For this classic bungalow, a glow up, not a gut

Updated: Jan 8

Art: Tim McAvin

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. This isn't the inaugural post I had planned, but our home was recently featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and readers had questions, so I thought this would be a good place to answer them.

When we bought our craftsman-era bungalow eight years ago, it had been vacant for two years. While it had the proverbial "good bones," it hadn't seen love for quite awhile and it showed. Here are some shots of what it looked like when we bought it and what it looks like now. After the gallery, I'll provide details on how we updated the vintage 1937 bathroom. In later posts, I'll share some of the other ways we restored the charm and preserved the character of this older home.

Before and after - exterior

Exterior front view of a 1937 brick bungalow before renovation.

This classic brick bungalow in St. Louis, Missouri, had an arched stone entry, a veranda porch and colorful flower pots.

Before and after - living room

An empty living room has stark white walls and an outdated brick fireplace.

A colorful maximalist living room has a black brick fireplace, vintage Asian rug, and leather Sven sofa and blue velvet Sven chairs from the furniture retailer Article.

Before and after - dining room

Before shot shows an empty dining room with blank white walls.

In a beautiful dining room with pale pink walls, an oversized Chinese paper lantern hangs above the dining room table and colorful, large-scale art by St. Louis artist Carol Carter hangs on the wall.

Art: Carol Carter

Before and after - bathroom

An ugly vintage bathroom with a flowered shower curtain and green ruffled window topper.

Vintage bathroom with stained glass window in the home of St. Louis interior designer Sharon Derry.

This is where you had the most questions. I love a good vintage bathroom and I'm always a little sad when I see them "updated" with generic, big-box fixtures and materials. But the truth is, this one wasn't in great shape. My husband and I went back and forth whether to gut it and start from scratch or preserve the thoughtful, handcrafted details. Ultimately, I couldn't bear to tear out the basketweave tile—each piece laid by hand—or lose the 1930s sink, the graceful arch over the (original) tub, or any of the other charming period features. So here's what we did:

HOW WE REFRESHED THE VINTAGE WALL TILE

The wall grout was yellowed and dingy, but otherwise intact. I used an acrylic latex paint in a color similar to the tile and painted every. single. inch. of grout with a tiny, angled eyebrow brush. You're probably wondering how it's holding up—good question! On the non-shower walls, it looks the same as the day I did it. In the shower, I've had to touch it up in a few spots and will likely continue to have to do so.

There were approximately 10 miles of grab bar in the shower. It was crazy! When we removed it, it left 28 holes in the tile! I filled them with joint compound, let it set, then sanded and painted the patches the same color as the grout. I'm really proud of my "artistry:" you can barely see the repaired areas!

HOW WE REFRESHED THE VINTAGE FLOOR TILE

The floor grout was dull and gritty like sand. It was unsealed, unattractive, and impossible to keep clean. I took a gamble: I bought some premixed, unsanded grout in charcoal and applied it right over the existing grout with the edge of a credit card. Tip: If your grout lines aren't deep enough, overgrouting may not work. The lines have to be deep enough that you can wipe the grout off the surface of the tile and still have it stay in the grout line. Having said that, my grout lines were pretty shallow and it still worked. So maybe try it in an inconspicuous spot before committing to the whole room. Tip: Watch a YouTube video to learn how to apply grout, wipe it off the tile, etc., before you start. We also:

reglazed the original cast-iron tub. Shoutout to Gateway Porcelain Refinishing, who did a fantastic job for us.
spot-sanded the walls by hand [they had 80+ years of flotsam and jetsam stuck under 80+ years of paint] and painted them a soothing silvery sage green. TIP: If you have wall vents, paint them the same color as your walls. It's not a feature you want to draw attention to. Painting them the same color helps make them "disappear."
took down a cheap and butt-ugly cabinet that hung over the toilet and replaced it with a piece of vintage art.
took down a cheap and butt-ugly medicine cabinet and had my brother, Eric Derry, build a new one. He crafted it out of an original interior door we found in the basement, so it matches the existing woodwork perfectly and looks like it has always been there.
took down a cheap and butt-ugly (are you noticing a pattern?) light fixture and installed one that's new, but has a vintage vibe.
replaced the sink faucets, shower head, tub filler and shower curtain rod.
replaced switchplates and outlet covers with new ones that have a vintage look and feel.

A 1930s-era vintage bathroom had green accent tiles, original sink, and wood medicine cabinet.

replaced the old, broken wooden towel bars. We replaced the shower curtain with a 100% flax linen one I found on Amazon for a fantastic price.

A piece of beautiful, weighty 100 percent flax linen fabric drapes over the edge of a wood tray beside a ball of jute twine.

Finally, we re-plated the door hardware in an antique nickel finish.

Interesting note: In homes of this era, the bathroom and pantry door hardware was nickel—even if the other hardware in the home wasn't—since nickel is a more durable finish and these handles saw more use. Who knew???

Before and After - door hardware

1930s door hardware on a mahogany wood door.

Tip: With a design "refresh" rather than a major renovation, you can afford to splurge a little on accessories and decor.

Phew. That was a lot of writing, and for you, I'm sure, a lot of reading. So I'm going to leave it there and I'll share more next post. Thanks again for visiting!