mentally redecorating the downstairs bathroom

I'd love to redo (more accurately, "do" for the first time) my downstairs bathroom. Visually, this bathroom is nothing to write home about.  It has dark hunter green floor tiles, white square-tiled walls, and a matching green accent tile about halfway up the wall.  Everything in this bathroom is builder-grade and clearly meant for taking abuse in a rental house.  

When we moved in I put up the aqua trellis shower curtain from our old apartment and called it a day, thinking I would figure out how to deal with that green later. I had thoughts about putting this shower curtain up, but that curtain was out of stock for a long time.  Its back now, but I think we will move out of this house when our lease is up in a few months, so spending money on this bathroom doesn't make sense.

But that doesn't stop me from daydreaming, does it?

I think this Urban Outfitter rug, this Furbish ikat shower curtain (not available on the website, I took the picture from here), and this Etsy print would be fabulous. This combination would complement the green without having to actually find items that contain hunter green.

What room are  you daydreaming of redoing?

el hideoso banyo

I've been contemplating what to do with the Mister's bathroom for a while. Its on my list of Projects to Tackle in 2011.

That thing on the left that looks like a dirty smudge is actually the reflection of a towel on the opposite wall.

The bathroom in our old house had a western facing window that got a lot of sun, the tile and fixtures were all white, all the molding was white, and the flooring was a laminate that looked like broad-plank birch.  I painted the walls a warm gray, put up a Pottery Barn Bettina shower curtain (the one in the picture above, now discontinued), and used navy and orange towels.  I really liked it.  (Sorry, that was pre-blog, I don't have any pictures of the old house.)

In this apartment, the second bathroom has gray floor and shower tiles, a gray toilet, and a white eighties modern-ish laminate vanity (clearly I should change a few lightbulbs). It also has a skylight and a sloped ceiling.  Perfect, I thought.  I'll just transfer the whole Bettina shower curtain/orange/navy accents theme right in.  I did; I even painted it the same warm gray (also pre-blog, no pics).

I hated it.  The gray on the walls, combined with the gray on the floor, the shower and the toilet, and the vanity looked so cold and sterile.  Although the room does get sunlight during the day from the skylight, its not a direct sunlight.  This design just didn't work in here.

My second attempt was to paint some stripes on the wall.  The math involved brought me to the edge, and then taping the stripes off in a level fashion did me in. My laser level suuuuuucks.  

The third try was to pick up a warm off-white for the room to brighten it up.  I almost always do paint swatches, but this time I didn't.  (Dun dun dun....)  Of course, the off-white I picked is actually yellow.

I've seen some lovely pink rooms in the blogosphere lately (see here, here, and here ), so I thought that the bathroom would be a lovely place to bring some pink into our house. The pink is already in the curtains, not that I would go such a deep coral, but I think a light peachy-pink would be perfect. I picked up a few to try:

I don't like any of them.  I am thinking of a very light peachy pink shade, and none of these are it. I think the peachy-pink in Bryn Alexandra's room is what I'm going for, so I should probably just go pick up a sample of Cameo Pink by Ralph Lauren.

I'd also like to paint the vanity a dark gray (Behr's Dark Granite, since I have half a gallon in the basement.)  I think the dark gray/light gray/peachy-pink/navy blues would go nicely together.

Aaaaaaaand.....my plan to paint the bathroom pink has hit a snag.  The bill has been passed to the executive branch and the pink was excised in a line item veto, if you will.   I am not to paint the bathroom pink, despite its universally flattering effect on skin tones and its popularity in the blogosphere.

Le sigh.

Minutiae

I've been falling down on the blogging front....its been pretty busy around here.

This weekend we went to my cousin's wedding. It was lovely! My cousin married a Croatian girl, and let me tell you, you haven't been to a wedding until you've been to a Croatian wedding! Those people like to polka.

We also had Marsha's first birthday party (separate post forthcoming). I am exhausted from all the partying.

There's nothing like the thought of 30 people coming to your house to make you clean up your kitchen (and redo your bathroom). Of course, I did not take any before pictures, but honestly, you should thank me that I'm not subjecting you to the mess that was my kitchen before.

First, I made another cornice board for the kitchen window over the sink, just like the one in the bathroom, made from foam core board wrapped in fabric. I made it a wee bit too big, so instead of hanging it, its actually just wedged in between the cabinets.


Next, I removed the toaster oven and microwave from the countertop and installed them inside a free-standing cabinet on the other side of the kitchen. The picture below is where they used to be, and they took up the entire counter on that side.



While I am not exactly Annie Leibowitz, the picture above looks very slanted. The counter IS slanted. But not that slanted. Although you can see right next to the sink how the counter is buckled and wavy. That's not my photography.

The area above the fridge was a hot mess. Someone renting here prior to us took off the cabinet doors, and we can only find one of them, so we haven't reattached them. I hate hate hate open shelving, or anything open in the kitchen. Or generally anywhere else, for that matter. I have clutter, I just hate looking at it. Put it behind closed doors, please. So the area above the fridge was always an eyesore of plastic grocery bags, lunchboxes, giant containers of olive oil, etc. And moldy bread. Omg, the penicillin I threw away when I cleaned up there. The bread is no longer allowed to live up there.

