Riverside Retreat Main Bathroom Reveal

Oh happy day, one more room at the Riverside Retreat is officially in the bag!

This project has been over two months in the making—starting with a few setbacks and stalled progress, and ending with a mad dash to the finish line over the past few weeks. Make sure to go back and look at the Design Plan/demo kickoff post along with my DIY Board and Batten tutorial to see the progression if you have not yet.

Meet the “50 Shades of White” Before…

Seriously. Every inch was some shade of mismatched white.

The room was a decent size but we had to reconfigure it and take away space to add a second bathroom, as this house only had one (not gonna cut it with 10 guests in a vacation rental!)

We added two walls to create a master bathroom, as you can see in the new floor plan below (labeled Main Bathroom):

Demo promptly began, and (no surprise) there were quite a bit of plumbing and foundation issues to fix.

We ended up bringing in a second contractor a few weeks ago to get things moving quicker. Finally, some progress!

And we have put in long hours over the last couple weeks installing DIY board and batten, painting, and adding the finishing touches. Finally, our earthy + classic budget bathroom is ready for its debut!

The real MVP here is the striking green, Valspar's Wilderness.

It helps to keep going bold in smaller spaces—making a statement is what design is all about!

My second favorite player is this charming vintage style floor tile. It is just the right amount of pattern to balance the bold walls and fits in well with our 1940's home (our installer used a generic white for both the floor and shower tile grout).

There was a big debate on Instagram around what color to paint the new Jeld-Wen door. I could not decide between green or white, and at the last minute I opted to make it same color as all the other doors in the house (SW Loggia). I think it was the right move because it breaks up the green/white and ties in with the other neutral warm accents in the room.

We are also swapping out all the original door handles with these striking Schlage glass knobs:

But this view? This has to be my favorite.

I scored this schoolhouse vanity light on sale (discontinued, similar here) and the mirror was a $30 secondhand Facebook Marketplace find (it actually came from a Disneyworld hotel).

The Delta Venetian Bronze faucet (discontinued, similar here) was another budget-friendly find with great ratings and a unfussy, classic style

Recognize this vanity? It is the same one I used in our Heights House Guest Bathroom but in the 36″ size.

It helps to keep this vanity because there is lots of drawer storage, and you can choose from several colors/sizes/stone tops (I went with the Carrara engineered marble top). FYI—it is now $100 less than when I purchased it! If you've been considering this vanity (or any new vanity), now's the time to jump on it.

The only modification I made was painting the chrome handles gold (I used black spray paint and gold Rub 'N Buff to give it an aged patina).

For the shower, I used one of Delta's most affordable faucets in a matching Venetian Bronze finish and replaced the one-piece tub with a budget-friendly model.

And how lovely is the shower tile? It has a slight color variation and is porous/textured to look like brick. Difficult to capture in photos, but it looks memorable in person and I think it fits in nicely with the earthy/classic style of the room.

One neat addition are these vintage photos of our city.

I Googled local archives of old photos and found our county library website with a huge collection of free downloadable images.

Then a little photoshop manipulation to make them sepia toned, add my own text, and print them out (these are 12×16″ prints in 16×20″ Ikea frames). I think these will be a fun touch for out-of-towners to see a little history of the area.

And the $5 gold hooks that have become a staple in almost every room these days! Cannot beat the price and style.

The only thing we kept from the original bathroom was the toilet (nothing wrong with it) and window, which I painted black. I hung a ready-made bamboo shade and unfussy 96″ waffle weave shower curtain (new favorite long shower curtain, by the way!)

On the day of the shoot I realized I forgot to order a toilet paper & hand towel holder—oops! Those will be added next 🙂

And that wraps up the Earthy + Classic Budget Bathroom Tour! I am happy to say that this one turned out pretty much exactly as I had imagined/hoped.

I hope our guests love it just as much as we do!

Sources + Budget Breakdown

• Paint: Valspar Wilderness (satin), SW Pure White (eggshell), SW Loggia (semi-gloss)
• Floor tile / $288
• Shower tile / $730
• Tub / $150
• Shower faucet / $130
• Vanity / $500
• Vanity faucet / $160 (discontinued, similar here)
• Vanity light / $76 (discontinued, similar here)
• Mirror / $30
• 30″ Jeld-Wen door / $130
• Door handle / $65
• Towel hooks / $23
• Picture frames / $85
• Window shade / $45
• Shower curtain / $27
• Curtain rod / $23
• Molding & trim / $250
• Paint / $40

Total: $2729

Of course this does not take into account any labor costs or labor materials (those numbers unfortunately got convoluted between two different contractors). But if you are not doing a complete gut remodel down to the foundation or hiring out the labor, you can easily recreate this bathroom for under $3k with some DIYing and a trip to Lowe's.

The best part is, you do not have to compromise on quality—and I would say the end result is comparable to any $10k+ bathroom I have seen!

What do you think about the deep green? It is probably the boldest wall color I have ever used, but this is a vacation rental so I am not trying to play it safe! Every room will have its own unique vibe—just wait until you see what we have planned for some of the other spaces 😉

Next up: a vlog update, kitchen rug fashion show and the nursery reveal… hopefully all before baby arrives!