Desert House Bathroom: The Plan

We’ve been chipping away at making bathroom updates in the desert house this week, and I thought I’d share the plan for the space while we’re at it. This bathroom was renovated by the previous owners sometime in the early 2000’s with lots of builder grade finishes, and it feels really outdated. As much as I would love to gut the space we don’t have the budget for that at the moment, so we are working with what we have as best we can and giving it new life. The plan for now is the keep the essentials and update the basics: light fixtures, vanity, sink, mirror, faucet and so on. I want to keep this space super neutral so I’m going with brass fixtures, natural tones, and muted basics. The beige tile is not my favorite but I’m planning on leaning into it for now and making it feel like a more Mediterranean travertine look. Think light neutral wood textures, brass details, light white countertops, and rounded arch accents. For the wall color I’m thinking a light beige, off white or textured limewash.

The plan is to get a new floating sink vanity, sink, faucet, mirror, light fixture, hooks, and to smooth out the insanely textured walls. First things first we removed the builder grade cabinet and we are going to add some floating shelves in that space instead. I’m thinking we will go with a natural wood color to add a bit more natural texture to the space. We installed the new light fixture this weekend and I can see the space coming together already. It’s made such a difference. We took out the medicine cabinet and are filling in the hole before we hang this new mirror I got. The walls are the most intense version of shakedown texture I’ve seen so it’s taken quite a few layers of skim coating to get the walls smooth. We’ve got one more layer of skim coat to add this week and then we will be ready to prime and paint, and then hang the mirror. Then we’ll start to tackle the vanity, sink and faucet details. Including some inspiration, and some of the fixtures we’re planning on using below!