Bathrooms on the Brain

We desperately need a redo in our main floor bathroom. I started peeling the wallpaper off the walls several years ago and, due to extreme lack of decisiveness, there it sits. I'm sort of glad I let it sit there so long though, because I finally know what I want to do in there. It will need to be on a budget though, and by budget, I mean as cheap as possible.

When I saw this, I knew I had a jumping-off point. Swooning.........

But it will need to be a slightly smaller version that we'll do ourselves. The chrome legs can be purchased separately, and then we'll have to have a piece of marble cut for the top. This one is from Restoration Hardware (that means $$$) and is too big for our space anyway.

I hope to do a classic, all white bathroom, like one that you would see in an old house. Our house isn't new, but it isn't old enough to be considered an old house, and I love old houses.

I've been collecting some images for inspiration, here are a few:








above three images all from the Waterworks showroom




Elle Decor



Elle Decor













A more budget-friendly version of the dream sink, still cute though.



Another option. I think this one's from Pottery Barn.



small bathroom...just like ours.





...and gray. I love how they used smaller tiles on top here.





A little bit of trivia: the above photo is Miranda's bathroom from the set of Sex & the City.


Ours is the main floor bathroom that we use and that people see and use when they come over (or the Powder Room if you're Southern!) But it's a full bath since we have a bedroom on the main floor...so we have the tub/shower to redo also.

I'd like to do the 1-inch hex tiles on the floor with gray grout. Either porcelain:


or marble:


And plain white subway tile on the walls. These ones are from Lowes, 22 cents each:


I love the tiles in a herringbone pattern too, like this:


I picture it with an oval mirror above the sink, something like this:


This one's a medicine cabinet, even better! Why don't houses have medicine cabinets anymore???


And a bridge faucet, like this one:


With sconces on either side of the mirror, I like these ones from Bellacor ($70 each):


and a glass or marble shelf above the sink, something like this:


Some other accessories on my list:

basket from shoestring home ($40):


chrome soap holder for tub from signature hardware ($42):


Ahhhhhhhhhh....a girl can dream, right????

Laundry Room: Before & After

I mentioned our laundry room makeover before and I know you're on the edge of your seat!!! First, let me start by saying that my laundry room was always my favorite room in the house:





Just kidding. It was vile.

It has bugged me since before we moved in to the house. And because I hated it so much, I just let it get grosser and grosser until it was so gross I couldn't stand it anymore. So, with John being out of work, we decided to take it on. Here is what it looks like now:



John took a tile class at Home Depot and did the new floor all by himself! Before, the floor was a fake green "marble" linoleum floor. It had holes in it...and I do not even like to think about what sort of disgustingness that floor had met in its days. When he ripped it up, he sanded the plywood that was underneath:



And then laid a concrete subfloor (I forgot to take a picture of that part). Then he was ready to lay the tile. We decided to do black grout so it wouldn't show as much dirt.



...and then it was done!





Next, I painted, we removed the old wire shelf (I hate those things...raise your hand if you have them in every closet in your house.....and they leave lines on your clothes and things fall through them, etc.....not to mention they're ugly....ugh! HATE THEM!!!) and we put up some white cabinets from IKEA. We painted and hung a dowel for hanging clothes to dry, hung hooks for our bags, and finally, I made a little curtain for the window.











Done! What do you think? Now I actually enjoy doing laundry. That won't last long though.

Dining Room: Before & After

Above, our dining room chandelier is all dressed up and ready for the Easter Bunny to come. That chandelier makes me swoon. It was a gift from my groom on our first wedding anniversary and I will always love it. He got it here. That poor chandelier hung in our dining room for four years until we finally made up our minds about how to decorate the room. And here are the results. But first, I have to show you the "before" picture. Yikes. Those drapes made us so sad, I think we took them down the day after we moved in. And that fright of a chandelier that you see below was passed up by everyone in every garage sale we've ever had and we finally threw it away!


And here it is after:



Here's a close-up of the paper:

Should I do it?

I love this turquoise door from a past issue of Domino magazine. I want to paint our front door this color (on the inside only). Should I do it? It's only paint.....