Our Tiny Master Bathroom: Before and After

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THE DEXTER HOUSE Our master bathroom is done! It may only be 36 square feet, but it's one of the hardest working rooms in the house. Not to mention, one of my favorites!

At 36 square feet, this bathroom is only sized for one person, but it has everything you need. Lots of light, storage, a vintage sink, and a great claw foot tub for soaking. At least that's my list of bathroom necessities!

This space has come a long way in the seven months we've owned the Dexter House. Originally the room was a dining nook attached to the kitchen. Though the dining nook had great character, it had awkward geometry which really limited the adjacent kitchen design, so the decision to annex the nook to a bathroom was an easy one (see more on the floor plan here).

The Grit and Polish - Master Bathroom Renovation Progress Collage

Early during the Dexter House renovation, we closed off that archway between the dining nook and the kitchen, removed the terra-cotta tile from the floors, and then added a doorway between the dining nook and our master bedroom. In the months that followed, we roughed in for electrical and plumbing, framed in the doorway, painted the floors black, painted the walls and trim white, and then installed the claw foot tub, sink, and toilet. Thankfully we finished the room right around the time I hit my due date. And since Brooks was nine days late, I managed to fit in quite a few baths before losing all my free time to diaper changes and nursings ;)

Okay, now for the good stuff. Here's what our master bathroom looks like now:

The antique claw foot tub was an awful shade of hunter green when I found it at a local salvage shop. I achieved this unique shade of gray using paint stripper and an angle grinder. After an hour of trying to get down to the original cast iron, I gave up. Happily I was left with a nice gray patina, which I LOVED, so I sealed the tub with a thin coat of tung oil and called it good. We put the tub in place, installed the faucet and hardware, hung three shower liners and two cheerily-patterned curtains (which I found on mega sale at Serena and Lily)) and I had a bathtub.

After all that effort, thank goodness I am really smitten with this tub!

I'll be honest, the fern doesn't always hang in our shower. I'm having a bit of trouble keeping the leaves from drying out (I am cursed with a black thumb, I even killed an ivy last week!) so have been experimenting with ways to get a little humidity to the poor guys. I'd be thrilled to hear any other suggestions you may have before I kill these plants too!

I picked a wall-mount sink for this bathroom, mostly because it saves on space and I love the vintage character. The sink was an inexpensive find at a local salvage shop along with the VG fir door, which Garrett hung. We covered the glass with vision-obscuring film since it opens to the bedroom (we added the same film to the window). The mirror above the sink came from Craigslist.

I've had a couple questions from readers about where I store all my bathroom stuff. Luckily this tiny room came with built-in drawers, a cabinet, and shelves, which were original to the dining nook. It's not a ton of space, but it's proven to be enough for all of my and Garrett's bathroom stuff. This bank of storage is actually (sadly...?) about the most storage we've ever had in a bathroom. You could say my standards are low but all this storage feels pretty luxurious!