Schutta Bathroom Remodel

Written By Katie Kangas
Before and After

In 1972, this avocado themed bathroom would have been groovy! We love some of the other 1970’s features in our first home - but the avocado bathroom was on the short list to remodel. We lived with the avocado toilet and matching shower, floor tile, sink counter, wall tile, and wallpaper accents… but when the floor tiles were popping up from water damage, we chose to do a full make-over.

Water damage is no joke. Serious damage cumulates from years of little trickles from a leaking shower door. Once the seal to the tub was worn away, water worked past the tile, grout, underlayment, and rotted away a one foot square corner of the subfloor. I used an all-saw to remove the damaged subfloor, cut and placed a patch to match the thickness and material of the original. We covered the subfloor with cement-board tile backer and finished it with large format tiles.

We replaced the sheetrock of the walls to have moisture resisted gypsum wallboard. It also left a clean surface, much easier to mud, tape, and paint. The toilet was replaced by my personal favorite, an efficiency toilet that conceals the pipe ridges. It's slim, yet powerful. The narrow toilet bowl makes the area next the the shower feel spacious in the new renovation.

For lighting - we switched to LEDs. We added two small moisture rated lights in the shower to improved visibly. We replaced the fan with a combination fan and light. We loved this model because the fan vent is integral to the design and nearly disappears from view. The last touch was a wall mount light above the mirror to replace the two pendants. With a central light in the fan, the accent light at the mirror casts a significant amount of light for up close and personal moments with the mirror.

The towel wall features a custom art rail made of a 1x3 with a 45 degree cut down the full length using a table saw. The single 7’ wood rail was simply screwed into the studs behind. The screw heads are covered by the artwork. I designed and painted this 5 piece acrylic abstract to reflect the colors of the bathroom.

The towel racks are a simple design from 1x wood boards. The angled design is meant to feed the towel onto the rack. The side pieces are screwed into the wall studs. The towel 'bar' was cut to length because the wall studs did not follow conventional spacing.

This project was done on a conservative budget - we chose to keep the existing shower and tub and simply refinish them to be white. We hired a local company to enamel the tub and surround. I loved reusing the existing shower - unlike modern shower surrounds - this shower surround was connected to the tub - preventing the possibility of future water damage.

For the sink, I repainted the cabinet and replaced the hardware. For the counter - we loved the simplicity of a concrete formed counter with an integral sink. This happened to be the cheapest option at Home Depot. We were willing to spend more on the counter - but when we like the most cost effective option - why not save a few hundred dollars? The faucet is also my absolute favorite because of the simple form and beauty of the waterfall spout. Our daughters are also huge fans!

There are always surprises during construction. We were very surprised to find the HVAC shaft was not fully utilized. I built a plywood nook with adjustable shelves. When living in a 1970’s split level with very few closets - I am very pleased to eke out another 3 shelves of storage. This doubles as our guest bathroom - so the storage is great for a last minute pickup before other people come over.

The additional cupboard meant we had to modify or replace the mirror. We tried to get our old mirror cut but it shattered. We love the glass cutters at our Ace Hardware, but the cut edge of the two pieces they supplied were unfinished. And when the edge of the mirror is exposed - it just didn’t look safe. So we ended up ordering 'custom' mirrors. Menards calls these mirrors custom because they don't keep them in stock (the mirrors actually only come in specific sized in increments of 2”). It was necessary to order the mirrors with a bevel edge. In the end we were pleased with the results. Ordering mirrors was actually less than the initial raw cut glass. The mirrors are held together with a type of glass to glass hinge. Effective and clean.

Overall we are quite pleased with our bathroom remodel! Unless you are ready to learn and fail and learn some more - I can't fully recommend doing your own bathroom remodel. We had to retile twice, reset the toilet 3 times, and learned many other critical details in the process. Since we are not professionals, the project took months to finish and touch up the final details. We worked in the margins of nights and weekends - and eventually finished!

Doing it yourself can save a lot of money. We purchased new finishes, lights, plumbing fixtures, and rented tools like the tile saw. Overall, I believe our material and exported labor costs left the final bill below $1,500.

References:

Katie Kangas
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Schutta Kitchen Remodel