Woohoo! It’s Week 2 of the One Room Challenge – where I’ve taken on the challenge of renovating my powder room in 6 short weeks.
Last week I shared my inspiration and plans for this little half bathroom of ours. Over the past week we were busy with demo and installing the cement tile floors.
Before we could install new floor tile, the entire room need to be demo’d. First, all that nasty tan wall tile was removed. Luckily, it came off really easy AND without damaging the walls too badly.
Then the medicine cabinet, vanity, toilet and sink came out. I was so glad to see those go!
Finally, it was time to demo the floor tile…
When we did our home inspection, the inspector had warned us that we may possibly never be able to get the bathroom floor tile up because it was clearly set into an inch of concrete.
Luckily for us, the tile only went up against the vanity. So once the vanity was gone, we had an edge to start on.
Brian was able to smash it out pretty quickly – in about 2 hours or so. The concrete was laid over a bed of wire mesh, which meant the it wasn’t adhered directly to the floor.
Have you ever smashed out tile? The dust gets everywhere! Because this space is so small, we couldn’t seal it off because Brian wouldn’t have been able to move. Needless to say, we will rethink that plan in the future. I’m STILL finding dust in random places a week later.
I was worried that we didn’t have a correct subfloor and that we would need to have plywood installed. However, my contractor assured me that these wide floor boards are in fact our subfloor and are very durable. With cement board over them, we would have a stable surface to install the tile.
Now, Now how about looking at something a little prettier? My tile samples from the Cement Tile Shop arrived late last week and I shared this image on Instagram:
Can you guess which tile I ultimately decided on? While, the bottom one (Mahlia) is definitely my favorite, it didn’t work as well with the gray vanity that I just purchased.
In the end, we went with Bouquet II, which the middle tile in the picture above (top left in my Instagram pic). The whites in the tiles are much whiter than the stock pictures. Oh, and in case the white one is your fave, it’s called Cannes III.
And here it is just after it was installed:
Isn’t it beautiful?
We went with tight spacing, 1/16 inch to be precise which will be filled with unsanded white grout.
There’s still quite the process left. It has to be sealed multiple times before we can grout it. And then it needs to be sealed again. All the details will up be posted next week.
We’re hoping that we can start our wall treatment by Monday and I’ve finally got Brian on board with the horizontal planked wall (i.e. the “shiplap” effect)! Major win for me!
I’ll be sharing sneak peaks over the next week on Instagram, so make sure you’re following me. If you don’t miss to miss any of my One Room Challenge posts, you should also sign up for email updates below (plus you’ll get a freebie!)
Week 1: The Design | Week 2: Demo | Week 3: Floor Tile
Week 4: Shiplap | Week 5: Vanity, Trim & Paint | Week 6: The Big Reveal
I love that tile. Where did you find it?
Hi Meghann – it’s from http://www.cementtileshop.com/
Wow, you certainly got a lot of work done. I thought my bathroom needed help but yours seem worse..LOL! So glad that wallpaper came off easily with no damage to your walls and I love the tile you already laid. Looks beautiful!
Zan, this is not even the worst of my 3 bathrooms!!
This is looking great. I like the tile you chose which has a nice contrast with the grey vanity. My ORC dining room has not had much progress but it’s all in good fun!
Thanks Jen! There’s plenty of time left, you’ll get there I’m sure!!
Jenna I adore the direction that your room is headed towards! You did SO much better than I did in my room this week.
I would love for you to share this post at Thoughts of Home on Thursday. I think our readers would really enjoy it!
Good luck in the upcoming week!
Oh my word, you guys made a ton of progress! I am in LOVE with the tile!
Thanks Samantha! I don’t think we’ll get as much accomplished over the next week, but we’ll see!!
The Tile is Beautiful! Glad the demo went smoothly for you! Re-doing the tile in my bathrooms is on my to do list!
Thanks Jaclyn!
Wow, that looks so lovely! Almost like artwork for the floor :) I have a feeling I’m going to love your final look! Luckily my ORC didn’t need as much demo as yours-we just had to rip out some carpeting…
aww thanks Kristin! I’m sure ripping out the carpet had its own challenges!
Wow you got a lot done. The tile looks so pretty!
Thanks Tiffany! :-)
You’ve been busy this week! The floor looks amazing! What a transformation this is going to be! Good luck!!! Looks so good!
Thanks so much, Laurie!
The tile looks so so good!!! this is going to be one stunning room!
Thanks Jessica, I sure do hope so!!
Oh my gosh – y’all accomplished so much this week! Love your tile choice…this bath will look amazing! Cheers to a great week!
Thank you!
Love the tile! I just did that tile with a gray vanity in a client’s master bathroom remodel and it is stunning! We even pushed the remodel back 2 months just to wait for that tile to become available!! You are a brave women tearing out all that tile- it does make such a mess! I can’t wait to see this space come together!
I’m glad to hear it looked so great for your client – we got a gray vanity too and as soon as soon as I can walk on the tile I’m going to see how it looks!!
You must be so thrilled that tile removal is done!! That is not an easy job. The new tile is gorgeous!!
Yes! Now the fun stuff begins! :-)
That dust gets everywhere! I once had dust still settling weeks after my demo. Love your choice of cement tile. Excited to follow along!
I know! I’m not sure I’ll ever get my floors clean again!
The cement tile on the floor looks amazing! You are luck your wall tile came of so easily. We removed green wall tile from the walls of a 1940s house and it was set in cement and wire. It was such a mess.
Yeah old tile is such a mess! Luckily only the floor was set in cement and wire…and that was certainly a mess!!