Sourcing, Sourcing...

Ever since we posted our Master Bath Ensuite reno back in February, we've had countless people emailing and asking us where we got everything.

We've actually added a few things to finish off the bathroom since, and felt it was finally time that we could give you all a list of where we got everything.

I have to be honest and let you know it took months for us to source all of this...soooo you can thank us later when you spend half as much time sourcing your items based on this list. You're welcome :)

Where to begin....we're going to start with the Tile.

We've actually already posted a detailed source list for where we purchased all of our tile, which you can find here, but to break it down:

Tile:
Floor Tile- Tile Master

Shower Floor Tile (Marble Border)- Tile Master
Shower Floor Tile (White non-slip tile)- Dante's Tile
Shower Tile (White wall tiles)- Dante's Tile
Shower Tile (Glass mosaic tile on walls)- Tile Master
Shower Tile (White chair rail on walls)- Dante's Tile

So there you have it. We went to Home Depot and various other places to find tile (our smaller bathroom tile was mainly from Dante's and USave- who we highly recommend for flooring), but for this bathroom, we found the best prices and styles to match our vision at Tile Master and Dante's.

Now for the larger items :)

Tub:
Our freestanding tub, was purchased from Costco.ca. Ive actually given you the direct link to our tub- the Jade Capri Soaker Tub.

Floor Mount Faucet:
We also purchased our floor mount fauct, the Jade Fontana Freestanding facut from Costco.ca.

They had amazing prices and honestly we liked the shape of the tub the best. We found a lot of freestanding tubs, but they were either too expensive or didn't fit our space or style choices.

Toilets:
The toilet (we replaced EVERYTHING in this bathroom), was from Lowes. When they first opened in our town, they had a Grand Opening sale where American Standard dual-flush toilets were incredibly cheap. We contacted our good friend (who happens to be a plumber) to see if they were any good. We were told they were a great purchase, so we ran out there at 6:00am when they opened to buy the maximum amount per person. We ended up with 4, to replace every toilet in our house. They ended up costing us just under $400.00 for 4 (on sale), but we managed to get a rebate from the city, for replacing our old toilets with new ones. We got a rebate of $180.00, so in total, we spent around $50.00 per toilet. Total score.

So, like I said, we ended up with American Standard toilets from Lowes, I think these here are comparable to what we have.

Shower/Sink Fixtures:
For this bathroom, we wanted to go with fixtures that would last and be of excellent quality. We also didn't want to break the bank. Another thing to consider was fixtures that wouldn't date quickly. We decided to go with chrome (after our debate, which you can read about here!), as it was affordable, easy to clean and matched the look we were going for.

We purchased all of our shower fixtures from Mark's Supply. They offer wholesale products with a 20-30% discount from regular retailers. We chose the Moen (as it was the most afforable for us, and we liked the style the best) for the rainfall showerhead, handheld showerhead and valves. We also purchased our sink faucets from Mark's and again went with Moen (so the styles matched with the style in the shower).

Mark's Supply were great to work with and we would definitely go back to them again. They have a large showroom as well, so you can see and feel how your choices would work.

Vanity/Sinks:
The vanity that we chose was also from Costco.ca. They feature the company our their site that we purchased from, but not the actual vanity. The company is called Studio Bathe, and we took a trip down to their showroom to see everything they had before we made a decision. If you check out their site, ours was the 75" white, but they have a lot of choices.

The great thing about the vanity, was that it came with the marble top, 2 mirros, as well as the undermount sinks and drains. It also came with faucets, but we opted to purchase our own style (they only had 1 option available). We also received the mirrors as part of the package, but purchased our own.

Mirrors:
Its funny, because so many people ask us about the mirrors. The mirrors we purchased at HomeSense, but the outer frames on them were black, so we spray painted them white. I had a bunch of pictures of us doing that, but it was a bit of a mess so I decided not to post it. You can also purchase them at Home Depot. Ive found the link here.

