Guest Bathrom - FINISHED!

When I last showed you, the guest bathroom was sort of in limbo. I had painted the walls a soft grey, but kept most of the progress a secret until it was complete (with the exception of two sneak peek projects). 

What started out as window shopping shower curtains at West Elm soon became a full blown room redo. I'm proud to say the room is complete (at least for now). I opted not to tackle painting the countertops just yet. The light fixture could use a replacement, but for now I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

Note: I tried to take as many photos as I could with natural light so you could see the real shade of the paint color, but since there are no windows anywhere near the guest bathroom I eventually had to suck it up and take a few photos using the icky bathroom light. The ones I did take in the natural light have a little blur to them. (Any photographers out there have any tips?)

Let's take a mini tour and share some resources, shall we? In case you were curious, the paint is 'Silver Sateen' by Behr. 

Along with giving the walls a fresh coat of paint, I wanted to replace the ugly beige outlet colors with crisp, clean white ones. I opted for the clean lines and modern look of the flat switch as opposed to the traditional light switch. The replacements cost a little more than the others, but not so much that I felt guilty for the upgrade. This picture also gives you a good idea of the paint color. It wasn't my intention, but in person there seems to be a slight blue tint to the gray, which I'm fine with considering the whole color scheme.

 

 

Octopus hook, Anthropologie | hand towel, West Elm | 'D' dish, West Elm | glass storage jars, Homegoods | light switch & outlet, Home Depot

basket, Homegoods | white linens, Homegoods | sea sponges, Amazon | soaps, Amazon

oar, DIY (here) | metal 'D', Urban Outfitters | matted frame left, Target | matted frame right, Pottery Barn | thick wood frame, Target | metal round frame, Homegoods | painting, painted by my grandfather with DIY frame (here) | white frame, old repainetd white | metal door knocker, Pottery Barn | key, thrift

 

 

shower curtain, West Elm | bathmat, West Elm | yellow metal storage crate, Homegoods (love the little pop of yellow!) | candle, Anthropologie | white towels, wedding gift

 

 

ceramic tray, West Elm | glass, Anthropologie | wooden toothbrushes, Amazon | frame, thrifted | soap, Amazon

 

One of my favorite aspects of this room is the fact that I snuck in a number of items that are sentimental to both Jordan and myself - specifically pictures of our grandparents.

 

 

Left: Jordan's maternal grandparents (Target frame)

Right: Jordan's paternal grandparents (Homegoods frame)

 

 

Left: My maternal grandfather (thrifted frame)

Right: My maternal grandmother (really old frame I painted white)

 

 

Above: My paternal grandparents. (Pottery Barn frame) They are the only grandparents that are still alive. I see them every Sunday morning for brunch.

 

There you have it. The guest bathroom is complete, and I love it.

Guest Bathroom Redo: Rope Framed Canvas

 

My grandfather was an artist, and a great one at that. He's done a few portraits, but most of his work was of gorgeous scenery - houses, building, lakes, cars, etc. Whenever we visited, he was always in the middle of painting a number of canvases and the walls in his home in Kensington were covered in his finished pieces. He passed away when I was in college and I made it a point to get a number of his art pieces (that hadn't already been split between his two daughters and nine grandchildren). I adore the paintings my grandfather made. While I have tons of memories of him, I love having these physical paintings to help me still feel close to him. I even have a few personal ones in my collection - one is a painting of my fifth grade school photo (the actual photo of me is unfortunate, but I love the painting) and the other was a bouquet of flowers I specifically asked him to paint. I haven't really hung Pop's paintings in our home. I have no reason for this and that's something I want to change. I want to proudly display them because I am proud of them and they mean a lot to me.

 

When planning the wall in the bathroom I remembered one particular painting of my grandfather's that I knew would be perfect in the space.  

 

One of my favorite details of Pop's paintings is that sometimes he would sneak our names somewhere into the picture. In this particular one, he named the ships after my brothers and me (they read 'Nicki', 'Dave W' and 'Jessica').  

 

 

I wanted the painting to look a little more finished before I hung it since the staples along the edge of the canvas were visible.

 

 

With a spool of jute rope, my glue gun and just ten minutes, I had a new rope frame around my canvas.

 

Not only did is make the painting look more complete and ready to hang, but the rope ties nicely into the theme of the guest bathroom.

 

Pop's painting now hangs proudly on the wall for all our guests to see. Just another tiny peek at the almost finished wall in the guest bathroom.

 

 

Guest Bathroom Redo: Refinished Oar

The guest room is moving along very nicely. The room is painted, my shower curtain finally arrived, textiles have been swapped and I've already started hanging some decor on the walls. Looks like it's going to be finished sooner than expected. One of the changes I'm making in the bathroom is to create a gallery wall on the far wall behind the toilet. My idea was to hang some nice wooden and metal frames along with some fun decorative pieces.

Several years ago I bought these two wooden oars from Ross on sale for $6.99 each. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with them. It was in the beginning of my blogging kick where I started avidly reading DIY blogs like The Lettered Cottage and immediately decided that I needed to have my own little farmhouse cottage with vintage rustic decor (Hence the herb crate purchase, which by the way will be coming down from the wall in favor of a recent animal art piece. More on that later.)

