New Lighting And Mirror Brighten The Style In 1970s Bathroom

Welcome to Week 6 of the One Room Challenge®.

Our 1970s bathroom desperately needed new bathroom lights, preferably two new modern wall sconces, a new modern vanity mirror to replace the dated oval medicine cabinet mirror, and a new exhaust fan light combo.

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My husband took the lead on sourcing the items we needed to update the mirror and lighting because he knew what he wanted for this guest bathroom before I could begin shopping for bathroom ceiling lights or vanity lights.

As it turns out, his vision for the bathroom vanity area is much better and will provide an upscale experience compared to whatever more than adequate lighting I was shopping for.

Our lighting and mirror needs for a more modern bathroom included a new wall mirror, without a medicine cabinet, to fit over the hole of the original mirror. Two new wall sconces with a modern style for both sides of the mirror with lightbulbs that give off a soft glow compared to the harsher lightbulbs of the original scones.

Extra bathroom mirror lights were an important update for the dark corner of the vanity. Preferably one with a modern look and LED bulbs.

And we wanted a new bath exhaust light combo that was much quieter than the original.

My bathroom design choices would have been stylish and pretty. The lights would feel more modern and flood the entire room with a warm glow. My lighting choices for our new modern bathroom design would have worked very well.

His vision was completely different, especially in the choices for wall mirrors.

And I like his modern bathroom ideas more than the ones I had.

So let me show you what my husband finished up this week.

The original mirror at the vanity was a large, ornate oval mirror with a medicine cabinet built into the wall.

The previous owner’s mirror was charming but not very modern in style. I briefly considered spray painting and reusing it to save on the budget. Doing that though would have made me revisit the design of the room to change it out anyway because it is not the look I wanted.

My husband ordered from Amazon a LUSABE Black Framed LED Bathroom Mirror. This mirror has front-lit and backlit lights in 3 dimmable colors and an anti-fog tempered glass surface. My wall mirror choices were simple compared to this one.

Our adult kids have agreed it is pretty cool.

The two original sconces were very dated and a little retro but not our style at all either. A benefit the two original sconces had was the built-in electrical plugs below the lights. Extra plugs always come in handy at a vanity. However, these were too high up on the wall to be useful.

If we had gone with my idea for new sconces, we would have lost those two extra electrical plugs. Not ideal for any bathroom. Trying to find new sconces with plugs was not ideal either. We would have been right back where we started with electrical plugs too high on the wall for the cords of our electronics to work.

Buying the new LED mirror gave us the solution for lighting and the extra plugs.

Electrical work needed to be done.

Making the new mirror work in place of the old medicine cabinet mirror required relocating the electricity that fed the original plugs on the sconces to new wall plugs. Inside the wall behind the medicine cabinet was another electrical line that could be used for the LED mirror.

Once the electrical lines were moved and repurposed, my husband had to cover the hole left behind by the old medicine cabinet mirror and patch the wall.

The new vanity sconces are part of the Home Decorators Collection from Home Depot. We both like their more modern industrial style in a brushed nickel finish for the bathroom.

The vanity area is already looking completely different than before and makes the room feel so much more up-to-date with the latest design trends for smart homes.

My next task is to give the vanity cabinet a much-needed makeover in a shiny gloss finish.

Now that the dated popcorn ceiling has been removed and a new skim coat applied to the ceiling surface, he could install the new ceiling light.

The hole in the ceiling left behind by the old-style exhaust fan and light fixture required us to shop for a larger-sized replacement light. We found a great option at Home Depot. We purchased a HomeWerks™ Bath Fan with Bluetooth Speakers, LED Light and Night Light.

With this combo light, we can connect our phones to play music and listen to audible books, or a Podcast overhead while we get ready in the mornings. Or at least our guests will be in this room.

This was not exactly what we had in mind, but it was the best-sized light fixture to cover the hole in the ceiling. However, the Bluetooth link-up is a bonus feature to enjoy.

This same light will probably be installed in the two other bathrooms on the top floor when we remodel them. Currently, they both have the same old-style exhaust that this bathroom had.

Now I am jealous that the mirror in the Master bath hasn’t been upgraded to something so fun and modern. It is coming though. I have already put in my request to have the Master bathroom mirror and sconces updated soon.

End of Week 6 – the painting is done!

At the end of week six of the One Room Challenge®, all of the walls in the room have the final coats of paint in the same soft gray color by Behr called White Metal, in a Satin finish. We used this color in our laundry room renovation several years ago and I am still pleased with how our laundry room turned out.

The rooms are side by side so they get the same amount of natural light and the COLOR looks very good in both rooms.

Honestly, my first choice of paint color for this 1970s bathroom makeover was a Sherwin-Williams paint color called Alpaca in a Satin finish.

I loved it in our Foyer makeover project from two years ago. When we applied it to the walls in this bathroom, it turned a muddy beige instead of gray, as you can see in one of the photos shared above around the old medicine cabinet repairs.

Sometimes the same paint will look completely different in another space.

Two friends have used this Sherwin Williams Alpaca color in their homes and I love how it looks. This is why I decided to use it in our Foyer makeover.

However, depending on the natural lighting in the room, it can appear slightly different in each installation. In one friend’s house, the painted walls dried to a soft neutral gray leaning more toward white. However, she has large windows along one side of the house so the room is always drenched in natural light. In the other’s home, it appears as more gray because she has less natural light.

The gray tone is also prominent in our Foyer with two large windows. This was the color I wanted to repeat in this bathroom makeover and have it planned for the walls for the adjoining bedroom. After this experience, I will change my paint color choice for the bedroom makeover.

But in this bathroom with one frosted window, it turned more brown. We all used the same color formula with three different finished results Of course, the brown pigments could have been accentuated more on our bathroom walls because of the primer used over the original blue paint and the filtered natural light through the frosted window.

For reasons like the above examples, I always suggest to my design clients that they buy small sample containers of new paint colors to try on a wall before investing in a full gallon.

This week the new modern bench, the accent wallpaper, and the vinyl wrap for the laminate top all arrived, just in time for the next few tasks to complete on our 1970s Vintage Bathroom Makeover.

Week 6 for us was a successful move forward.

What have I been working on?

While my husband has taken the lead recently to rewire the electrical plugs, install the new mirror and sconces, install the ceiling light, and paint the walls and trim, I have been working on the art projects for the room, and of course, writing these posts. Not to mention all of the cleanup and the never-ending battle to clear up the construction dust.

During the next week, I am kicking my husband out of the room and I will take over the majority of the necessary work tasks to finish up the project. This week my most important tasks will be to start sanding down the worn surface of the original bath vanity cabinet and work on the feature wall in the closet.

Thanks for stopping by,