Basement Bathroom Reveal – Pallet Walls, Barn Wood and Black Floors!

Basement Bathroom Reveal, adding a touch of girl to this little space because it was starting to feel like a man cave and not in a good way… I am not a girly girl by any means (as I’m sure you’re all aware at this point…) but even I can attest a balance between masculine and feminine in a space is a real must. Outside of this bathroom our living room feels like just the coolest underground speak easy and I totally love it. But with Lodi’s wood furniture and black leather couches no matter what I do it will always feel at least a little like a bachelor pad.

(Kinda funny and not at all surprising: After we unpacked so much of his stuff down here I was like, “Holy crap, Lodi, it smells like walking into your old house!” He was like, “It doesn’t smell like anything to me…”) The bachelor pad look I am TOTALLY cool with but going from that to this bathroom was just so hard core “man” with the wood walls and not one but TWO buck art prints… (Lodi had them and was totally willing to toss them but you guys know I’m not good at throwing anything away if I can make it work at all…) It felt a little bit like a bathroom you might find at a deer camp and that was a bit much for me! So, my first purchase was just the prettiest of shower curtains! It didn’t cost much and, of course, I picked it up on Amazon. I love how the colors keep everything light and bright without going hardcore feminine.

Instead of just leaving the curtain closed or open all the time I took it to the next level and built a curtain pull back out of galvanized pipe. (I used a flange, an elbow, two nipples and a cap all in 1/2″ pipe.) Swaging the curtain feels like it adds a touch of fancy to this basement bathroom reveal that I think is totally unexpected! Feminine to me is not all about color though – its also about comfort. This bathroom was desperately needing comfort! Every. single. surface. is. hard. The floor is concrete and COLD. A big comfy shag rug was the absolute ticket. It also needed good bath towels and a place to hang a big towel in easy reach of the shower. I don’t generally like “modifying” 100 year old solid wood doors in our home by screwing things to them but I didn’t feel like I had much choice here. (That little old door is original to the home and leads to our utility room.) To make the towel hook out of 1/2″ galvanized pipe I used a flange, an elbow, two nipples and a cap. Because this bathroom is so important to me to make our guests feel comfortable Lodi and I also decided to hang a curtain over the entrance door for even more privacy.

We did a pretty darned good job (in my opinion) creating our own rolling barn doors but there is almost no overlap on either side of the bathroom door frame.

Not a huge deal but if there’s a room full of people down here I could see someone feeling a bit awkward about getting naked and taking a shower lol…

This black out curtain was the perfect solution if someone not only wants more privacy but to also trap the heat in to keep it nice and toasty for a shower in here. I did the swag thing with this curtain too because I really think its helping tone the masculine down… A little pat on my own back – I installed an electric heater in this room years ago.

Really I think we all deserve bathrooms with their own separate heat but somehow I didn’t do this in our own master bathroom back during the renovation… my reason why is because I had no place to put it – BUT STILL. In this basement bathroom reveal I think I accomplished what I set out to achieve. A bit of girly comfort got us away from the hardness and masculinity this space was giving off. I think the soft towels, rug and feminine shower curtain really brought this room a long way from deer camp! Besides those additions though there was a lot to finally getting to this reveal: I upcycled my Grandparents’ tool box into a towel bar and storage. We got our water issues figured out and installed a commode. I sanded down and sealed all of those wood walls. We installed brand new lighting throughout. We gave those old cabinets a serious face list. Besides those specific posts just for this basement bathroom reveal though we also spray painted all of the ceilings down here and did the floors with a Rustoleum garage flooring kit.. When we got this bathroom done I cheered, “Grandma and Grandpa look! We’ve got a working bathroom in the basement for the first time ever!!!!”

I’m sure they would have gotten a real kick out of this! And I know they would have appreciated me saving as much as I could from their own bathroom cabinets, to that old sink, to the toolbox they made years ago. I even made the oak countertop from their stash of wood out in the barn and, of course, that is one of their mirrors I inherited at some point… Reasonable proof to never throw anything away LOL. No basement bathroom reveal post would be complete without my saying that it is actually a great bathroom to use. Lodi and I both felt quite obligated to give it a full test run and its really quite pleasant. I feel really good with what we did here and what we can offer future guests and company!