When planning the gallery wall in the guest bathroom I remembered I had these oars stuffed in our basement somewhere. Since my navy and white guest bathroom had taken a somewhat unexpected nautical themed twist, I decided that hanging one of these on the wall with a few of the other things I have been collecting would fit nicely into my theme. As you can see they came with these handpainted scenic designs. Nice and all, but not quite the look I'm going for.

It took maybe 2 hours to completely sand down the oar and remove all the paint. Of course I did all this by hand because we don't have an electric sander. If we did, it probably would have taken half the time. I lucked out that Lucy decided to take a marathon nap that day so I was able to tackle it all in one sitting (with time to spare for a shower afterward, too!).

Once finished, I was pleased with how great the condition was on the bare wood oar. It was so smooth and there was little to no residue from the paint.

Staining needed to wait for another day and another naptime for Lucy. Luckily I treated myself to a three day weekend so the next day was perfect. I grabbed some stain I already owned (I have a few different colors from prior projects and opted for the 'middle' shade) along with my other supplies and got to work. After the mess of staining the wine crate, I learned that a mask and rubber gloves are a must when staining. That stuff does not come off your hands easily.

After a coat of the first color I liked how it looked, but wanted more. I decided to take a darker color that I also had from another project and do a few random streaky spots around the oar. Much better!

Once finished, I let the oar dry overnight and used a few coats of my acrylic sealer (Seen here. I love this stuff.) to set the stain. Another day and another nap (I swear now that she's walking this girl naps like a champ) gave me time to hang my newly stained oar on the wall along with some other items, which I will share more about later.

Because the oar is actually pretty light, I attached a simple picture hanger attachment thing(technical word) to the back of it, near the top.  I decided that I wanted to hang it vertically with the heaver side towards the bottom. Heavy isn't even the right word because the wood is pretty lightweight.

Here is a sneak peek at the corner of bathroom where I hung the oar. Just a sneak peek, though, because I'm not quite finished. While all the frames and accessories are up on the wall, I'm still working to fill those frames and don't want to share it all until the room is complete.

 

Tomorrow I'll share with you how I took a sentimental piece of art and added a little something for $0 to dress it up for the bathroom gallery wall.

Guest Bathroom Redo

I mentioned to you before when I posted about my navy and white mini obsession that I was ready to upgrade our guest bathroom a bit. I wasn't quite planning to do it so soon, but before I knew it I had a can of paint and was slapping some color on the walls this past weekend. It started with wanting to swap out the textiles for a little navy and white and it quickly evolved into a full-on planned out bathrom re-do. Here is a shot showing the bathroom how it has looked for the past year or so and how it looks today after repainting the ceiling white and the walls a 'Silver Sateen' from Behr.

This is what I have planned for the space. Funny enough I was trying to stray away from the navy and white being too 'nautical' and now I have old oars, an octopus hook and a porthole ready to mount on the wall. I'm going back and forth with the idea of repainting the countertops. The ugly cream countertop with the faux brown marble look is just not quite what I have in mind for a fresh bathroom. I've been searching online for ideas to paint a countertop. It seems possible, but I haven't quite decided if I have the guts to do it. Worst case scenario, Jordan and I plan to upgrade both the guest and master bathrooms and if this doesn't work we just might be doing it sooner than we thought. The mirror will remain as I love the wall to wall look and honestly think if I downsized to a smaller mirror, the bathroom would look smaller, too. The light fixture is fine, but I'm not against swapping it out if something catches my eye. 

As you can see, I've already purchased a number of things. From West Elm, a shower curtain, hand towel, bath mat, and some ceramic trays (all three of these pictured on my navy + white post). I also found a few sea sponges and handmade soaps from Amazon. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that Jordan surprised me with the octopus hook I wantd from Anthropologie. I've also been stocking up on a variety of metal and wood finished frames and accent pieces (Homegoods, Pottery Barn, Urban Outfitters, etc) to create a gallery wall on the space above the toilet. The white towels, metal basket and glass jars are Homegoods finds. Not pictured, but I have two large wooden oars I bought from TJ Maxx years ago with no plan, but I figured I'd find a way to use them some day. Now I'm so glad I did. With a little sanding and some TLC, they will be a great addition to the gallery wall.

I'm waiting for my shower curtain to arrive before I start mapping out the gallery wall, but I'm pretty impressed with how quickly I have been whipping this room into shape. I anticipate hanging the frames this weekend and having updated pictures to you as early as next week. We may be having a guest or two in October so if that isn't motivation enough, I don't know what is.

 

Don't forget about the Shabby Apple $50 giveaway going on now through Friday.

See details here.

Grey/Gray

What's the proper spelling of the word grey/gray?

I honestly never knew.

While I'm bummed the guest room renovations have temporarily been put on hold as we've been having guests actually stay in it, I'm happy to say that I've been able to focus my energy into other rooms of the house that need some love.

