DIY

For her spring ‘23 project, Adrian of Addy Does It achieved quite a feat by gutting her powder room and transforming it into this lavender gem, 100% DIY. The amount that she was able to accomplish is completely nuts, so buckle up.

Step one was, of course, removing absolutely everything, including the sink, mirror, toilet, switch plates and outlet covers, and baseboards.

Adrian went into the project with lots of DIY experience under her belt, but had never done anything plumbing-related. And, while disconnecting the fixtures was relatively easy after watching some tutorials, the leaky shutoff valves were an unwelcome surprise. After a bit more research she was able to replace them herself, and she was movin’ on to step two in no time.

Next, Adrian tackled the walls, which included skim coating to smooth out the texture, drywall patching, painting the lower part of the walls, and wallpapering the upper half.

Starting out with the walls before you install any flooring is definitely the way to go in a major remodel, so as to avoid dripping paint or skim coat on your pretty new floor.

Once the walls were mostly done, Adrian tore out the old tile and installed her beautiful new tile.

Also, according to the plumbing YouTube videos she watched, plugging the toilet drain pipe with a coffee to-go cup is, in fact, the method of the pros.

Then, she used liquid nails to add some lovely molding around the lower halves of every wall, and then painted it to match. Super simple, but it adds SO much to the space.

And she was STILL cookin’! To replace the porcelain sink, she found a simple cabinet vanity that she tricked out with DIY reeding (dowels cut to size, glued into place, and painted to match), a new faucet, and new hardware. She replumbed the sink and it was ready to go.

But wait, there’s more! Her final DIY project before the finishing touches was creating these lovely shelves. The brass pieces are actually wood pawns from a chess set that she spray painted gold.

And, voila! Besides being insanely impressive, the finished powder room is gorgeous.

Adrian went into the project with lots of DIY experience under her belt, but still challenged herself with new skills like plumbing and tile demo. Her project is inspiring, and just goes to show that when there’s a will and YouTube, there’s a way.

The ORC editors recently put together a guide of their favorite DIY products. You can check out all their recommendations here.

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