Bathroom Makeover: From ‘Mellow Yellow’ to Wow!

Ronnie & Cindy McCarson purchased a 1,700-square-foot home built in 1976 after they downsized from a 2,650-square-foot home.

They love that the home is in great shape and has character, but they know that this retro residence needs remodeling.

The couple replaced all the carpet with hardwood floors, installed new countertops, removed textured ceilings and repainted everything in the kitchen.

It’s a brighter and happier home after all the improvements, but their bathrooms still have ’70s colors, countertops and fixtures.

Cindy’s bathroom comes first — we’ll tile over the existing ceramic tile floor, give the vanity a new top, sink and cabinet doors and even raise it a few inches. We’ll also cover up the dated tub and surround with an acrylic overlay and add a new light fixture.

The Projects

Prep the Floor

We remove the sink, vanity countertop and marble threshold before prepping the old tile floor.

That means first removing some dated tile baseboards. Breaking the first tile, getting a flatbar behind it and then prying the rest off prevents us from having to damage the wall above the baseboard. We then replace the tiles with a slightly taller wood baseboard.

Then we use a pole sander — it’s like a mop, just with sandpaper — to remove the ceramic tiles’ glossy finish. This makes it easier to lay thinset.

Install Ceramic Tiles

We’re replacing the yellow tiles with wood-finish ceramic flooring.

Generally, you should run wood flooring parallel to the room’s longest wall, and that’s just what we’re doing!

This also means we get to make fewer cuts compared to laying the tiles horizontally in this narrow bathroom.

We use Aqua Mix Concentrated Stone and Tile Cleaner to prep the surface, and then ProLite Thinset Adhesive from Custom Building Products to install the tiles because it’s ideal for tile-over-tile application.

After chalking a perfect line for the first set of tiles, we apply the thinset with a notched trowel. We then cut the tiles on a wet saw outside and lay them on the bathroom floor.

Finally, we grout the tiles with Fusion Pro from Custom Building Products because it’s easy to spread and clean up, the color is consistent, and it’s stain-resistant.