Glass:
We chose to do a fully enclosed glass shower, with a transom above the door. Our reason for doing this was not only esthetic, but also for function. We liked how the glass looked going fully up to the ceiling, and the transom provides an outlet for steam to escape, but also gives us the option of a steam shower if we wish to do that.

We purchased the glass from "Fulton Glass" a small company, that did a great job, and offered us the best price. I mean, glass is glass right? We made sure to get the right thickness and double checked all the details with the other companies to see if we were getting the same product, as basically we were. They unfortunatley dont have a website, but you can just google the name to get the information.

Lights:
The sconces flanking the mirrors were from Rona, and the potlights from Lowes.

Chair Rail and Picture Frame Mouldings:
You can read all about how we did it here, but we purchased the chair rail from Rona, and the wood for the picture frame mouldings from Lowes.

Paint Colours:
Lower Wall: Simply White by Benjamin Moore
Upper Wall: Misty Moonstone by ICI Paints (now Dulux Paints)


Accessories:
For all of our accessories, we searched around a lot, but here's our list:

Chandelier: HomeSense
Towels: HomeSense
Flowers: HomeSense
Small Mirror on Vanity: HomeSense
Glass Jars for Cotton Balls, etc: Michaels
Picture frames (not shown): Ikea
Rugs (not shown in pictures): Home Outfitters
Curtain Fabric: Tonic Living

Since these pictures were taken, there are a variety of changes we've made and this ensuite is pretty much complete :)

Once I put the photos into the frames on the walls, I'll be posting some new pictures.

I hope this helps all of you who wanted to know where we sourced everything. Keep in mind, that for almost every item we purchased, we waited for sales, used coupons or deals and managed to get the items for a price that fit into our budget. This took a LOT and I mean a LOT of extra time, but it was worth it in the end. Even the day when we raced across town on our lunch to get fixtures on sale, or spending countless evenings going through flyers and websites :) Good times, my friends, good times.

If there's anything Ive missed on here, please feel free to email us at livingbeautifully1@gmail.com and we can try and provide you with the source for the item.

Are any of you currently working on a bathroom or Master Ensuite? If so, how is it coming along?

Happy Renovating!

Master Ensuite Curtains

Hi Everyone!

Its been a while since Ive been on here- we have a lot going on right now, but there are so many things I have to share with you. Many of these projects we've completed a while back, and some we have still yet to finish.

Most of you will remember seeing our Master Ensuite reveal, and we are very much nearing completion on this room! We only have 2 things yet to complete, and Im so happy its almost done!

One of the major things we wanted to finish, was the curtains for this room. We found some incredible fabric on my favorite fabric suppliers site: Tonic Living, and felt that it went perfectly in the room:

Bethe- Robins Egg (Tonic Living)

It matched our tile choices nicely and helped to really tie the room together. Here's what the ensuite looked like before the curtains:

and here is the after:

We chose to create 4 smaller panels rather than 2 or 4 large, based on the size of the room. They fit the opening of the window perfectly and add a nice amount of pattern and texture to the space.

We chose to create simple panels, and hang them from the curtain rods with drapery clips. I found this was the most simple way to hang them while keeping the style modern and clean.

The curtain rods were from Lowes and the drapery clips from Boucliar Home. We used 3 packages of 7 drapery clips (leaving 1 to spare) as each panel needed 5 clips. Thankfully, the rods and drapery clips were a perfect match.

In order to make the panels, I used my Singer machine (which I LOVE), and followed these steps (which I made up as I went):

1. Take measurements of your windows and fabric to see what you have to work with. My windows were 45 inches wide and my fabric was 54 inches wide, so I knew I had just enough fabric to cover my window. I figured I could cut the piece in half, and with seams and cutting off the raw edges would end up with just enough. 

2. Lay the fabric down on a large surface (my dining table worked well!).

3. Cut off the raw edges.

4. If you are creating small panels like I did (24 inches wide), fold your fabric in half and iron the crease.

4. Cut your fabric down the middle to create 2 large pieces

5. Figure out how tall you want your panels to appear (I wanted to hang mine closer to the ceiling (my curtain rods were already up- which was risky!- but I measured how tall I needed them to be from the rod to the floor.)

