Zachary

I am finally doing this! I live in my parents house but they trust me completely to remodel the rooms assigned to me (bedroom with attached bath, walk in closet, and I remodeled the laundry room as well since I'm right near it)
I fully redid my bedroom with new flooring, recessed lights, a new ceiling fan, switches, outlets, scraped the ceiling, repainted everything, etc and it looks great! Here's the B$A on that:


Well now I'm tackling the bathroom, I had spruced it up before by refinishing the cabinets and replacing the hardware and all in all it was pretty nice, but there was one big ugly elephant in the room and that was the fluorescent light box over the vanity, I hated it! I tried to make it nicer by putting in a silvery grill but ultimately it was still big and ugly...if I could have removed it without having to redo the walls I would have (I like the wallpaper) but I can't so I decided on an all out remodel to include: New black granite Vanity top, new toilet, new lighting (both ceiling and wall), new towel bars and other hardware, switch plates. I like the cabinets the way they are and the floor is quite nice so I'm keeping them. The walls will be painted a shade of blue I haven't quite decided on yet and they'll have white beadboard on the lower half.
Here are pics:
Originally:


After some changes (and I've since hardwired my little ceiling fan :P )

Zachary

and here are some "Durings"

Zachary

Here are some renderings I made of what I want the end result to be

joecaption

A few tips, never install a ceiling fan in a bathroom for several reasons.
It will stay dusty from all the moisture in the air.
It forces the air down away from the exhost fan.
It will corrode from the moisture.

Never buy prefinished wall board or bead board for a bathroom. The finish will fail in no time.
When we install bead board we use Loc Tite Qwick Grab behind it and roll over the surface of the panels with a hand floor roller. That way there's almost no nails needed to hold it in place.
I hate using constrution adhesive, it has to be degassed (pressed againt the wall, then pulled away, wait a few min. then reapply the panel.)
Never install any form of paneling without sheetrock behind it.
Only use paperless or green sheetrock in any bathroom and never in a wet area like behind a shower encloshure.
If you want bead board buy real wood, sand, prime and paint with two coats of quality paint. An enamel paint will last far longer and is far more scrubable. Or far more expancive, buy the vinyl strips, but you first must install 1/2 plywood behind them. Just trying to nail them to sheetrock is not going to work.
Wall paper seldom works in a bathroom. The moisture causes the glue to reliece.
Never cheap out when buying a faucet, plastic or plated faucets finsh will fail. DO not buy one of those Glasher Bay faucets all plastic. Price Fiser are way over priced, complicated and the repair parts cost far to much.

Zachary

Thanks for the advice. On the subject of the ceiling fan, I never have both fans on at the same time, I use the ceiling fan when I'm shaving or whatever at the vanity, not when I shower. I'm getting new parts for it though that will make it solid black, the metal finishes won't be an issue anymore, but I do plan on leaving it installed. For the faucet I'm going with either Moen or American standard. My Vanity is the right size that I can get a 31" standard size top that uses an 8" faucet. I'm not ripping out the drywall, what you see is what it will be. I never use prefinished anything, I like to do it myself :P
As for the shower, all I've done in it is replaced the shower head and that's all, I don't feel the need to start ripping tiles out and such when it's all perfectly fine.
The toilet I'm eventually replacing with a Kohler, this will be the absolute last thing since it's the most expensive (the one I want is around $430) Even though I have a new exhaust fan (I put it in a few months ago, the previous one was original to the house and didn't work for anything) I'm thinking about replacing it with a high end one, this one is a $15 air king right now...
At any rate I'm sure I'll learn some things doing this that will come in handy when I tackle the bathroom in the house I own myself (pictured under my name)

On another note, I settled on a color:


I am of course going to repair the walls before I paint them

joecaption

Why in the world are you even buying a new toilet, save the $400 for something else. A toilet can be completly rebuilt for about $15.00 in part plus a new seat. Or just buy a new good one for around $150.00 or less.
I hope you spand a whole lot more time sanding that dry wall before primeing and painting. Someone put way to much drywall mud on it. Paint will not cover up flaws, it will make them stick out more.

Zachary

I just wanted to make sure on that color, I haven't even started prepping the walls yet. As for the new toilet, I'm not for sure on that yet, I don't have any problems per se with the one I have but I just wanted a nice newer one, but I've been thinking about it and I probably won't go for that