Traditional and Rustic Guest Bathroom Decor

See the before and after transformation of our traditional and rustic guest bathroom and gain a little inspiration for your own space.

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When we first moved into the house, the guest bathroom (mother in law bathroom at the time) was HUGE. And not the good kind, but rather, unnecessarily large with a lot of wasted space.

When we decided to knock down the divider wall and make the entire first floor open concept, we had to reconfigure the entire mother-in-law apartment so it would flow well with the rest of the house. Part of that process was reworking the layout of the bathroom.

We knew right away that we could cut the existing footprint in half and still have enough room for all the necessities. The biggest unknown with the bathroom wasn’t in the bathroom itself, but in finalizing how everything else (laundry room, bedrooms, doors, etc.) was going to be laid out.

Once we agreed on the laundry room and guest bedroom locations, we turned our attention to the bathroom.

Where we are today: our traditional rustic guest bathroom

What I love most about this room is that it served as a testing ground for a lot of different future projects that we’d have throughout the house. And it was the space that experienced quite a few of our ‘firsts’ in renovating.

Shower and vanity in rustic guest bathroom.

The first time tiling a space.

I still remember Brett cutting the tile for the shower holder and both of us getting so frustrated that it wasn’t lining up the right way. We ended up saying ‘screw it’ and leaving it as-is. A day or two later, my dad came over and said, “No, you’re not leaving it like this,” and then proceeded to knock it off, sand down the mortar and put it back up so it was level. Every time I look at that area in the shower, I think about how frustrated we both would have been if it hadn’t been redone. And now we know to bring deep breaths and a lot more patience when starting a tedious project.

Farmhouse plank wall behind toilet in rustic guest bathroom.

Testing out a plank wall.

I knew I wanted to incorporate this farmhouse-esque design element and the little nook behind the toilet was the perfect place. We used regular pieces of wood, which turned out to not be the best choice – plywood is the better way to go.

Farmhouse vanity with concrete counter top in traditional rustic guest bathroom.

The first time building a piece of furniture.

My favorite part of this bathroom is the vanity – handmade by Brett. I can still hear him swearing up a storm in the basement as he was working on the drawers. It turned out better than I could have imagined AND it’s also the piece that we get the most comments on about where to purchase. Maybe he should take the hint and start building them to sell?? 🙂

Testing out concrete counters.

The vanity counter was our first attempt at DIY’ing a concrete counter. Since it was such a success (i.e., relatively easy and inexpensive and durable), we added them to the shortlist of counter styles for the eventual kitchen renovation.

The best part is the only major (which is relatively minor) change we’ve made to this space is the wall color. Not too bad for having it be a room full of firsts and experiments.