Operation De-Wallpaper: Bathroom RENO

I think we’re about due to reveal another sliver of our renovation heaven… in the form of our downstairs bathroom! We inherited this bathroom in really great shape, just covered in wallpaper from head to toe. Not terrible (it actually looked nice!), but not quite our style.

The first thing we did was remove all of the fixtures, hardware, and wallpaper. Towel rack, toilet paper holder, and shelving unit above the toilet came down, followed by all of the wall paper. Unlike the kitchen, this wallpaper was SUPER easy to peel off… something the peelers were thankful for!

Up next was spackling and priming the walls. No pictures of this step. This may have been because we had to do little to no spackling (thank you, Step 1) and ended up moving quickly through this part of the process. And finally, we got to paint! I also have no pictures of this step, mostly because it was finished before I could get over there with a camera to document (this was happening at the same time that a lot of the rest of the house was transforming, so I was racing around trying to get shots of everything).

Let’s talk color: Up until this point, every other room of the house seemed to be on the same spectrum of colors (yellows, blues, tans, whites), but with the bathroom, we wanted to try something different. As previously mentioned, we gravitate toward specific colors. Don’t believe me? This is what I found when I stood up from my chair after sifting through paint chips…

Yeah, it’s bad. To see some of our favorite colors in action, check out our yellow kitchen, teal Spare Bedroom, and minty blue Upstairs Bath. So now when I say “outside our color comfort zone”, you know what I mean. For the Downstairs Bathroom, we decided to go with a gray (Behr “Subtle Touch” from Home Depot). At first we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out, but we love it!I realize that these pictures make the color look really purple-y (and it does have a lavender tint to it in person), but here’s a shot that shows off the gray a bit more.

After seeing how soothing the gray looked, I wanted to continue with that color scheme. We swapped the wooden hardware out for sleek silver, found a brushed nickel mirror, and hung some floating shelves.

The medicine cabinet (a few pictures up) over the toilet was taken from the Upstairs Bath, sanded down, and painted in Behr Ultra White for a crisp, white contrast against the gray walls. Something on our radar is the “everything is now blending together” effect that the paint seems to have on the room. Although we really like the color and finishes of the hardware, I’m itching to do something about that gray/purple counter top to infuse a bit more interest into the space. We’ll see how that goes…

Still on our To-Do List:

• Make and install cabinet system below sink for extra storage
• Paint under-sink cabinets white
• Tile counter (or figure out another way to change up the formica counter top)
• Repaint ceiling (We had a candle mishap that led to some off-colored spots)
• Decide how to organize the inside of the medicine cabinet (this one is relatively empty, while others in the house are overflowing, so some organization is in order)

Ever been pleasantly surprised with a color outside of your comfort zone? Us too 🙂

-Leslie

Operation De-Wallpaper: Bathroom RENO

I think we’re about due to reveal another sliver of our renovation heaven… in the form of our downstairs bathroom! We inherited this bathroom in really great shape, just covered in wallpaper from head to toe. Not terrible (it actually looked nice!), but not quite our style.

The first thing we did was remove all of the fixtures, hardware, and wallpaper. Towel rack, toilet paper holder, and shelving unit above the toilet came down, followed by all of the wall paper. Unlike the kitchen, this wallpaper was SUPER easy to peel off… something the peelers were thankful for!

Up next was spackling and priming the walls. No pictures of this step. This may have been because we had to do little to no spackling (thank you, Step 1) and ended up moving quickly through this part of the process. And finally, we got to paint! I also have no pictures of this step, mostly because it was finished before I could get over there with a camera to document (this was happening at the same time that a lot of the rest of the house was transforming, so I was racing around trying to get shots of everything).

