Before and After: Basement Bathroom Makeover

We've come a long way, folks. Operation "Hide the Bidet" in the guest bathroom/laundry room is complete! This is a big step in making the weirdest room in our house prettier and more functional. Let's take a look at where we started, shall we?

In case you missed the intro post to this room back in February, here's the quick version: our second bathroom and laundry room share a very awkward space in the basement. The landlord was clearly on a shoestring budget based on some of the fixture choices and didn't think the space through very well. BUT, he did decide to include a bidet - how lovely right?! Just kidding. For my European friends, I realize this isn't strange to you, but if you look closely, this bidet doesn't even function like a bidet - it has a down-facing faucet. It's pretty much useless and not a great use of space in a small home like ours.

I decided to do something about it and chose to figure out a way to hide the bidet and bring in more storage.

After lots of brainstorming, measuring, and brainstorming some more, I finally settled on a solution from good ole IKEA: a hacked VITTSJO shelving unit.

Here's the star of our show in all her glory...

For reference, the original IKEA VITTSJO looks like this:

I had to assemble it without the bottom shelf so it fit over top of the bidet. Once I put the shelving unit into place, it mostly concealed the bidet. To really make sure it was well-hidden, I installed that leftover solid bottom shelf in front of the unit by sitting it on top of the existing bottom brackets where it would've normally been installed. Then I secured it with a leftover shelf arm. That part's hard to explain in words, but take a look at the photo closely and I think you'll see what I mean.

That left me with a hidden bidet and three shelves of new storage in this bathroom/laundry room. Hooray! For now, I'm using SKUBB boxes for organization, but my next project is cleaning/organizing other closets in our house, so that may change. We'll see.

I'm storing our extra toilet paper in one box...

Laundry items and socks that are missing their other halves in another...(our dog, Jackson, likes to take socks out of the hamper and hide them all over the house, so we have an abundance of missing socks)

And extra guest towels in the last one.

I love having that stuff all put away and organized!

One unexpected fun addition to the room was the chance to hang this old framed print advertising a French restaurant. I found this in my parents' basement when we were moving last summer and hadn't found a good spot for it in our house...until now. After I took down the awkwardly high shelf that was on that wall, there was a perfect spot for art.

And who doesn't love fresh flowers in a bathroom? These pretty daffodils came from my parents' yard. Spring hasn't quite sprung here in Philly, but having these pretty things around sure makes it feel like it until flowers start blooming here :).

So that's my bathroom update for today. I'm so glad I can cross that one off the list.

Here's one more before and after of the space before I go!

Now onto more organization projects. Next on the list are those closets!

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