6. Cut the fabric to be just long enough, and put your extra fabric aside. I had purchased enough fabric to create 4 panels.

7. You should now have 1 large piece thats just long enough, cut in half. Sew all your edges to create 2 large panels.

8. I went the extra step to make sure my patterns matched when I closed the panels, but you dont need to do this.

9. Once I finished my first 2 panels, I used one of them as a template to create the remaining 2.

Its not a difficult process, it just takes time to sew, iron and measure when you are working with such a large amount of fabric.

Im really happy with how the turned out, and am now working on a roman shade for our "kids" bath and 2 more curtain panels for our guest room. Our guest room is getting close to being finished and so is our master ensuite so those will be up soon.

For now, I can enjoy a nice relaxing bath in my washroom...without giving the neighbours a show anymore :S

Enjoy this sunny day everyone!

Linking up to:

Master Ensuite- Paneling

When designing our bathroom, one of the things we really wanted to try and incorporate was a little bit of architectural detail somehow.

We had seen paneling done in a varitey of different forms, and knew we wanted to incorporate it somehow into our house. Since the bathroom wasn't very large we figured this might be a good place to try it out.

The first thing we needed to determine was the style of paneling that we wanted to incorporate. There are actually a lot of different ways you can do paneling, but we chose our style based on the style of our home and our tastes in decorating. We didn't want anything too modern, and wanted more of a classic look- something that would still look good years from now (or maybe come back in style again many years down the road!).

One of the first styles we debated on was beadboard. We felt it has more of a casual/relaxed look to it and a bit of a country feel. We liked the look, but weren't sure if it was the right style for the for us, based on the other elements we had already chosen for the room. There are tons of different styles of beadboard, but these were some rooms with beadboard that inspired us:

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If you are planning on installing beadboard, make sure you determine your desired height of the beadboard, the surface area to cover and get familiar with how to install it. HGTV.com provides some great instructions on installing beadboard here.

You could also do some really substantial paneling, like Rambling Renovators did (read the rest of their post on how they did it here), to their stunning master bedroom:

However, we had some obstacles with the walls in our bathroom, and felt that the bathroom didn't really need that much work done to it.

We ended up choosing picture frame style wainscotting. Here's a picture of our bathroom twins over at Life Begins at Thirty and their bathroom wall paneling (I feel we should have shared notes on this while we were doing it...probably simultaneously!)

and here's our finished product:

Here's how we did it.

Step 1: Ensure your walls are straight. At the beginning of the process, we discovered that one of our walls had a bowed stud behind the wall, and the chair rail would NOT lie flat:

Ya. See that wobble? We tried nailing the chair rail to the wall, but there was no way we could leave it like that. We actually had to rip down the entire wall, re-drywall and replace the stud behind the wall. So make sure you look into that before beginning a project like this- it might not be worth it, if you need to rip down walls!

Step 2: Measure the walls, and determine how much space you want between each box (we felt 4 inches between each box was a good amount of space). You may have more or fewer boxes on each wall, depending on how long the wall is.

Step 3: Figure out (based on the length of your walls) how many boxes can fit on each wall (keeping in mind that you will need space between each box, and it will look best if the boxes are all approximately the same size).

Step 4: We drew all of this out on a piece of paper first (scalled down to size) so we could see how it visually looked.

Step 5: Measure out how big each box would be and calculate the amount of wood you will need for the boxes, plus the wood required for the chair rail.

Step 6: Purchase your chair rail and wood required for the boxes themselves (we went with a style we liked in 1 inch wide pieces of wood trim).

Step 7: Put up your chair rail as a starting point, we measured up 42 inches from the floor (which gave us enough space between the top of the chair rail and the counter top).

Step 8: Start in one corner and measure and mark out ONE box to begin with.  Measure 4 inches to the edge of the box to the wall, and also measure 4 inches from the top of the box to the bottom of the chair rail (basically 4 inches all the way around is what we did). We then measured out the box on the other end of the wall (so the boxes on either ends of the walls were done first, and we could space out the middle boxes easier). **Keep in mind that if you are working around windows, or other obstacles, you might need to change the height or width of your boxes depending. We ended up doing that, as you can see, under the windows in our bathroom.