I'm working on actually making our master bedroom and bathroom look a little more finished. Ever since I repainted it a little over a year ago, the bathroom has been a simple white on white with some neutral accents. Because the space is so small, I really do like that the walls are light. It keeps the room from looking like a dungeon and it reflects some of the natural light that comes in from the bedroom windows. That being said, the white on white and neutrals makes the room look unfinished and I'm ready to tackle that problem.

Our bedding for the last two years has also been all white. I purchased a white duvet set from Ikea for about $50 and have been really happy with it, but I'll admit I'm ready for a change. Plus, once the guest room is painted, I plan to relocate the white duvet there to go along with the white and gold scheme.

This is the most recent picture I have of our old bedding. 

I have no recent pictures of our bedroom because we really haven't done much to it, so I avoid taking pictures. Plus these days our bedroom tends to be covered with baby toys, pacifiers, blankets, boppy pillows, etc.

For Christmas my parents bought us this gorgeous bedding from Target.

I purchased the large grey pillows on clearance from Target a few months back. The Missoni blanket has since been relocated in the living room. 

While I only asked her for the sheet set, my mom went ahead and also bought us the duvet cover with matching shams, and I am so glad she did. They actually aren't even part of the same set (at least I don't think they are), but my mom thought it would look great with the sheets I chose.

Jordan and I both agree that this is the softest bedding we've ever slept in. 

Just what we needed - something else to make it hard to get out of bed in the mornings.

For the bathroom, I recently ordered this shower curtain from West Elm, on sale for $31.

I also snagged these beautiful hand towels from Anthropologie last weekend during an impromptu shopping trip at the mall. They were in the clearance room and cost $9.95 for the hand towel and $3.95 for the wash cloth. I bought two of each.

My mom bought us these hand towels for Christmas from Target for the other towel rack in the bathroom. 

I'm not a fan of buying a whole bathroom set where the towels match the shower curtain which matches the rug and the trash can has the same print, and so on. I love the mix and match of the two separate prints paired with the stripes of the shower curtain. It will tie the room together without making it look like an ad from a JC Penney catalogue (no offense to those of you who shop there!)

Jordan and I also have talked about renovating both the master and guest bathrooms and replacing the sinks and mirrors in both rooms. Those are the only things in our house that have not been recently updated and I'm itching to get rid of them in both rooms.

Also part of the plan is to DIY some great wall art for the bathroom.

Wall art seems to be my biggest challenge...

Seriously, how do you spell the word grey/gray???

Ruffles

I've always loved the Waterfall Ruffle Shower Curtain from Urban Outfitters, but not it's $79.00 price tag.

I love anything ruffled really. 

Check out their Ruffled Duvet Cover,

and I'm very seriously considering purchasing their Ruffled Laundry Bag for the baby's room.

My sweet husband got me a UO gift card for Mother's Day and while perusing their website I found this orange ruffled shower curtain for half off - only $39.99! 

I've been looking for a way to spruce up the guest bathroom, and this pop of color is the perfect fit. The rest of the bathroom pretty much has a white and beige theme going on. It still needs some work including a fresh coat of paint on the walls, some sort of art on the wall about the toilet, and replacing the 1990's countertop. 

Here are two before pictures of how the bathroom looked before. 

Well my order arrived the other day and it took me no time to rip open the box and hang the new shower curtain. I apologize in advance for the terrible lighting in these photos. Since we live in a townhouse and the guest bathroom is right in the middle of the second floor, we get little to no natural light in this room. 

In case you are curious, here is a shot of the counter in the bathroom.

The milk glass shoe is one of many pieces that my grandmother has given me over the past two years. 

The picture on the left is my gorgeous mom from 1979. And the picture on the left is my maternal grandmother. I adore both pictures. The little jar was part of a set of 4 jars with missing lids I snagged in the Ikea "as-is" room for $1.99. The white dish is from Pier One.

The guest bathroom is where I shower, so that's why I opted for a more girly feel. For me, it's roomier than our master bathroom (ok, roomy for a townhouse bathroom) and I can shower and blow dry my hair and not worry about waking up Jordan in the morning.

These shower hooks were in the clearance shelf at TJMaxx. Love them!

These gorgeous detailed towels are part of a set that my aunt gave me for a housewarming gift. I love the floral detail on a simple white towel. The rest of the set is in our master bathroom.

I'm happy to say that the orange of the fabric is almost more of a peachy-coral orange, than a bright construction cone orange it appears in the above pictures. Here is a shot of the curtain in the sunlight. It's pretty close to the picture that UO had on their website, if not a tiny bit lighter.

Since I was on a roll with ruffles, I also picked up this Gingham Ruffle Pillow in black on sale for $9.99,

along with this Ruffle Stripe Pillow in orange, also $9.99.

A sucker for letters and anything monogrammed, I had to grab myself some letters, too.

Left: Wire Frame Letter                                                                  Right: Industrial Stencil Letter

I'm still playing around with a home for each. I was limited to which letters were available. Most of the ones I was looking for were out of stock, so I opted for D's on both. Once they come back in stock I plan to get a few other letters.

Someday if I can figure out how to get some decent lighting I'll take a few real pictures and a more detailed look at the guest bathroom.