board and batten

We spent our Saturday, a beautiful sunny Saturday, in the bathroom. That is the LAST place my husband wanted to be, but he did it for me. As we were working away I remembered back to when we first moved into this house. It is by far the nicest house we have ever owned. Upon purchase, Darren was so excited by the fact that we wouldn't have any projects to do as it was only 2 years old. Poor man. Little did he know that no matter where we live there will ALWAYS be projects to do. I am so grateful for his help and willingness. This bathroom is going very slowly, but it is going. Today we got all the molding on the walls, and I even sanded all the edges. It is really for caulking and paint. There is still so far to go, but we checked 1 major thing off the list. 

And it will be so nice to have this pile gone from our bedroom.

Thank you Darren, for all you do!

Master Bath

Since the bedroom is pretty much done, we have started on the master bathroom. We are going to be spending as little money as possible and working with almost everything we already have. But if I could I would.........

{I tried really hard to source pictures this time and had no luck. Thank you to all for your inspiration.}

I started with this armoire which use to be in the school room. 

I am needing more book shelves in there instead and more storage in the bathroom. 

So out it went. I gave it a fresh coat of paint and some new knobs. I used the leftover paint from the master bedroom walls (free). 

It looks much fresher and brighter.

 {before}

{during}

 {after}

purging & paint

Our main bathroom has been in need of a fresh coat of paint. No matter how much I scrubbed the wainscoting, it still looked dirty. In order to do this properly the vanity needed to be taken out. This wasn't a huge deal as it is a stand alone piece. We just had to disconnect a few pipes and pull it out. While it was out I decided that I might as well paint it white too (I know, shocker!). It took 6 COATS and a new set of handles!!! But I am finally finished and the bathroom is back together and looking so fresh and clean. 

{before}

{after}

While my friend Rachel was spring cleaning her house she put together a box of things she thought I would like. I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. It was like Christmas! 

She gave me a large crock, which I am using to hold new rolls of tissue paper and a pot for my Ikea plant. I love them. I could not thank you enough! They were the perfect finishing touches for this bathroom makeover!

pleasant miscalculations

We have had a frameless mirror in our master bathroom for years now, while we have been trying to decide what to do in there. I thought we could use the mirror we have and put a simple frame around it, replacing it later if we found something we liked better, or not. I bought some 1x8 cedar for $8 and Darren made a super simple frame. I painted and distressed it and took it upstairs to our bathroom. But when we put it up we discovered that with a now chunky frame around the mirror it covered up the electrical outlet, that of course we need and use. Vertically!?! Nope. There isn't enough space between the light fixture and the counter for it to sit that way either. So I took it downstairs, took the mirror that was in that bathroom out and replaced it with the new one - reusing the smaller mirror upstairs. For $8 dollars and an hour of our time, it all worked out in the end and I think I actually prefer it this way around.

Change Is Good

I change things around a lot. 

It freshens up a room without any major adjustments or having to purchase new stuff. 

Sometimes just moving something to a different spot makes things feel new all again.

I moved this -

and added this. I like it SO much better.

And this - Nothing was wrong with this, but I just needed a change. 

So I added this basket. It holds fresh hand towels. 

{which if you have been to my house more than once 

you have probably been left without a hand towel to dry your hands with. 

This bathroom is right beside the laundry room, so every time I put on a load 

I grab the towel that is in there and through it in the wash, 

and I usually forget to put a fresh one back in. So now you can help yourselves!}

flowers in the powder room

 Little details make such a big difference - like fresh flowers in the guest bathroom 

(or really good fake ones)!

These ones are real hydrangeas from our garden, but I will be on the look out for some artificial ones for when the weather turns cold and they are not in bloom.

On the Hook

Remember to be creative when you are decorating your house. You don't have to use a towel bar because that is what everyone uses in the bathroom. Why not use hooks. Especially for a kids bathroom - they are super kid friendly (the towels look neat when the kids hang them back up and we have had more than one towel bar used as a monkey bar).

I don't have enough space in my laundry room for a bar to hang wet things up to dry, so I use a coat rack. It works great!

This picture is from Home and Harmony. I love this hook (and her blog)!

These next hooks are from Pottery Barn.

The pictures below I found on the internet and have saved over time. 

I don't have a source for them. I always try to do my very best to give the credit 

to the people who deserve it, so if you know where these came from please let me know. 

If it is yours and you would like me to source it or remove it all together, I will be happy to do so.

You can use hooks for so many different things. It breaks things up a little and makes something ordinary, a lot more interesting, and they are just cute!

Ring around the bathtub

This is the most fabulous cleaning tool! {a present from my sister-in-law} I was done scrubbing the tub in 1 minute! So I continued on with the cupboard doors and the floor. The whole bathroom took about 5 minutes. Thanks again, Julianne.

  I love it!