Let’s talk color: Up until this point, every other room of the house seemed to be on the same spectrum of colors (yellows, blues, tans, whites), but with the bathroom, we wanted to try something different. As previously mentioned, we gravitate toward specific colors. Don’t believe me? This is what I found when I stood up from my chair after sifting through paint chips…

Yeah, it’s bad. To see some of our favorite colors in action, check out our yellow kitchen, teal Spare Bedroom, and minty blue Upstairs Bath. So now when I say “outside our color comfort zone”, you know what I mean. For the Downstairs Bathroom, we decided to go with a gray (Behr “Subtle Touch” from Home Depot). At first we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out, but we love it!I realize that these pictures make the color look really purple-y (and it does have a lavender tint to it in person), but here’s a shot that shows off the gray a bit more.

After seeing how soothing the gray looked, I wanted to continue with that color scheme. We swapped the wooden hardware out for sleek silver, found a brushed nickel mirror, and hung some floating shelves.

The medicine cabinet (a few pictures up) over the toilet was taken from the Upstairs Bath, sanded down, and painted in Behr Ultra White for a crisp, white contrast against the gray walls. Something on our radar is the “everything is now blending together” effect that the paint seems to have on the room. Although we really like the color and finishes of the hardware, I’m itching to do something about that gray/purple counter top to infuse a bit more interest into the space. We’ll see how that goes…

Still on our To-Do List:

• Make and install cabinet system below sink for extra storage
• Paint under-sink cabinets white
• Tile counter (or figure out another way to change up the formica counter top)
• Repaint ceiling (We had a candle mishap that led to some off-colored spots)
• Decide how to organize the inside of the medicine cabinet (this one is relatively empty, while others in the house are overflowing, so some organization is in order)

Ever been pleasantly surprised with a color outside of your comfort zone? Us too 🙂

-Leslie

Vanishing Act

A few weeks ago (you can see the post here), we added some much needed bathroom storage to our upstairs bath. After debating which route to go, we landed on this from BBB:

Very functional? Check. Compact enough for a small space? Check. Easy to clean? Check? Sticks out like a sore thumb? Check, check, check. 

See what I mean? Even though we went for the brushed silver look to compliment some of the hardware (the choices were either that or black), we still felt as if it were too… there. The hope, instead, is that the shelf itself will fade into the background of the room and allow the spotlight to be on the shelf decor. So, we spray painted it white. Surprise, surprise. I won’t bore you with the spraying details, but let’s just say, all of those spindly rods made for a tougher task than usual. Just keep in mind while spray painting: lots of thin coats is waaaaay better than one or two thick and gloppy coats. Anyway, here’s how it looked painted white:And you can see that when we stick it in the bathroom, the overall effect is a bit less jarring and in-your-face and more subtle and pleasant.

To fill it, I went largely for function, with a few tiny hints of “for show”.Here are the goods shelf by shelf (we’ll work our way up): On the bottom, we have a basket ($7.99 at Ikea) that happens to be the perfect size to fit a few extra rolls of TP. Having this out “on display” has helped to free up some much needed space under the sink for other things that would not look so pretty (in a bathroom-y sort of way) out in the open (ex. cleaning supplies, giant bottles of mouth wash, etc.).Second shelf is home to a few extra towels for guests (and actually Mitch and I as well). We keep the bulk of our “extras” in the laundry room, but it has been nice to keep a few on hand for easy access. Also, rolling them up into cylinder shape adds a bit of sparkle them… we like to think it makes it feel more “hotel-esque” for visiting guests. 🙂 And finally, some top shelf action. We moved some of the things that used to find residency on the counter or atop the toilet over to create a mini-vanity of sorts. Can you spot our switcheroos from here:

To here?

You guessed it- we grabbed the mirror and cotton ball/Q-tip canister and added a basket full ‘o goodies to echo the basket on shelf three.

For some extra (non-mint) color, I popped a few of my nail polishes and some funky emery boards into the basket and called it a day. The contents of that basket will probably change from time to time, but for now, the bright colors add some fun to the room.

So there you have it- a silver to white vanishing act and a few functional items turned decor. Happy Monday, all!

-Leslie