Step 9: Once you have one box marked out onto your wall, cut your trim pieces to fit the measurements. We actually figured out how many pieces we needed and cut them all the same size, but we did have to make multiple re-cuts throughout the process.

Step 10: Begin to nail your pieces one by one onto the wall, forming the box. Nail the side piece first (to make sure you have your 4 inch space between it and the wall, or it and the next box) and then do the top and bottom, and lastly the other side piece. Then you can measure 4 inches over and start your next box.

Step 11: Once your boxes are finished use caulking to fill in the edges of the boxes- around the outside and inside.  Use spackle to fill in the corners. Once it is all dry, sand everything smooth.

Step 12: Now the boxes are ready for painting!

Overall, this process wasn't as difficult as it sounds. Once you have the boxes measured out and your pieces cut, its just nailing them into place. We had to make a few re-cuts here and there but overall, its a pretty easy project you can do yourself to add interest to a room.

We love this feature in our bathroom and think it goes really well with the style of the room.

Goodluck with your paneling!!

Master Ensuite- Sourcing Tile

When planning out the Master Bath, one of the most difficult parts was sourcing out items for the room that fit in our budget, looked nice and worked with the style of the space.

Tile was probably one of the most difficult aspects of the room, as it is an element that adds major impact and really can't be easily changed once its installed (so you really have to make sure you choose correctly).

We had decided that marble was an element we really wanted to incporate. Most of the bathrooms we found that we had liked and added to our scrapbook of ideas, were light, bright, white and contained marble! So that made it easy for us.

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Some things to consider when choosing tile/stone.

1. Make sure you read about stone before buying it. Marble, is a very porous stone and honestly, its not a great element to have on counters or kitchens. It absorbs liquid and this can change the actual colour of the stone permanently. You need to seal it every couple of years and requires specific cleaning as well- really just soap and water should be used to clean it.  So even with that in mind, we decidede to go ahead and use it in our bathroom on the counter and floors (yes we're risky-lol). We just knew we wouldn't use it in a kitchen, but figured if it was in our bathroom we would take the time to care for it.

2. Tile can break the bank. Seriously its one of the most expensive elements to a room, but can add the most impact. You want to make sure you can find AFFORADABLE tile that will:

a.) Stand the test of time (unless you have a money tree in your backyard and can afford to re-do your bathroom in a few years...) p.s if you do have a money tree, call me.

b.) Tile that will be good for re-sale (if you ever sell your home). You all know those shows on TV where the people go into a bathroom and say "ewwww! pink tub, blue and purple tiles? what were they thinking?" Its best if you pick tile that you love AND that will generally appeal to future buyers.

c.) Mix and match a few nicer tiles with some less expensive tiles which will essentially give your bathroom a custom look as well.

To create our design on the shower walls we chose to use:

- Glass marble mosaic tile in the shower

- White tile chair rail

- 8x10 square white tile

*Note, you want to make sure that your white wall tile and white chair rail are very similar 'whites' otherwise one will tend to look dirty when placed next to the other if they aren't the same whites.

The glass marble mosaic came in at $12 a sheet, however we only needed 6 sheets and the chair rail was $3.95/tile. Those 2 accent pieces weren't cheap, but since we didn't need many of them, and they added a lot of interest we splurged I guess you could say. Where we saved was on the white square tiles, which were only $.69 each. Those we needed the most of, but cost the least.

On the shower floor we used a combination of:

- 2x2 white non-slip tile

- 1x1 square marble tiles as a border to add interest

Again, the white 2x2 tiles were not very expensive and we felt it was important to have a tile on the floor that had a non-slip surface. The marble square tiles around the border were a bit more expensive, but again, we only needed 8 sheets.

We also chose to use marble jambs all around the entire shower, rather than just on the floor on the shower. We felt it outlined the shower nicely, and overall liked the look of how it tied in with the floor jambs.

