So excited to be a part of the One Room Challenge 10 year anniversary challenge! Here’s Week 1 and we are working on our basement guest bathroom. Scroll down to see the BEFORE. The theme for this bathroom is Luxe on a budget. Think man cave meets bold industrial. Follow us to see how we tackle installing tile and wallpaper for the FIRST time!! @oneroomchallenge | @apartmenttherapy #oneroomchallenge #ORCAT

We bought our home in January 2021 and we are slowly putting our mark on it. During the day I’m a residential real estate agent, but during my free time, I like to do DIY projects like this. I bought my first home when I was 23 and it required a lot of work, but this is my husband’s, Romie, first time owning a home. Out of the two of us, I am definitely the more ‘handy.’ But neither of us have installed wallpaper or tile before, so this is our chance to give you a behind-the-scenes approach to improving your home on a budget.

The before picture

We bought our home new construction from Brookfield Residential. I’ve bought new construction previously, and I always like to spend the money where I spend most of my time- e.g. in the primary bathroom and kitchen. That said, our guest baths and guest bedrooms have no upgrades. So how can we turn something builder grade into something FABULOUS – you’ll have to watch to find out.

Our inspiration and mood board

It is the basement bathroom, and I’d like to take a card out of Shavonda Gardner’s playbook and keep dark spaces dark. We have 8 ft ceilings in our basement, and no windows, so it is dark. But I think that adds to the ‘man cave’ appeal. I wanted this bathroom to be a tester for all of the other rooms in our house. Meaning, I wanted to test out wallpapering, tile, painting cabinets, ALL OF THE THINGS in this tiny basement bathroom, so when we are ready to try it in somewhere we use more often, we will be able to learn from our mistakes.

Where did we start? This room is really centered around this wallpaper from Milton and King. I also got inspiration from Angela Rose’s guest bathroom board and batten. I really wanted hooks or something similar with a shelf. I also really like hexagon tile, and the fact that it kind of resembles concrete.

Our budget for this bathroom is about $1,000 so let’s see if we stick to that.

List of things for us to do

-Rip up vinyl floors

-Learn how to cut and install hexagon tile

-Install wallpaper

-Install board and batten with shelf

-Pick out color to match wallpaper

-Remove toilet and then re-install toilet

-Install new faucet and countertop

Follow me at @rococo_realestate_design on instagram to follow along on our progress!

Check out the www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog for all of the participants in this spring’s challenge