guest bathroom reveal…finally!

 

February’s 12 in 12 project is finally complete and ready for it’s big reveal.   Let’s take a quick look at what this bathroom looked like in October 2011 when we first laid eyes on it next to a picture of the “remodeled” look from October 2011.  We removed the header above the tub, the spindly half wall next to the sink, and the crazy wooden “box light” above the sink, and painted the vanity and storage cabinet white.  Along with removing ALL.OF.THE.WALLPAPER and painting it, the bathroom looked a lot nicer but was still a little plain.

Here is the after!

I painted the space with Benjamin Moore’s Bird’s Egg, which I love.  It’s a fresh blue without being baby blue.  It definitely opened up the space and make it look larger. 

The letter hooks were moved down a bit to allow Grayson to hang up his own towels.  Moving the hooks also opened up a space to add this fabulous bathroom art by Paper Llamas.

These prints were in my original inspiration post.  Erin of Paper Llamas contacted me about sending me a few prints to try out for myself and also a few for YOU!  Look for a giveaway soon!

After selling our cabinet, we had some space for shelving.  I originally thought I would put some floating shelves here but stumbled upon some unfinished brackets at Lowes.  With some help from my handy husband, we made 3 shelves that were a perfect fit for our space for less than $40.  The shelves still need a little work in the decorating department, but that will come soon.

Another Paper Llamas print hangs by the vanity with a great reminder to brush your teeth.  I took down the old towel ring and plan to replace it with a hook.

Don’t you love what a little paint can do to brighten up a room?  Have you refreshed a room in your house with a fresh coat of paint lately?

decisions, decisions…

This morning has been devoted to paint swatches for my little bathroom redo and the stripes in our entryway.  Who knew it was so hard to find the perfect light blue color?  Here are the swatches I have taped on the bathroom wall right now…

 

And who knew how hard it was to take a picture in a smallish bathroom with no natural light?!  I’m leaning towards Benjamin Moore’s Bird Egg or Sherwin Wiliam’s Upward.  They both definitely look muted in this photo, so here are the swatches from the websites.

As for the stripes in the entry, the walls are currently Monroe Bisque – which I love – so I’m going to paint (3 or 5) stripes that are a few shades lighter than that. The only problem is the Benjamin Moore doesn’t put “shades” on their paint cards, only complementary colors.  But, I think I’m liking the Monterey White that’s on the card with it. 

Let’s take a vote…Bird’s Egg or Upward?  Leave me a comment with your vote!

a little change of plans…

My 12 in 12 project for February was to spruce up Grayson’s bathroom (which also serves as our guest bathroom) just a bit.  It turns out that the bathroom is going to get a coat of paint and some new shelves, too! 

I have been wanting to paint the bathroom but thought I’d wait until later on in the year.  But, after seeing this awesome bathroom remodel on 320 Sycamore and totally falling in love with the look of the shelves over the toilet, I came up with a plan.  I listed the old bathroom cabinet on Craig’s List and decided that if it sold, I’d use the money to paint the bathroom and add new shelves.  The cabinet sold in less than 3 hours!

So, the wall that used to look like this:

Now looks like this:

And will hopefully  have shelves like this soon:

We are going to try our hand at building these shelves:

I will also be buying some white frames for a few fabulous art prints that I received for the bathroom.  I can’t wait to share those and the giveaway that will go along with them!

I’m still searching for a good light blue paint color.  Do you have any suggestions?  Leave me a comment!

Grayson's bathroom inspiration....

Is it Tuesday already?  Really? My "I'll be back tomorrow" line from Thursday's post and turned into "I'll be back 5 days later".  So sorry, y'all.  It's been a long 5 days with a sick boy, some antibiotics for me, and my husband being gone for a few days on a trip with the students.  Couple that with a SuperBowl party extravaganza and here we are on Tuesday...ugh.

Let's start with what we already have in the bathroom that is staying.  I made the shower curtain using a brightly-colored flat sheet from Walmart.  Here's a better picture of the colors in the sheet...

I need to trim the curtain down a little on the sides so it's less "bunchy" and lies a little flatter when stretched all of the way out, but I love the little bit of whimsy it brings in since this bathroom also serves as our guest bathroom.

The BATH letter hooks are staying, but I'm going to move them down a bit on the wall so the kiddo can actually hang up his own towels.  I'm going to add some art above the hooks.  Maybe something like these?

Source: etsy.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

Grayson would love these if we replaced "Jedi Knights" with "Cowboys".

 

Source: etsy.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

These are CUTE! But I'm totally okay with splashing, so we could leave that one out. :)

I'd usually just paint the room to add more color but I'm thinking with the addition of some art and colorful towels to hang on the hooks, we'll have plenty of color and still  have the neutral wall color (Monroe Bisque).  Because we all know the re-decorating bug will bite me again in the future! Ha!

I've got a few more ideas for the room, but you'll have to wait for the reveal at the end of the month!

Do you have any great kid's bathroom ideas?  Have you pinned any cute bathroom art lately?

12 in 12...february's project

February's 12 in 12 project is spicing up our guest bathroom, which also serves as Grayson's bathroom.    Here is what it looks like in all it's tan, white, and striped glory...

The view from the hallway.

I love these letter hooks that I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby last year.

Not sure what happened to the hand towel...I'm guessing Grayson used it to dry off something (probably one of his little horses or "skateboard guys") he was washing in the sink.  Just keeping it real, folks!

This is definitely not going to be a remodel at all...we just need to add some pops of color and spice it up a little!  I'll be back tomorrow to share some of my ideas and inspiration! 

Have you done a little "spicing up" in one of your rooms lately?  Pinned any great kid bathrooms that are still "guest friendly"?  Do share!

12 in 12...january's reveal!

My 12 in 12 project for January was to tackle the playroom and I'm excited to reveal the shelves that my husband and I built!

We used my inspiration shelves as a jumping off point and built these to fit the play room and fit our needs. The shelves are made out of 1 x 12 pine (be careful when you're buying wood because the wood doesn't actually measure 12 inches wide!) which we had cut to size at Lowe's and screwed together with wood screws.  We used cleats to hold the shelves in place, which are just 1x2s cut to size and screwed into the sides.  The shelves are then attached to the top of the cleat.

After all of the construction was complete, I sanded everything down and filled the knots, holes, and imperfections with wood fillers.  The edges were all caulked and then I painted 4, yes FOUR, coats of white semi-gloss paint.  I just used Valspar's white semi-gloss paint off of the shelf and loved it!

We attached 2 more 1x2s to the back of the shelf and screwed that into the studs to secure the book shelf to the wall.  It's not going anywhere!

I added the green baskets (from the Dollar Tree) that were on the previous shelves in the playroom, along with the new bins that I bought at IKEA.  I'd like to get 2 more of the white bins to put along the bottom shelf and 3 more green baskets to fill in the middle shelves.

I have a few more projects up my sleeve to "decorate" it a little more, including adding a few more frames to the wall for Grayson's art. The 4 frames are just leaning for now but will get hung back up in the near future.

I think that Scott and I did a pretty good job for it being the first piece of furniture we have built together!  If you have any questions about specifics on the book shelves, feel free to leave a comment!

I will be back tomorrow with February's 12 in 12 project!

Have you ever built a piece of furniture with your husband or by yourself?  What are your secrets? 

**I'm linking this project over at: