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The drama is over! The renovation is complete and I am SO excited to share with you my Powder Room! My vision for this space was something dramatic but in keeping with the casual-elegant vibe of our home. I wanted to ‘wow’ guests and to also start making my home feel less ‘cookie-cutter-builder’ and more ‘custom’.

For whatever reason, the smallest room in my home was the most painstaking to renovate (you can read more about that here), but it’s over and I’m thrilled with the result. I’m sharing all of the glorious photos with before-and-after shots for the full effect.

Step-By-Step: I’m going to show you the before-and-after of this reno in the order of installation as well as why I chose the items that I did. All photos will have shop links for you, too!

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder room

The Straight Up Before Picture

To begin with, our powder room was only a slight step up from ‘builder-grade-basic’. We had a small toilet and a pedestal sink. The only point of interest was that our wall sconce was mounted through the mirror! Our home boasts 9 foot ceilings on all three floors and the tall mirror definitely took advantage of that…however, it was so narrow that it made the room feel incredibly narrow, too.

I honestly felt like the space needed something more. This is the only bathroom on our main floor and I wanted it to feel spacious and modern. I also wanted to add some much-needed storage on top of choosing more ‘grown up’ fixtures.

Step 1: Demolition

Demo’ing the space wasn’t all that difficult. I won’t share the details in this post but you can catch them all in my Reno Woes post where I go through how we did our demo, what we did with all of the old fixtures and more.

Post-demo, the first thing we did was bring in an electrician to move the light junction box from the wall to the ceiling as I wanted to change the location of the room’s light fixture. I no longer wanted wall-mounted lighting, but instead a three bulb set of pendants. I found a great antiqued rubbed bronze fixture with plans of using Edison bulbs.

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder roomShop: Light Fixture | Edison Bulbs

TIP: I used standard LED bulbs during construction (they’re less fragile!) and replaced them with LED Edison-Bulbs once everything was completed.

Step 2: Setting the Scene

My goal was to execute a space that exuded casual elegance with a ‘wow factor’. I scoured Pinterest for ideas and ended up combining a few different ideas that I saw to create my own design.

I sketched a few different angles of what I thought the space would look like on graph paper (I’m old school like that). Once I’d made some high level design decisions, I logged onto Wayfair to see what they had to offer to make my vision come to life…

It All Starts With Colour

I wanted to do something dramatic in the space and I knew that one of the only places I could get away with something like this in our home would be the powder room. I opted for a deep indigo paint shade (Behr PPU14-20: Starless Night) but in a semi-gloss so that it would better reflect light in the space, rather than absorbing it.

Shop: Wallpaper | Light Fixture | Edison Bulbs

I also wanted a bright feature wall that would really pop against the indigo walls. I found a great traditional wallpaper product on Wayfair and had someone come to install it for me. Note that we hit a few snags on our first wallpaper attempt which you can read about here.

Step 3: Installing the Main Fixtures

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder room

Toilets are pretty straight forward. We opted to swap out our old small toilet for a larger, low-water model with an elongated bowl. The overall style of the commode is much more modern and the scale is more appropriate for the room.

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder room

We switched from a pedestal sink to a vanity for a number of reasons. I felt like the pedestal felt a little ’90s and I wanted more storage. I knew that a 30″ wide vanity was pushing my limits for the space but I went for it anyways. Rather than feeling crowded, it makes the room both appear and feel larger.

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder roomShop: Vanity | Sink | Faucet

I’m not a huge fan of vessel sinks in ensuites and main baths, but I love them in powder rooms. I went with a square-shaped, medium depth vessel sink and an antiqued rubbed bronze faucet (to match the light fixture).

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder roomShop: Sink | Faucet | Vanity

I sourced a piece of white and grey quartz from a local supplier. The available counter space isn’t huge, but it doesn’t need to be because it’s a powder room.

TIP: For small jobs like this, you can often find a remnant piece of stone that can be cut to spec for your space for a low cost.

Step 4: Finishing Touches

I love round mirrors and I felt like a mirror as wide as the vanity (30″) would fit in well in the space. I also felt like so much of the room felt very linear (a lot of straight lines, geometry, etc.) and felt like the round mirror might soften the space a little. It also felt like it vibed well with the quasi-mid-century modern feel I had going and the dark frame provided a bit of contrast on the otherwise bright wall.

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder roomShop: Mirror | Light Fixture | Edison Bulbs | Sink | Faucet

I wasn’t super matchy-matchy in this space, but I was when it came to the towel bar and tissue hook. I wanted them to match because they are in the same ‘family’ of items. Originally the space had brushed satin nickel fixtures. I swapped them out for a thicker gauge of bars in chrome. I also ditched the plush traditional towels for lightweight Turkish Cotton Hand Towels and opted to not hang art on this wall.

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder roomShop: Towel Bar | Turkish Hand Towels | Tissue Hook

Step 5: Love Your Powder Room

I tried to keep extras to a minimum in this space, opting for only one piece of art. I wanted to let the fixtures and the design details speak for themselves.

powder room before and after, modern powder room inspiration, mid-century modern powder room

To be honest with you, I feel like updating our powder room has made the entire main floor of our home feel updated and fresh. I’m so glad that I opted for slightly larger fixtures to really make the powder room feel more grand. I gained storage and the illusion of more space!


Shop Everything In This Post

toiletsDual Flush Toilet // More Toilets vanitiesIvy Bronx Single Bathroom Vanity // More Vanities bathroom vanitiesMercury Row Bathroom Vanity Set // More Contemporary Vanities
bathroom sinksCeramic Vessel Bathroom Sink // More Bathroom Sinks vessel sinksKohler Sink with Overflow // More Vessel Sinks rectangle bathroom sinksKraus Sink with Faucet //
More Sinks With Faucets
console sinksKingston Console Sink // More Console Sinks 1 handle faucetsLuxury Bathroom Faucet // More Faucets single hole bathroom sink fautcetsKraus Single Hole Bathroom Faucet // More Bathroom Faucets
lever handle bathroom faucetsVessel Lever Bathroom Faucet // More Lever Faucets towel barsHamilton Wall Mounted Towel Bar // More Towel Bars metal towel barsGatco Towel Bar // More Metal Towel Bars
mirrorstWade Logan Accent Mirror // More Mirrors accent mirrorsUmbra Hub Accent Mirror // More Accent Mirrors pendants1-Light Cylinder Pendant // More Pendants
bath towelsTurkish Cotton Hand Towel // More Bath Towels hand towelsGracie Oaks Turkish Hand Towel // More Hand Towels toilet brushesFree Standing Toilet Brush Holder // More Toilet Brush Holders
scented oil diffusersGrapefruit Vanilla Reed Diffuser // More Scented Oil Diffusers reed diffusersSugar Cookie Reed Diffuser // More Reed Diffusers magazine racksWall Mount Wire Magazine Caddy // More Magazine Racks

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