decide later that the hardwood in the bathroom has to go for some reason! - Karen

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  27. I absolutely adore the basement bathroom tile - it's something I have picked out for our master bath reno in a series of tan shades for the shower walls and the floor. And this very grey you chose - for our powder room floor as well.
    We need to do a temp floor in the powder room first as it's currently carpeted and I have three boys...but we need to totally rework our plumbing in -hopefully the very near - future as we have three wall hung toilets that we need to reconfigure as floor mount. Two pink, one blue. Thank you 1962! And we have copper to galvanized piping so it's a much bigger job than the face lift variety. BUT...I found a temp grey 12 x 24 peel and stick until we get the plumbing done and I can get my dream tile. Now if only that money tree would begin to sprout...

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  28. Your floors are gorgeous. I love both of them and the bathrooms are looking wonderful. Hugs, Marty

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  29. NO HARDWOOD FLOORS IN BATHROOMS WITH TUBS. Or showers, I assume. BAD BAD BAD BAD. And since it has a claw-foot tub (which I love), the tub has to be removed before I can rip the floor out, and can I lift a claw-foot tub? Of course not. I know exactly what tile it's getting - some day, when I develop the ability to lift a 500 pound tub. SIGH.

    Those bathroom floors both look great, BTW!

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  30. Your bathroom tile looks EXACTLY like the tile I put down last year in our mud room! (I'm actually doing a post on it next week.) Wish I had gotten the same deal you did!! Nice shopping!
    Susan
    simplymodernhome.com

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  31. I love the floor options you chose! We are {hopefully, fingers tightly crossed} redoing our bathroom this summer and one of the first things to go are the current floors. I have bookmarked this post so I can refer back to it when the time comes. Great job, it all looks wonderful! :-)

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  32. Hola! Your tile floor is gorgeous and I'm sure when the bathroom is done it will be beautiful. But - your shower is way too darn small. How many times did you bang your elbows while washing your hair? Has your husband used that shower, and if he has, will he ever use it again? Just saying...

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    Replies
    1. Jan, it's in the basement -- we'll use it maybe two times a year. :) But no, I didn't hit the walls with anything. It was cozy but worked great!

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  33. We have hardwoods in our first floor bathroom and it is a full bath. After 7 years and many, many showers in there, they have held up just fine. They are on site finished hardwoods and look exactly like yours.
    Love your bathroom tile floor! My in-laws just redid their bathroom with the exact, and I mean exact same tile. I love it.

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  34. We have hardwood in our powder room and its great. I recently had the toilet tank overflow, and had no floor issues.

    Leslie
    puddyshouse.com

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  35. So hardwood installed, stained, poly, etc from start to finish for $300.? That seems like an amazing price.

    Looks great.
    Chrissy

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  36. Yep, materials and everything! That's why I love using small businesses. :)

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  37. Sarah, your floors are looking amazing! That tile looks almost exactly the same as what we put in our bathroom, but we got it through a local dealer and the brand was Florim. By any chance, did the tile say Florim anywhere? I know some of the big box stores sometimes rebrand things :). I want to use it another room would be so happy if the Lowe's tile was the same one because it's about half the price. I'd be kicking myself at the same time too, since that means we spent about double what we needed to for the bathroom, ugh. Here's ours if you want to see! http://involvingcolor.com/involvinghome/tag/hallway-bathroom/

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  38. Sarah, your floors are looking amazing! That tile looks almost exactly the same as what we put in our bathroom, but we got it through a local dealer and the brand was Florim. By any chance, did the tile say Florim anywhere? I know some of the big box stores sometimes rebrand things :). I want to use it another room would be so happy if the Lowe's tile was the same one because it's about half the price. I'd be kicking myself at the same time too, since that means we spent about double what we needed to for the bathroom, ugh. Here's ours if you want to see! http://involvingcolor.com/involvinghome/tag/hallway-bathroom/

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  39. How have your tile floors held up all of these years?? After searching and searching I found this tile at Lowes and fell in love. I was just about to purchase it online when I read the reviews. They weren't great. I was wondering if you still liked it and if it still looks as good as day one?

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    Replies
    1. We don’t live here anymore but they held up great for at least four years! The current owners haven’t mentioned any issues. (We see them often.)

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