It’s time for another DIY Duplex bathroom Before & After!! I have to admit that after the One Room Challenge bathroom upstairs I was creatively spent, so this bathroom ended up being a lot of the leftover supplies… and a lot of design-on-the-fly. But it turned out better than I imagined!! Plus, I partnered up with a Wisconsin company, Broan-Nutone to combat the major lack of light this time of year, and show you a super simple 5 minute update to get more light in your bathroom with their Quick-Change LED Grille Upgrade! I’ll show you all the details later in the post, but let’s start with the before bathroom pics.
The BEFORE: This level of the duplex was interesting because we initially thought we would be able to keep a lot of the work the former owner had done, but on closer inspection, there were quite a few problems that needed to be addressed. We tore everything out and started from scratch! Also removing a hidden stairway in the kitchen meant the ceiling no longer need to slope, which was a big win!
THE PROGRESS: The layout stayed the same, but we made the window smaller for safety, laid all new tile and upgraded the outdated bathroom fixtures. We also added ventilation in the bathroom, because there was none before…yikes! During the process I realized the bathroom was lacking light, so we needed to make a quick fix!
The AFTER: Ta Da! Not bad for a “leftover” bathroom! I mentioned before that we used leftover supplies to pull this bathroom together….the paint was Behr Dark Pewter exterior paint we ended up not using, the tile was extra backsplash tile from the kitchens, and the vanity was the one that did not work in the One Room Challenge bathroom. And to fix the lighting problem Broan-Nutone came to the rescue with the Quick-Change LED Grille Upgrade, built for DIYers of any skill level to upgrade their non-light bath fan to a fan/light with bright, efficient soft LED lighting! It was SUPER simple, and took less than 5 minutes to upgrade the grille to the fan/light combo. Game changer right??
How much better does this look?! Plus, there will be more light to see yourself in the mirror wall, ha! And for those that hate when dust builds up in the vent grille (pretty sure that is everyone!), their CleanCover™ has fewer vent slots so it stays clean much longer, which makes me very happy as an Airbnb host, because you never want guest complaining about dust!
More after the break! (more…)
This post was made in partnership with the Behr Paint Company, Thank you for supporting my amazing sponsors!
ROOM MAKEOVER TIME! I’m super excited about this makeover for two reasons: 1) I partnered up with Behr to try their new online paint shop BEHR® Express, where you can have paint and supplies delivered RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR! 2) I challenged myself to only spend 2 days to paint, thrift the decor, and pull it all together! The most fun part was that I could not really have a design plan, because who knows what I would find at the antique stores!
I am SO happy with how it came together, the room feels so darn cozy! Let me tell you a bit about the process!
The Before: First, this WAY before photo is how it looked when we started this renovation this Summer, since then, we painted the walls, Behr Swiss Coffee 12, and the trim, Aged Beige PPU7-09. We also ripped up the floor and added carpet. 
Picking the paint color: I knew I wanted something bold for this room, and since we had already painted the trim, I wanted a color that would complement the Aged Beige PPU7-09, plus work well with Swiss Coffee 12 because I only planned on painting part of the wall. I checked out BEHR Express and their 55-color curated palette (the colors they picked are SO GOOD, it would be hard to go wrong) and I narrowed it down to three colors: Riverdale N410-3, Iron Mountain N520-5 and NYPD N480-6. And if you have no idea on what color to pick, the website can help you find your perfect color, and even suggest coordinating trim colors. After I had my colors, I ordered their Peel & Stick samples, which are a game changer! Instead of buying paint samples, the Peel & Stick samples are great for testing a bunch of colors, and you can move them from wall-to-wall to see how they will look in different light. Check out my IG Highlight of the process @ISPYDIY! After opening it up to you all for a vote, the winner was BEHR NYPD N480-6, which I absolutely love because of the moody blue/gray vibes. I went back to BEHR Express to order a gallon, and in a couple clicks the paint plus all the painting supplies I needed were on their way to be delivered to my front door!
Painting the room: After the paint was delivered, it was go time! And the two day time limit to paint, shop for, and decorate this room started. If you were following along on @ISPYDIY, you saw that I played around with how high up to paint, and changed my mind 3-4 times, until I landed on painting about ¾ up the 9ft walls and adding trim and hooks to hang pictures. I just LOVE how it accentuates the high ceilings in this room!
Decorating the room: I challenged myself to thrift as much as possible for this room in one day. The things I ordered ahead of time where the bed, bedding and pillows, because I have not had a ton of luck getting a vintage bed that did not need repairs, and bedding is one thing I don’t buy second hand. My first antique stop was SUCH a score! It was like all the thrifting stars aligned and I got the desk, chair, rugs, stool and map art, all for about $200! I was honestly pretty set after that haul, so I ran home and shipped my own stash of thrifted items including mirror and gold lamp from Goodwill, and the little bench I found at an antique store months ago.
The beautiful vase on the desk and bells hanging came from a local shop URSA, made by local women, so not technically thrifted, but I love supporting Milwaukee women doing amazing things! I brought back the little bowl on the side table from our recent trip to Croatia. And all the books and vases came from my thrifted collection. I will admit, the little lamp on the desk is from Target, I saw it a while back and loved the size, and when I started decorating I knew the more modern shape would keep the vintage desk from looking too dated. More after the break!
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Hey All! We just got back from our belated honeymoon/babymoon/family trip to the Motherland of Croatia! So we were on hiatus from the One Room Challenge, but we are back at it today, hustling to finish up before the reveal next Wednesday!!! In the meantime, check in with the other designers:
At Charlotte’s House | Design Addict Mom | Erika Ward Interiors | Erin Kestenbaum | Girl & Grey
Gray Malin | Hommeboys | I Spy DIY | Jewel Marlowe | The Learner Observer | Making it Lovely
Nicole White Designs | Old Brand New | Oscar Bravo Home | Place of My Taste | The Rath Project
Room for Tuesday | SG Style | Undecorated Home | Veronica Solomon | Media BH&G | TM by ORC
