Friday, May 25, 2012

Bathroom Remodel

When we bought our home nearly four years ago, I told JM, the first thing I wanted to do was paint the upstairs bathroom. It had one red wall which I hated. I'm not opposed to a red wall, but the color of red was just off. He was fine with the idea of painting the bathroom but wanted to get some organization to the garage first. I agreed to that.

Four years later, we still haven't painted the bathroom and it grew on me. Not that I ever liked it, but I tolerated it. Plus when the door was open (which it is most of the time) it covers about half of the wall. I sort-of tried to make it into a patriotic theme. I hung the shower curtain that I've had since college (that was a LONG time ago) along with a few other accessories and left it alone. We already had navy towels so it was tolerable.

The towel rod had fallen down a few months ago and we hadn't gotten around to putting it back up. Besides, it had been poorly installed and there was a quarter size hole in the wall. I didn't want to rehang it since the kids tend to hang on it or pull on the towels.



I finally had enough. I decided one day (really all on my own, didn't have input or permission from JM) to do something about the bathroom. I loaded up the girls and hit Target then Home Depot for supplies. I nearly forgot to take before pictures, but managed to snap a few while I was prepping for paint.

I liked how it turned out, but after a few weeks of watching it, I REALLY like it. I love the grey. It's a great neutral and not too dark with all the white accents.

I painted two and a half walls a medium grey. The other wall and a half, I painted white. I also had to re-paint the ceiling white because after I painted trim white, the ceiling looked like a hideous sun-bleached off white.
Instead of putting the towel rod back up I did board and batton on the lower half of the wall and installed three hooks for towels. This also helps with the little hands hanging towels. They couldn't reach the rod, meaning lots of towels on the floor. Now, they can reach!

I'm really kind of proud of this corner. Silly as it may be, it took that extra effort that means I really cared how it turned out.This is the corner where the two mirrors meet and it was a pain to get the grey wall grey and the white all white.
I bought new hooks or the shower curtain. These were on sale for $5, so I couldn't go wrong. Speaking of new shower curtain, I improvised with this one. It is actually a flat bed sheet. I did take a short-cut here. I really should have taken the time to make button holes for the hooks, but I didn't. Mostly because I don't know how to make button holes and didn't want to wait until I learned. So I just cut slits with my rotary cutter in the fabric.
I also had to hem it since it was too long. The nice  thing about hemming it was that I could make it longer than a normal curtain and hang it really high. The width was perfect so I didn't do anything there.
A closer look at the board and batton. Love the hooks!
Here are the side by sides. I'm really love the way it turned out!



 

I really like that because the grey is neutral, it won't be a problem for re-sell value. I was trying to avoid anything too theme-y. What do you think?

TDC Before and After
Supporting Habitat for Humanity

10 comments:

Nikki said...

I love it! It looks amazing - great job! I especially love the board and batton and those cute towel hooks!

Kristina P. said...

It looks great! So warm!

Erin said...

I love it! I need to take lessons from you - on how to paint, how to style, and how to get motivation.

Ellis Family said...

It looks great! We put up towel hooks in our bathroom too. SOOOOO much better than the towel rod that was always falling down! I like that their kid-height.

Ashli Miller said...

Looks great! Love the colors.

Kris said...

This looks fantastic! I love love love it, and may have to steal the idea for the towel hooks. The paint color is perfect... grey is totally the new tan.

What did JM think when he got home? I'm always painting something or other without permission, so Paddy has pretty much stopped being surprised at this point.

Custom Mirrors Nassau County said...

Blehh! I envisioned exactly what you said in the beginning and it came to my head just like in your picture, it looks so unsettling. It just isn't right, but you nailed it!

-Irwin Zinkin

Jocie@TheBetterHalf said...

Love the yellow and gray. Getting ready to rock that in my kitchen!
Thanks so much for linking up. Make sure to grab a button or link back to us. Good luck and feel free to follow us on facebook for all the contest updates!

Kristopher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kristopher said...

Not bad >:D Who knew that color grey could go well in a bathroom? Nice! After four, marvelous years, you finally got rid of that red wall. I love red walls, but not in a bathroom. It seems so creepy and dark. Haha! Well, I, too like grey better. Did you do this by yourself? Amazing results! You have some serious talent for interior designing huh?

Kristopher Diss