We’re just singing the summertime blues here. Not only is the weather hot, dry and miserable here, our powder room and small bedroom closet is at a standstill.

The good news, though, is that the new bedroom closet has taken shape since my last post. We are slowly making progress so I wanted to share where we were and why the construction has stopped.

Just a few short weeks ago, this is how the guest bedroom closet looked. It was just your standard closet with bifold doors.

We’ve wanted to add another bathroom since we moved in and this space seemed to make the most sense. With almost all the decisions made, construction began.

We gutted the closet and started the powder room addition by framing out a doorway and adding new electric.  

Wood planks, a DIY vanity, sink, faucet, mirror and lighting were added to finish one side of the powder room. The plumbing for the toilet will take some work so we stopped the powder room construction and started on the new bedroom closet. 

Although it’s a small area, a lot of thought and planning went into creating both spaces. We knew that if we were going to turn the closet into a powder room, we would have to carve out space for a small bedroom closet. Our house only has 3 closets, one in each bedroom, so for storage sake (and resale), we knew we needed to add one back. 

A previous homeowner added the closet (now powder room) in this room, so it was bigger than the other bedroom closets. It also had a weird dead area in the corner next to the doorway. Since it wasn’t good for much of anything, we thought it would be a perfect place for the closet.

It will be smaller than the one that was in this room, but it will still have a good amount of storage. 

We debated about where we should put the wall and decided to take it almost to the entry door trim. In a small space every inch counts, and we needed as much space in the closet as possible.

We framed out the closet and ran the electrical wiring. We had to relocate the switch for the bedroom ceiling light and we added a light and switch inside the closet. A small bedroom closet doesn’t really need a light, but it didn’t cost much to add one.  

Once the framing was done, we added the sheetrock and spackled all the holes. The hubs and I can do a lot of things but spackling is not something that either of us can do well. It takes a ton of practice to do it well, and neither one of us like it enough to practice. 😉 

With the spackling and sanding finally complete, it was time to decide on trim options for both doorways. This has been a struggle because we can’t decide what we want to do. We talked about matching the 70 year old trim but we have a few ideas for both doors and the trim is just too big. 

To sum it all up…trim. A decision on what trim to use has halted construction. Lame I know, but as soon as we work it out, we’ll move onto the next issue…doors.

We have a few ideas about what we want to do but we need to make sure everything works together and looks good. Once we figure it out, we’ll get back at it. 

We have to do it soon…

I’m so tired of the mess and dust of construction. It looks like a bomb has gone off in almost every room. Funny how it spreads around the whole house. 

No pretty pictures to end with today but we’re working on it. We’re definitely making progress and it’s exciting to see it turn into a whole new space. If you want to check out behind the scenes during construction, you can follow along on Instagram. I usually share what’s happening on IG stories daily. 

Hope you have a great week!

Thanks for following along with us! 

Check out the beginning stages of construction and the powder room details and progress.

You can also find me at Between Naps on the Porch, Worthing Court, Savvy Southern Style, French Country Cottage

When I was growing up, my family and I lived in a tiny town and a small house that only had 1 bathroom (with no shower). After we moved into our big (to us) house with 2 1/2 bathrooms (and a shower), I never wanted to go back. I learned at the ripe age of 13 that you don’t really realize what you’re missing until you have it. 

I’ve lived in 10 different homes since that “big house”, and most of them had 2 bathrooms. The home we’re in now, our little stone cottage, is not on the 2 bathroom list. We only have one (small) bathroom and no room for another.

Or so we thought.

We’ve been talking about adding a 2nd bathroom since the first day we looked at this house with our realtor. Once we moved in, we went from room to room looking for extra square footage to add that precious 2nd bath. It didn’t have to be fancy, or big. Just enough space for a toilet and sink. 

After a lot of thought we finally found some extra room for a small powder room. It’s tiny, to be sure, but it will house a toilet and a sink, which is all we really need. A big plus is that it’s right next to our existing bathroom, which means the plumbing will be easier to do.

So where did we get this extra space?

We found it in one of the guest bedroom closets. There are only 3 closets in the whole house so it was a difficult decision to get rid of one. Once we started measuring and planning though, we found a way to make a smaller closet next to the powder room, that was dead space anyway.  

There was a lot of planning, measuring and debating going on about this tiny space but I think that it’ll all work out. The room isn’t completely done yet, but I thought I’d share what we’ve done so far and ideas on how we’ll finish it.

Here’s where we started. We’re pretty sure that this closet was added to the bedroom by a previous owner. It’s pretty evident by the look of the doors and the sheetrock they used to build the outer wall.

We removed the shoes and clothes and began demo. The shelves and rods came out as well as all the molding and the sliding doors. 

A lot of measuring and planning went into this tiny space. Everything has to fit just so and, of course, nothing is square. 

Once we had a plan and a list, it was time to shop for supplies. We purchased the lumber and building materials at Home Depot (*affiliate link), but the sink, mirror and lighting were all bought online. 

The first thing we had to do was frame the walls and place the electrical boxes. The plan was to add two sconces, one outlet and 2 light switches. 

Next we hung the sheetrock on the newly framed walls.

We debated between paint and wallpaper but found that the original plaster was in pretty rough shape. After a couple of debates (he wanted paint and I wanted paper), we changed our plans and made the decision to plank the walls. 

Even though it’s a small room, it took a lot of planks (we used 4 sheets of plywood). We cut the sheets into planks, sanded and painted the edges.

The easy way (or is it the lazy way?). 😉

I wanted to have spaces between each plank, and didn’t want to see the blue paint showing through, so we threw a quick coat of paint up before we installed the planks.

Once the planks were up, I got busy patching and sanding the holes (all 5000 of them).

Just kidding…but it felt like it was 5000.

Next it was time for paint. I went with Benjamin Moore Advance in White Dove to help the space feel bigger and brighter.

We used this same paint color on our kitchen cabinets in our Illinois house so I knew I would love it in here.

The space is looking great and nothing like the closet it once was. I still have to caulk the ceiling and corners and we need to add molding. The next big project though, is the custom vanity that we’ll build for our new space. 

This project is coming along quickly and I want to keep you up to date, so I’ll share more next week. It’s all about adding some pretty touches!

Happy weekend!

Another remodel project we did was the kitchen reno in our Illinois house. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can see more of it here. 

Kitchen Remodel Reveal

*An affiliate link was used. Please see my Privacy Policy for more info.

You can also find me at Between Naps on the Porch, Worthing Court, Savvy Southern Style, French Country Cottage