Now, nicely corralled and sorted with pretty baskets from Target:

The toaster oven and microwave now live in a free-standing cabinet. Sadly, the two shelves now occupied by the microwave and toaster oven used to hold food items, which are now all crammed up into the upper left shelf. I will have to remedy this. Not sure how at the moment.


We also bought the kids new shoes. You may remember my previous rant about Geox and how much I hate their stupid holey shoes. However, after concerted nagging and whining by the 4 yr old, I buckled under the pressure (much like my counters) and bought the Geox. In my defense, they were 60% off. And the other shoes I was being nagged to buy lit up like a Christmas tree. I compromised with the white shiny vinyl.



I've tried to actively encourage Greg to wear the black Sperry topsiders when he goes out to play, so these shiny white shoes last more than a week. So, he goes downstairs to Grandma's apartment, walks into her kitchen, and informs Grandma "I can't wear my new white shoes on your kitchen floor, Grandma. Its too dirty, my shoes will get dirty." Grandma says "excuse me? What do you mean?" And Greg says, "Look all around! This place is filthy!" (Her place is not filthy, I assure you.)

Nice, kiddo. Inherited your mother's interpersonal skills, I see.

Before + After: bathroom

I've spent most of the last few days giving the kids' bathroom a makeover. We are renting, so the mint green sink, toilet and bathtub had to stay, as did the gray-flecked yellowish tile. The room had been painted a yellowish white, and the counter and vanity were a sort of peachy-yellowy-off-white color, and looking a bit worse for wear. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the whole bathroom prior to beginning this project. Bad blogger.

Here's a kind of washed-out picture of the gray-flecked tile, the minty green toilet, and the awesome knobs. The knobs picture two geese frolicking around an urn wrapped with ribbons and flowers.








Afterwards:




I painted the walls and the counter Sherwin Williams Roman Column. Its very bright and cheerful but has a hint of yellow in it, so it goes nicely with the yellow-gray tiles.The vanity was painted a dark gray (Behr's Dark Granite) that I found in my mother in law's basement. I replaced the knobs with some silver knobs I had leftover from a dresser.

I bought some plain off-white twill curtains and a valance at Target. Originally I was only going to put the ribbon trim going up the inside edges of the curtain. However, what I actually did was this:

So....I ended up putting ribbon on the inside and the outside edges.

I love the look of cornices and pelmet boxes, especially love the ones that Melanie of Plum Cushion has in her bedroom. So, using a tutorial from Little Green Notebook, found here, I used foam board to make the box, covered it with batting and then used the valance to cover it. I stapled the fabric into the foam board. (Just a regular office stapler, since it was foam board.)


To get the ribbon look, I pinned the ribbon in place in the pattern I wanted, ironed it gently so the folds would stay, then used fabric glue to attach it to the valance.

The hardest part was hanging it. I used little circular hangers (that I can't seem to find the 8 remaining pieces to take a picture of), glued and duct-taped to the sides (the edge of the side wasn't thick enough to attach them directly). I bent the circle part and the hung it over the hook nailed to the wall.

For art, I had two ceramic plates picturing Positano, Italy, that we bought as souvenirs on trips to Italy. The colors in the plates go nicely with the turquoise accents. I hung them a bit too high (they are a wee bit above the curtain line) and I want to drop them lower....but that entails spackling and painting, and I don't have either spackle or leftover paint, and so they are staying too high, I guess.

On a recent trip to Home Goods I found this rattan piece, which is lots of rattan woven circles strung together inside a wider circle. There are 3 capiz shells inside that I wasn't thrilled with, but all in all I think the piece is the perfect size for the wall and it adds a nice bit of texture to the room.


Voila! New bathroom.

*Edited to add pictures of the ceramic plates and rattan piece.

two completely unrelated pictures

The two year old staged this one:

Quick, Lassie, go get help! Timmy fell down the well! (Technically Elizabeth has fallen down the well, and Woody and his friends are trying to get her up. Although Woody appears to be the only doing anything.)


Here are three color swatches on my bathroom wall. I don't like any of them. Yes, we keep our hula hoops on the bathroom vanity. Their round shape nicely offsets the square lines of the mirror, yet mimics the circular nature of the 80s light fixture.


Color ideas? I want a pretty sea-glass blue-green....but am having trouble finding one I like. I am thinking of a dark brown for the vanity, a creamy white for the countertop, and the sea-glass color for the walls. I need to do this toute de suite (toot sweet? how does one spell that?) because NEXT WEEKEND there will be a million people in my house for a 1 yr old's birthday party. Perhaps I should have started a bit sooner.

Oh, and I attempted to make my own roman shade using a bedsheet and a venetian blind. Currently I am lacking a roman shade and have only bits of detritus of a venetian blind to show for it.

Crafty, I am not.