World's Smallest Half Bath Reveal

This post contains affiliate links*

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

DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Medicine Cabinet

Well,  the worlds smallest half bath at the mountain cottage is fully functional! 

YAY!!!

Mr. DIY installed the sink, countertop and faucet last week and the little bathroom is open for business. 

(no pun intended)

There are a few more details that need to be finished up, so I can't show you the whole bathroom just yet. The wood apron on the underside of the countertop, a fabric skirt needs to be made and hung  and a doorway needs to be painted. 

In the meantime, I can show you an awesome storage detail I designed (and painted and stained) and Mr. DIY constructed... 

...a custom framed medicine cabinet...

Adding storage to every room is one of our highest priorities as we renovate the Mountain Cottage.

I figured we could build a deep medicine cabinet set into the wall and make it pretty with a stained framed mirrored door. 

Our inspiration came from Pottery Barn. 

(This mirror is no longer available)

Mr. DIY started out using the table saw to make the frame for the mirror out of   1 x 4's. The wood was trimmed down to 3" wide. 

Grooves( a dado) were cut around the frame - allowing the mirror to sit flush in the framed door

4 pieces of wood were put together to make the frame for the mirror using screws in pocket holes make with the Kreg Jig. 

Then the mirror was glued in place using construction adhesive.

The adhesive was smoothed out with a putty knife so that the hardboard would fit in the groove and tightly against the mirror. 

The Kreg jig was used to create pocket holes so that  the four sides could be screwed together Construction adhesive was used to to glue the mirror into  the frame frame and then to attach hardboard to strengthen and protect mirror

Here's how the back of the framed mirror looked at this point. 

The box is just 4 pieces of 1 x 6" cut down to 5" deep.  The Kreg Shelf Pin Jig was used to make holes so that the shelves could be adjustable. 

You can find the Kreg Shelf Pin Jig HERE

Here's the medicine cabinet box after a hardboard back had been put in. You can see the shelf pin holes drilled in the sides. The box was primed and painted with several coats of white paint

The framed mirror door is ready to be stained and the back painted. 

We found a can of MinWax Provincial stain in the workshop at the mountain cottage and I applied several coats to the frame of the mirror. 

I thought the stain wasn't quite right next to the countertop, so I bought a can of Rust-oleum Driftwood stain and applied a couple of light coats on top of the Provincial stain. 

It was perfect!
A couple of coats of clear poly was applied over the stain. 

We didn't like the look of the back of the door because of the gap between the hardboard and the frame and the pocket holes at the top an the bottom,

 so Mr. DIY found some wood scraps in the woodshed at the mountain cottage and glued them onto the back of the door. I stained the pieces of wood after they were attached. 

Here's the finished product!

You can't tell from the photo, but the Provincial stain come through in the knots in the wood and is the color the countertop is stained. (If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen how beautiful it turned out)

The door is attached with two 12" x 3/4" piano hinges

The medicine cabinet box is 22 wide x 28 high x 5" deep. 

That's 2.77 square feet of storage!

Mr. DIY attached a magnetic catch in the lower left corner of the inside of the medicine cabinet.

Our diy Pottery Barn Medicine Cabinet adds a good amount of storage in an otherwise wasted space.

What is one room in your house that could use more storage space???

Pam

Faux Plank Wall In The Worlds Smallest Half Bath

Plank walls and faux plank walls are all over the place and we had to put one on the sink wall in the worlds smallest half bath, upstairs at the mountain cottage. 

Faux plank walls are another easy and inexpensive way to add interest in a small space. 

Since we planned on painting it, we bought a half sheet of  1/8th inch hardboard and cut it into 4" wide strips.

I then painted them Benjamin Moore Balboa Mist (which is the adjoining bedroom paint color)

Mr. DIY glued them to the wall with construction adhesive using a scrap of the hardboard as spacers. 

He started above the faux plank wall above the countertop and continued up to the ceiling. 

When it was all finished, I touched up the faux plank wall with a foam brush and applied a coat of paint in the spaces between the boards. 

Can't wait to show you the entire finished wall with the custom medicine cabinet (with rustic frame door) and the finished countertop/apron. 

I just ordered some....well, you'll have to wait and see....

We're getting excited about this project now that we're nearly finished with it.

Hope you stop by to see it!

Pam