Painting bathroom door and trim
We could have gone the easy route with a pre-hung door for the studio build… but no I really wanted to have a door with half glass since this bathroom only has one tiny window. Most of the prehung versions I found had clear class but when I came across this frosted one it was perfect.
Guess what? I ordered it during the build, but despite knowing we needed extra room for the door to swing, framed the opening in the wall the exact size of the door. This was truly the only big mixup of the project, and I managed to sell the too-big door on marketplace and reorder a smaller size in the same style so it worked out, but yikes. Then despite being advertised as pre-primed, the door really didn’t hold paint the same as the pre-primed trim, so I touched it up after install and it all worked out.
We needed to paint the interior of door one color to match the bathroom and the exterior to match the overall space. I masked off the glass with tape/plastic and used the sprayer and a ladder to paint this outside while temps were still warm enough to do so and we finished up the project in the middle of winter after floors were done.
Installing beadboard
Beadboard wasn’t tricky to install, but there were some not straight sections of drywall along the floor that left us with baseboard trim gap, thankfully the two worst spots ended up being behind the toilet and sink.
Hanging door
To hang the door we had to mark and router out for hinges on the door frame, install that. Then make sure we marked same spots on the door *but with a 1/8 gap all around*. This is again where my measuring and marking skills saved us bc there was no room for error. Josh executed the cuts with a jig and the router and we literally cheered when it opened and closed and had the perfect gap and didnt hang crooked. I like to think this was more than beginners luck, his practice woodworking and my patternmaking background made it happen, but I would most definitely not recommend this to a beginner DIY’er!
Door handle and latch
Did you spot the brass bathroom sign?! Yes part of my vision had been an old office door, but none we found would fit this tiny space, so the brass sign and frosted glass give that vintage look to a brand new door. Next step was installing the handle and latch, equally as stressful as the hinges. Executed with a jig and we chose a matte black handle to match the door.
False wall & Alcove
Flash forward to the spring and we tackled the final item (besides touching up paint) which was making a false wall to hide the water heater in the bathroom. We used leftover 2×4’s to make a small frame to attach beadboard and trim in the same measurements as the space then painted and slid it into place. We also finished trimming out the rest of the space and had to leave a gap on the far end to allow this to slide in front of the baseboard/top trim on the back of the alcove. We also did some nitpicky trimwork that no will ever see in the lower section of alcove but that will cover the gap between tile and wall/ceiling (since the wall here is angled and not perfectly straight this was the tricky part.
We’re getting close now, stay tuned for the space reveal!
Want to see all the stages of building our new BTS HQ in the Hudson Valley? Find the whole series here BTS Studio Build
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