Sunday, January 16, 2011

Guest bathroom

This post is about 4 months late but better late than never, right?

When we were getting ready for my brother's visit back in September we thought we should check out the guest bathroom and make sure it was acceptable for someone to use. Apart from buying a shower curtain and rod we hadn't done a single thing in there since we moved in.

Here it is in all its glory:

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Note the burn marks on the ceiling from the over zealous bulbs!

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The problems:
* Yucky caulk around the tub, cracked caulk along the top of the shower surround
* Paint bubbling and peeling, and soft drywall around the edges of the shower surround and tub
* Grossness where the tub meets the vinyl floor
* Vinyl floor full of stains and dings
* Yellowed white paint on the walls
* Ridiculously large mirror
* Rusted, dated light fixture
* Peeling varnish on vanity
* Biscuit colored countertop that extends over the toilet
* Plastic toilet paper holder
* Miniature towel bar (we could tell there used to be a wider one because the old holes were spackled but not sanded - for some reason someone switched it to a shorter one - weird!)

Obviously there had been some water leakage at some point (maybe kids splashing in the tub?) and I have a feeling there is some moisture behind the shower surround but we don't have the money for a big bathroom project right now so we decided to fix what we could see and then prettify the room. After a couple evenings spent scraping off caulk and peeling paint, patching walls, and recaulking we were ready to start painting.

The only window is a small one in the shower, which makes for a bit of a dark room, so we decided to paint over the slightly yellowed white paint to freshen things up. And what color did we pick? Gray! Ironic, huh. I love gray and ever since we painted our bedroom "Light French Gray" which turned out to be blue I've been dying to paint a room gray. We settled on a lovely light gray that has slight warm tones that will hopefully counteract the overly cold feeling in the room.

Of course I couldn't stop there so we removed the huge builder mirror and used a borrowed mirror from the hallway in its place. I also decided the ugly oak vanity needed painting. I wanted to paint it white but the counter is biscuit colored and I thought a white vanity would just make the ugly biscuit color more pronounced. We already had black semi gloss lying around so I slapped some of that on and it looks a lot better.

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The floor has to stay for now but at least that gray rug covers up a large portion of it!

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We switched out the brass hinges for satin nickel and added knobs. This is our go-to toiler paper holder (that's something I never thought I'd write!). Its the same one we used in the powder and its only $17!

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This light fixure is probably our best find ever - we found it on clearance at Lowe's for $14 - is that a steal or what!? (CFLs are a bit ugly but I feel guilty using anything else.)

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The frame is one we had lying around and the picture is an enlargement of a photo I took in the backyard in the spring. I borrowed the tray from the kitchen and grabbed the other goodies from around the house. I think the yellow looks lovely with the gray!

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This was our solution to the miniature towel bar situation. To add some interest to the wall and provide space for more towels we used garment hooks instead of the traditional bar. I LOVE how it looks and it was such an affordable solution!

Because we used things we already had we didn't have to buy much so this was a very affordable makeover and made a huge difference in the room.

Light fixture $14
Paint $22
Toilet roll holder $17
Garment hooks $10
Rug $15
Photo enlargement $1.50
Total $79.50 Yay!

2 comments:

Brandon and Becca said...

I love your decorating blogs. The bathroom is much improved. It is amazing what a little black paint can do.

Terry said...

Like everything else you have done to the house, this bathroom looks great. I love the light fixture-it looks a lot like ours from the Depot which was only $28.00. Love the hooks-what a great idea. It looks fresh and clean and that's what you want in a bathroom. Great job you guys!!