It’s official: bathrooms have been on our minds ever since our spontaneous update over the weekend. And closets too. Fortunately, Meghan and her husband Sean shared a two-for-one of makeover inspiration: a bathroom refresh and a closet transformation. Read their recap below as we resist the urge to shop for tiles.
I didn’t have a blog when you featured our kitchen redesign, but your post inspired me to start one. Documenting projects has been a fun way to capture the process, and I wanted to share our bathroom renovation. The space was tiny, thoroughly dated—think 1960s—and it had a persistent, unpleasant smell. We decided to tackle it fully.
To open up the room, we removed a closet just outside the bathroom, gutted the space down to the studs, and replaced everything. We worked with Carrara marble and white quartz to create a classic, clean look, leaning toward a timeless aesthetic.
Originally, we planned this renovation for many years down the road—someday when the kids were older. After several years of renovations (and babies), my husband promised we wouldn’t DIY the entire project. When he threw out his back lifting the new window, we agreed to hire more help. I handled the design and bought materials over six months, waiting for sales to stretch our budget.
I’m an accountant by trade, so here’s a numbers-based summary of the project:
- 3: General contractors we interviewed.
- 0: General contractors we hired. We opted to act as our own general contractor and hire subcontractors directly.
- 6: Subcontractors we brought in for the work.
- 9: Months from start to finish.
- 40%: Approximate savings by managing subcontractors ourselves instead of using a general contractor.
Our new toilet is the Kohler Memoirs. The painting above it was created by my dad years ago, featuring a childhood image of my husband with his father—an endearing, personal touch to the space.
We selected a Carrera marble palette from Avalon Tile, and our installers were true craftsmen. I considered polished marble but chose honed instead because it’s more forgiving. Marble does require care and can show stains or scratches, so honed marble was a practical choice in a busy household. Living with young men in the house, I figured concealment of inevitable marks was wise.
As often happens, one renovation led to another. When we combined two bedrooms into one by removing a dividing wall, the closets that had been in that wall were lost, leaving us without built-in storage. We loved the look of custom cabinetry but couldn’t justify the cost. We also liked the IKEA PAX system, but with short ceilings and concerns about long-term door durability, we decided on a hybrid solution—an IKEA hack that gave us the look we wanted at a fraction of the price.
We bought four 90″ PAX units from IKEA and trimmed them to fit our 80″ ceilings. After securing them to the wall, we built a hardwood frame around the installation. Then we tackled carpentry by crafting tongue-and-groove-style shaker doors and painted the entire unit in Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White for a crisp, cohesive finish.
To break up the long run of doors and add function, we built a central bookshelf with a built-in hamper drawer at the bottom. We completed the look with crown molding across the top and added interior lighting for better visibility and a polished finish. The result feels custom without the custom price tag.
Thanks to Meghan and Sean for sharing these transformations. Their approach shows how to achieve a high-end appearance while making smart budget choices—managing subcontractors to lower costs and building custom doors to avoid the expense of full cabinetry. If you’d like more detail on their projects, their original posts document the process thoroughly. In the meantime, what’s your favorite part of their updates? For me, the modified IKEA cabinets are brilliant—cutting them down and framing them was a very clever move, and those roll-out hampers are a practical touch.