Reinvent It: Salvage Savvy Keeps an Urban-Farmhouse Bath on Budget

Reinvent It: Salvage Savvy Keeps an Urban-Farmhouse Bath on Budget

Suffering from Carrara marble sticker shock, homeowner Jennifer Brown knew she had to get creative with the rest of the components in her toilet renovation. “We bought our home as a new construct 13 years back, and the master bath was the 1 room we did not care for,” she says. “There was a tiny stand-up shower along with a giant garden bathtub we never employed. The granite countertops and globe lights had to go, too.” What she really wanted? “I grew up in the Northeast, and I’m attracted to the simple light and airy farmhouse design,” she says. “I’m always trying to create my new home look older, but with a mixture of urban and industrial.” After living in Italy for six months, she had her heart set on Carrara marble for the shower, and knew she needed to mix in repurposed salvage pieces.

Brown and her husband put a budget of $10,000, then realized that a fantastic part of it could be consumed by the Carrara over-sized subway tile. “That forced me to find fantastic bargains on the remaining pieces,” Brown says. “I thought the hard part is finding the ideal bits with the ideal measurements for the space, but I was lucky that all three bits I fell in love with were the perfect height, duration and thickness,” she says.

Project: Salvaged vanity table, sunroom door and flooring cupboard
Cost: About $1,278 ($250 per bit; $128 for barn door track hardware; $400 for labor)
Timing: A half days for the vanity and half a day to install the sunroom door; moving the cabinet into the new space took just a few minutes

Brown discovered a barn door in The Columbus Architectural Salvage Yard. It was salvaged from an old dairy farm in Mansfield, Ohio, by a building that was used for cold storage of milk product. It was created in the 1940s, and its worn patina lets you know you’re going to enter a exceptional bathroom with modern country style. “I liked the fact that the barn was beat up, with ruts taken out and out paint,” Brown says.

Employing a barn door on a track also saved a considerable quantity of space, and again, Brown discovered a way to save cash. “The barn needed a track, but I was shocked to find that tracks sold online were approximately $450, almost double what the door price!” She says.

Living nearby farm country came in handy; she headed out to some tractor supply company in the middle of Ohio. “The workers helped me find all of the ideal bits for the track, such as rails, wheels, equipment, nuts and bolts,” she says. “The bits were steeland that I spray painted them black.” The barn door track hardware ended up costing $128.

Brown bought the Indian wedding gown that currently serves as her vanity from Maryland merchant Great Stuff by Paul in the Nation Living Antique Fair in Columbus, Ohio. It took her builder about a day and a half to retrofit it, put in the sinks and faucet, and add modern towel bars underneath.

Open closets in this way leave the drains and pipes vulnerable. Brown chosen for steel to go for the more industrial appearance she favors and also to coordinate with the towel bars and other fittings.

More funding finds: Brown shopped for great bargains on the opposite bathroom furnishings and fixtures. She discovered the tin-framed mirrors for $35 in a discount house shop, painted the black frames white and bothered them . The sconces came from a Pottery Barn socket, and she discovered the vessel sinks on Amazon for about $79. All of the plumbing fittings are from Lowe’s.

The classic cabinet was likewise a Nation Living Antique Fair find, from a seller from Springfield, Ohio. It has six deep interior shelves that provide plenty of room for toiletries and towels. Brown scooped up the classic turquoise Ball mason jars in the same fair for $5 each. She added a”B,” for”Brown,” from Hobby Lobby.

Brown’s purchases had the ideal appearance and dimension for her toilet, and she liked their well-worn finishes just the way that they were. “We simply cleaned with a soap and water,” she says.

In terms of the new components, a clear glass shower divider and continuous flooring give the illusion of more space. “It was important to keep the look simple and uncluttered, since the space isn’t really that large,” Brown says.

Your turn: Have a fantastic salvage job of your own? We’d really like to see it!

More: How to Blend a Tub Space Into a Shower

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