Our inspiration – just $2,200 from Signature Hardware. Obviously not the actual one to be used because $2,200.
Alright, we are taking a little time out from our overhaul in the Chestnut Suite to show you our clawfoot tub restoration process. The biggest part of our newest project is the bathroom. Once two small bathrooms, each with its own shower, our goal was to create one luxurious master bath. Visualizing the open space proved a bit difficult as we went through a series of floor plans, trying to take the greatest advantage of the existing plumbing.
Our original plan included a double vanity, oversized shower, and soaking tub. Once the walls were out, it became clear that we couldn’t fit both a tub and a shower. The handy Innkeeper mourned his clawfoot tub, but then we realized that while we couldn’t fit a tub and shower, we could tuck a tub into the shower.
With the room wide open, we decided to turn half of the room into a wet room with a shower head on one side and a tub on the other. If you’ve been following along at all, you know we are working on a tight budget and luxury items like $2000 tubs are simply not feasible. But did that stop us? Not the handy one, at least.
Step one of clawfoot tub restoration: gently invert the 250 pound metal tub and remove any hardware.
Step two of clawfoot tub restoration: easily unscrew the feet and set aside…
Step three of clawfoot tub restoration: sand away 50-60 years worth of paint. I probably should have used paint stripper as well – the sander smoothed it out a lot, but you can still see where the layers of paint are, especially at the back where it had heavily chipped.
Step four of clawfoot tub restoration: Coat thoroughly in a rusted metal primer, including the feet. No particular reason why.
Step five of clawfoot tub restoration: Spray paint with enamel in your chosen color.
Step six of clawfoot tub restoration: Paint the feet and reattach – maybe get some non rusted-out screws to do it.
Step seven of clawfoot tub restoration: Gently flip the 250 pound tub back over to reveal the perfectly beautiful insi-gah! Okay, maybe not perfectly beautiful.
Step eight of clawfoot tub restoration: Leave it outside forever because there is no way you are dragging that thing down stairs. Just kidding. Kind of.