The marble floor tile deserves a post all on its own....

Let me tell you, we drove pretty far to get this tile. We saw a sale, and managed to get the tile on sale for $5 a sq/ft (1/2 price). We ordered the tile right away, and when it came in, we were a bit disappointed to say the least. We were very aware of the fact that there is a lot of variation in natural stone, but to us, it appeared that the boxes of tiles we got were from completely different dilots- some were even a dark, dark grey, while others were stark white. I was pretty horrified, and we couldn't return the tile.

So I spent days...yes days, laying out each piece of tile in a pattern that seemed to work. I actually measured our bathroom, taped off an area in our basement to the exact measurements and layed down each piece of tile in the exact spot I wanted it layed in the bathroom. I spent hours re-arranging until I finally felt OK with the tile. I wasn't completely convinced yet, but I was starting to adjust.

The day our contractor decided to start on the floors, I happily showed him my tile display in the basement with everything easily layed out in the exact shape of the bathroom. I ALMOST numbered each tile for them, but figured they could do that if they needed to. Big mistake...should have numbered them. Sigh.

I got home that day from work, and Ian met me at the front door. "How'd the tile go?!" I asked. "Ummmmm, ok" Ian says. Oh god...my heart sank. Seriously, how could my plan not have worked?! It was fool-proof. Days spent in our musty basement laying dusty tile with random spiders crawling around me....grrrrrr....not impressed this didn't work out.

I raced up to the bathroom to see all the tiles layed in a random pattern. The contractor claimed he followed my plan. Um NO. I literally knew each of those tiles so well, I could have named them. I knew right away it wasn't right. There were about 20-30 tiles layed in spots that didn't work. Now normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but with the variation in the tile, it looked odd to have 2 stark white tiles beside each other and 2 dark tiles right next to them. We had no choice. We had to chip out some tiles in order to be happy with it. We finally decided we could live with most of it, but 5 tiles needed to be replaced. I MIGHT have had a minor breakdown that day. MIGHT.

Anyways, it turned out great in the end, and we are super happy with it now. The moral of the story? Never buy tile you can't return, and make sure you watch your contractors like a HAWK. Especially when something like tile is being layed that you cannot easily fix. Keep in mind that variation in natural stone is going to happen, so be prepared for that as well.

We love the look of the marble and even with all the challenges we faced, we think it turned out great and love the look.

Source list for tile:

Mosaic Glass Tile- Tile Master

Chair Rail Tile- Dante's Tile

White Square Tile on Shower Walls- Dante's Tile

2x2 White Tile- Dante's Tile

1x1 Marble Mosaic on Shower Floor- TileMaster

Marble Floor Tile- TileMaster

Our marble countertop was actually part of our vanity, and I'll be posting about the major elements to the room next :)

Happy Tiling!

Master Ensuite Sneak Peek...#2!

Happy Early Thanksgiving (to all my fellow Canadian readers :)

Here's a little treat for your weekend reading enjoyment! I know I'll be spending this weekend with family and celebrating Thanksgiving-  we have lots to be thankful for this year :)

Ok so I know you've all been waiting for this for eternity a very long time. And although we haven't finished it completely yet, I wanted to give you all a sneak peek on what you can expect to see in the next few weeks!

Let me remind you of the before:

And here's a sneak peek of the after:

More to come in the next few weeks :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Master Ensuite Bathroom Sneak Peak!

This has been a long time coming....and I mean LOOOOOOONG! We started this bathroom reno back in June, so we are THRILLED that its practically done!

All the bathroom needs now is the finishing touches....pictures, towels, some decor and its done!

Im going to wait until we get the finishes up to show you the full reveal, but for now here is a peak of what is to come:

let me remind you of the before shot:

I first have to say, that is not our decorating in the "before shot" (previous owners...just had to make that clear) :)

Both shots are taken from the same angle....so we definitely made huge changes to this bathroom.

I can't wait to show you the rest!

Oh, and the Main Bath is finished too! HORRAY!!! Pics of that to come shortly ;)

ALMOST THERE! :) :)