Kid’s Bathroom Makeover – Demo & Tile
Time to renovate the final room in this home – my kid’s bathroom! It’s got builder grade cabinets, dated fixtures, and beige countertops. Just like the kitchen, I’m not gutting everything in here, I decided to work with the existing cabinets and tub. However for this bathroom makeover, I’m replacing the trim, fixtures, and tile! Let’s start with demo and tile.
Here’s what the room looked like to begin with:
& here’s the mood board I made for the space!
Demo
First step – demo! I needed to remove the tile from the shower very gently because I didn’t want to have to deal with any drywall damage. I took a hammer and chisel to the top tile first! Honestly it took too damn long and I made a hole in the drywall pretty quickly 😂 I ended up putting a grout blade on my oscillating tool to see if it would help the process move a bit quicker. Spoiler, it didn’t work so I ended up just removing the wall…so much for “no drywall damage!”
Shower Walls
Next up, I needed to replace the walls in here. I decided to use GoBoard which is really lightweight, waterproof foam. You just cut it a razor blade and snap it to cut! Then I just secured it to the studs with my drill. This stuff is so easy and it’s heavy or messy like cement board!
After that, it was time to prep for tile. I caulked along all the seams using GoBoard Pro Sealant. This stuff is made for this waterproof backer board. I filled in all the cracks and screw holes and smoothed it out with a spackling knife. My forearms were cramping so bad with all the caulking, so I went out and got a battery operated caulk gun and I was angry I didn’t get one of these sooner…it literally changed my life.
Shower Tile
I was soooo excited for this part! The tile I chose for this project is TO DIE FOR. I got two different color tiles from Daltile, Almond & White. The plan was to make stripes! First, I set up my laser level and got right to it! I spread out my tile adhesive with a trowel and stuck my tiles right on in staggered, striped tile. I used my tile cutter to snap most of the tiles, but I did need my tile saw to cut around the plumbing.
If you were following along in my stories, you saw I made a MISTAKE and some of my white tiles didn’t line up. It was so annoying but I fixed it! Once everything was fixed, I grouted! I picked the color Snow White – I felt like it was a good blend between the two tile colors. I used my grout float for this!
After cleaning all the grout off, I was left with a bit of grout haze. I learned a little hack recently – cheese cloth! You don’t have to keep rewetting a sponge…it just takes it right off!
Floor Tile
Floor tile next! I chose this beautiful, marble, penny round mosaic tile from Daltile – perfect combo with the stripes! The plan was to install the tile on top of my existing floor tile. I cleaned it up and then put on this MBP primer, specifically made for tiling over tile! This gives your tile a grippier surface to adhere to.
But first I had to cut into the baseboards a little bit with my multi tool so that my tiles would fit! I also popped out the old threshold so it would match the marble in the niche.
This primer needs to be either rolled or brushed on…the tile is very sticky and weird haha. The floor felt like a rough concrete. I was left with a really grippy surface for the tile adhesive to grab onto!
Once the primer dried, I did a dry fit! You do a dry fit to make sure everything lays together nicely and to figure out your cuts! Doing this allowed me to get everything precise – around the doors, toilets, etc. I just used scissors to cut through the mesh.
Time to actually tile! This was my first time tiling over tile. You can do this as long as your tile is in great shape and level. Mine checked all these boxes. You have to consider the fact that it will raise your toilet height and your floor up. So, I’d need to install a little spacer for my toilet and I’d maybe need to shave a bit off the bottom of one of my doors. This to me feels like a fair exchange to just tile over tile, rather than do tons of demo!
I used a notched trowel to apply the tile adhesive to the ground. Then I placed my tile and added the spacers. For grout, I decided to use the same one I used in the shower! I used a grout float to spread it into the cracks, then I removed the excess and waited for 10 minutes for the grout to firm before wiping it down with a wet sponge.
Shower Niche
The countertop fabricators made a cute little niche for me with the extra slab remnants from my porcelain slab by Daltile. I secured it in place and then grouted the cracks and cleaned it up! It’s literally perfect.
If you just squint your eyes, it’s like you can’t even see the shower tile mistake 😂 I promise I’m going to go back and fix the middle tiles!
Now, just waiting for my porcelain countertop and shower nice to be installed (plus a few other things 😉). ALMOST DONE YA’LL!
Follow along in my stories!