BUDGET BATHROOM MAKEOVER
If you’ve been following along then you saw my $400 Kitchen Makeover . The bathroom and its right off of that kitchen. Not an ideal location but old home homes are weird. It was just a matter of time before I continued my makeover into this space. And by time I mean I waited about 4 days after completing the kitchen before jumping into this! This is the only bathroom in the house. My husband and I lived in Manhattan for 7 years together in a 700 sqft apartment with one tiny bathroom so we are used to this scenario. A girl can dream about an on-suite but for not now we are making it work.
I’m going to give you a little look at what things looked like before I started. Please excuse the clutter and the mess. I had really never tried making this space cute and sort of blocked it from my mind beyond this point. Things to point out; the super dark purple paint on the upper half of the wall and ceiling, mildew on the ceiling (not visible in this photo thankfully), that before mentioned purple paint bleeding into the faux tile paneling, worn down vinyl flooring, outdated/deteriorating medicine cabinet and equally outdated light fixture.
INSPIRATION
I like a dark bathroom. I’ve painted several small bathrooms dark and I like how cozy and sophisticated they feel. I didn’t like how dark the purple was over my head and the white down below was so hard to keep looking clean so I knew I wanted to flip it and go bright up above and dark below. I recently saw a beautiful dark green wainscoting on instagram and knew that would be the color I would try. It needed it to flow with the kitchen so I planned to continue the black and white floors and mixed metals in here complimented by wood details.
I found the boat painting with the frame at an antique store for $9 and it was the perfect thing to bring all of the colors together in this room. I am so in love with it!
To hide all of our clutter in the cabinet I added mirrored film to the back of the glass panels. The added bonus is that there is now a second mirror in the room and it bounces all the light from the window around the room.
The vase my sis gave me with some beautiful birthday blooms and the brass candlestick is from my mom. My daughter, Iris, and I like to go on walks around the neighborhood together and I pulled these Queen Ann’s lace stems from an overgrown alley.
Lets take some time to talk about the paint. Before I could paint I needed to address the mildew. I washed the ceilings and walls down with a solution of water and bleach twice and let it dry before doing the first coat. I also took the fan down and did a thorough cleaning of it to make sure it was working efficiently. I did some research and decided to do Sherwin William’s Duration line for the white because of it’s ability to cover dark colors and built in mildew blocker. The green is Benjamin Moore Backwoods and is the perfect dark green IMO, not too blue or too yellow. They are both done in a semigloss. The white took three coats and the green took two.
Are you surprised I added a peg rail?! I might end up with one in every room of the house, lol! But you can’t argue with the practicality and it was a solution to a few problems. 1) there needed to be some clear division between the white and green. 2) Shelf storage! 3) hooks to hang stuff!
I used the standard 1x4” pieces flush against the wall and for the shelf along the window wall but did an 8” piece for the shelf behind the toilet so it was deep enough to hold larger things.
This is the same shower curtain I had before but I cut the fringe tassels off of it. The big difference is that I made a new rod out of the same left over copper I made the kitchen hang bar from and raised it up to the ceiling. In a small space going vertical is a great way to make it feel bigger and I think this does a good job of accomplishing that. See the process below for how I did the chain extension. I ordered a pack of chains used for hanging flower baskets off of amazon and switched the S hooks for the easy glide rings I already had.
The light fixture was swapped for a schoolhouse replica I found on Amazon and ties in nicely with the one I used in the kitchen. The mirror had to be large enough to hide the hole from the old medicine cabinet and I love the little shelf the frame creates for bud vases or setting my glasses when I wash my face.
I went with a semi sheer plaid cafe curtain that was supposed to be grey but pulls a lot of the green from the wall and added just the right amount of print and pattern. I also did a fresh sheet of privacy film on the window behind it. I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose the light in here and I think this was the right way to go.
And that’s what our little bathroom looks like now! Only there is a good chance most days there is toothpaste splattered on the mirror, toys laying in the tub and tiny toes standing on that ladder while the kids wash their popsicle stained hands in the sink : )
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