• April 3, 2025

Evanston Mansion Renovation – Powder Room

Capturing new space from the unfinished basement of this 100+-year-old mansion in Evanston, Illinois and covering an old window to update a powder room in this luxury mansion.

Follow along!

• Episode 1 – Exterior and Foyer
• Episode 2 – Library and Family Room
• Episode 3 – Dining Room and Porch
• Episode 4 – Kitchen and Pantry
• Episode 5 – Stairwell and Landing
• Episode 6 – Primary Bedroom and Bathroom
• Episode 7 – Porch and Third Floor
• Episode 8 – Lower Level
• Episode 9 – Laundry and Guest Bath
• Episode 10 – Kitchen and Pantry After Demo
• Episode 11 – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo
• Episode 12 – Laundry and Guest Bath After Demo
• Episode 13 – Third Floor After Demo
• Episode 14 – Temporary Primary Bedroom
• Episode 15 – Entry Hall & Library
• Episode 16 – Primary Bath
• Episode 17 – Exterior Sconces
• Episode 18 – Powder Room
• Episode 19 – Kitchen

 

Transcript

Part of what is so fun about working on a renovation is when the owner says, “Hey, while you’re here…”

I’m standing in the first floor powder room. It has a sloped ceiling because it’s built underneath the staircase up to the second floor, there’s a great window, so tons of light.

There used to be a toilet here, and when you’d sit on the toilet, your knees would practically hit the wall.

There was a pedestal sink here, which was just this tiny thing.

And then this window sill came about three feet out.

There’s actually a window underneath this window.

And as you can see now, there’s no window underneath this window.

So what we’ve done is we took out the walls that were here, and we filled in the floor, and we put a cover behind this drywall on that window.

All of the basement windows around the property have these very ornate grills that prevent people from coming into the building.

And so you can see the top of that.

And that’s really the only tell when you’re in this room that would make you think, “Hey, is there a window here?”

So we’ve rotated to have the toilet be against the window, and we’re going to have a pedestal sink here with two sconces.

The owner found some tile in an image, maybe they were actually there, of a hotel in London and crazy, crazy tile on the walls. And they said, “We want to do this.”

And so in a future video, once the tile starts going in, we’ll be able to see the progression of that. And I’m so excited to share that with you.