World's Smallest Half Bath Reveal

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Adding a bathroom, no matter how small adds value to any house. Here at the Mountain Cottage, more than adding house value, the World's Smallest Halfbath added much needed storage space in a very small bathroom.

It's probably not actually the world's smallest halfbath, but

but it is pretty small at only 17 square feet with an angled wall to boot!

Even though we knew it was going to be small,  we still needed it to function like a big bathroom, as far as storage goes. Plus, planning a tiny half bath is difficult because EVERY inch, no every half inch, counted and affected every other detail in the room.

Here's our inspiration photo:

Source

I can't stress enough that Planning is Key

Here's how we planned out the bathroom. Our little half bath is 17 square feet if measured on the floor and the wall that the toilet is on was 39 1/2" high and angled up.

Mr. DIY had to build out the wall so that we would meet code for the 6 foot 8 inch ceiling height in front of the toilet. 

Here's our before photo of the space. 

We removed the wallpaper in the room and painted and then realized that we needed a bath upstairs so we didn't have to stumble down the stairs in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. After planning it all out, the first thing we did was rip out the drywall and framing. 

Here's the new framing. You can see why the toilet wall had to be built out. Mr. DIY reused a lot of the old 2 x 4's. 

Next came the roughed in plumbing. Mr. DIY had a plumber friend come and help out for a day to get things moving.
It's best to get help with electrical and plumbing  and then save money by diying the finishing of the projects.
And ALWAYS get a permit if your project requires you to do so.

The plumbing had to go somewhere to get out of the house, so we took up some space in the downstairs closet. 

Since you won't see it, Mr. DIY covered up the plumbing with a drop ceiling, which provides  access should we need to fix something. 

Once the plumbing and electrical were finished, the sheetrock went up. 

This photo was taken from the outside looking  through the hole for the medicine cabinet into the bathroom towards where the toilet would eventually go. 

One thing Mr. DIY had to do was cut out one of the layers of the subfloor, since there were two and the tile would bring up the floor to match the existing vinyl. 

I can't tell you how excited we were to get to this point. Getting past the messy mudding of the drywall and sanding was such a big relief. 

After painting the walls and trim, Mr. DIY installed the floor. He used a 24" x 12" tile and cut it in half lengthwise because the bathroom was only 32" wide.

Once the tile was grouted, the toilet went in. 

Yay! 

Progress!

The Pottery Barn Inspired Medicine Cabinet was installed right before the Faux Plank Wall. The countertop at this point was dry fit, but still had to be taken out to be stained. 

A small exhaust fan and light was installed on the only part of the ceiling that is 8 feet high. You can see on the left wall that the light and faux plank wall are finished. 

After staining, the countertop was installed with the sink, then the faucet and drains and the  front apron.

The bathroom is so small, I had to take this photo with my cell phone, with me facing the toilet and the camera turned around. 

It was the only way I could take a photo of the sink wall without having me show in the mirror!

I love how well the countertop turned out. You can see how we made it HERE. 

We chose a toilet paper holder that we could slip the roll of tp easily... If you have children, you  need to have this kind!

...and a coordinating robe hook to put a hand towel on. 

A simple fabric skirt is attached  with velcro to the back side of the countertop apron. Making the apron for the countertop was an adventure in itself because it's curved -- we'll tell you about it another time. 

Adding a couple of big baskets underneath the counter adds storage to hold tp and other stuff.

I will  be purchasing some hand towels from Ikea  that have a loop on the edge so that it will hang closer to the wall. 

Here's how the bathroom looks from the bedroom. So glad we chose a pocket door to save space. 

You remember the before...

...and here's the after.

 We are almost finished with the closet and the storage shelves on the left side of the bathroom. We are also finished with the Pottery Barn Storage bed. 

Can't wait to show all of it to you. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour!
UPDATE: see how we built the closet HERE.
see how we built the shelves HERE.
see the Pottery Barn Storage Bed HERE.

Leave me a comment to me know what you think or if we left anything out!

Pam

Here are the details of the bathroom:
Wall and Trim Paint: Benjamin Moore Decorator white in eggshell finish (walls) and semi-gloss(trim)
Faux Wall and Countertop Apron Paint- Benjamin Moore Balboa Mist (same as walls in bedroom)
Floor Tile: Style Selections Galvano Charcoal Glazed Porcelain from Lowe's
Toilet: AquaSource elongated dual flush 2 pc comfort height 
Faucet: Delta Nura Chrome 1 handle 
Sink: Kohler Caxton K-2209 in white
Toilet Paper Holder: Delta Cassidy Single Post TP Holder
Countertop: 1 1/2" maple butcher block from Lumber Liquidators
Stain for Countertop: MinWax Provincial with MinWax Wipe on Poly
Stain for Medicine Cabinet: Minwax Provincial under Rust-Oleum Driftwood...Wipe on Poly over that
Baskets and Soap Dish: HomeGoods
Light over sink and Exhaust Fan HERE

*Disclosure: we purchased the light over the sink and the exhaust fan from Amazon.
If you purchase from these links, Amazon will give me a small commission.

Here are the links to the other projects in this bathroom:

DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Medicine Cabinet

Faux Plank Wall For The World's Smallest Half Bath

Custom Wood Countertop For The World's Smallest Half Bath