Category: At Home

Bathroom Cabinet Before and After

Finally! Guess what readers, this is a new milestone in my blog’s life.

I have a “Before and After” post, with both “before” and “after” photos.

I know, right?

As I posted about on Friday, I used a pinterest photo for inspiration when it came to the cabinet above the toilet in the bathroom.

See, the inside of the cabinet was kind of a disgrace. Only half of the shelves were being utilized, and everything was kind of a mishmash. Luckily, a different cabinet we had was also more-or-less unused, so a minor rearrangement was all it took to make this more functional and beautiful.

The first thing we did was remove the cabinet doors, then unload all the items from the cabinet. We took our towels out of the other cabinet, bought a couple of baskets (one of them is elsewhere in the bathroom) and a jar at Target (less than $30 total) and prepped where everything would go.

After taking the doors off, I filled the cabinet hinge screw-holes with spackle, sanded them and painted the outside edge glossy white (the same color we did all the trim in the house).  We took out the shelves and Doug painted the back of the cabinet while I worked on a different project (I was simply too short for this project). All it took was two coats of grey paint left over from the gallon we had from guest-room touch-ups.

Here’s our beautiful after!!

I’m glad that we can put useful yet beautiful items here and hide ugly ones (like vitamins and lotions, etc) in a cabinet with doors. Hope our guests find it handy that towels, washcloths, and the like are readily available.

Many thanks to The Stucco Bungalow and Merrypad, among others, for holding the Pinterest Partayy, which lit a fire under my keester to get this project done by January 15!

Bathroom Inspiration

As soon as I saw this picture on Pinterest, I knew what was in store for my bathroom. In all fairness and proper blogging etiquette, the original pic is from Kohler Talk. A blog about bathrooms, pretty much exclusively. What!

Anyway, We removed the doors from the cabinet above the toilet and rearranged everything. We have too many towels. Towels from our wedding that we didn’t ask for (actually these are so nice, but HUGE and take up a lot of space even folder), random green towels that showed up in my apartment a few years ago (I never found out where they came from) among others. Nobody will ever complain about not being able to dry off at my house.

This all started by me being totally jealous of John and Sherry’s kitchen renno but lacking the funds or ability to do anything about I have decided to do minor upgrades on the bathroom. As part of my larger vision, one cabinet with open shelving will make the place feel more fancy-schmancy. Also, you can see the open cabinet in the mirror while you’re on the jon, which gives you something nice to look at while being otherwise occupied.

Also included on the to-do list:

  • replace hardware throughout the bathroom with brushed nickel knobs (instead of cheapo white plastic)
  • figure out something as far as the shower curtain is concerned
  • fill in awkward cheap-looking seams on the cabinet to make the discount-contractor’s installation look as upscale as possible
  • dress the window… somehow… with something…
  • frost the window so we can ditch the dirty mini-blinds!

Baby steps though. Right now we need to paint the back of the cabinet. I hope to have this little project done by the end of the weekend!

 

Cohesive Color Scheme

I have been trying to pin down a color scheme to use throughout all the rooms in my house so they flow together and don’t feel disjointed. Since we painted the living room, dining room, and hallway Westhighland White (color by Sherwin Williams, matched to Valspar) those rooms are airy and light. The kitchen and bathroom are La Fonda Mirage from Valspar’s historic color line, and they too are bright and cheerful. Then we come to the bedroom and guestroom/office, which we did not pick the colors for.

They are two different shades of dark blue-gray. The office is darker than the bedroom by a hair. This brings the “light and airy” train to a dead halt. I’m trying to lighten the mood by using light colors in both of these rooms… the effect is working better in the office than in the bedroom. I know it takes time and energy (and money!) to create the perfect layered look so I need to be patient. But the bedroom is killing me! It reminds me of a bachelor pad… all dark grey and white with dark wood accents. Like Barney Stinson’s apartment on HIMYM.

Image from how-i-met-your-mother.wikia.com

I turn to Pinterest for my design inspiration, more often than not. As I’ve written about before, I love to pull up my pinboards and look at what trends I’ve been drawn to over time, instead of sticking with just one inspiration image/room. Here are two shots of my “Personal Environment” boards–if you want to see anything in particular, just click on them to be taken to my pinboard.

What I noticed is white, white, white, with pops of bright, vibrant color. Got the bright and vibrant thing going in the kitchen and bathroom; can’t wait to accessorize more. Still working on the bright colors in the bedroom, where I am largely at a loss. Remember the pic of Barney’s room? Doesn’t even remotely speak to my pinboards, does it? This brings me to my next tool:

To keep myself on the up and up (and to keep myself focused on things that will “go” in my space instead of being distracted by other pretty, potentially clashy items) I created this handy little color palette for myself to print out and keep in my purse. Except be warned… the “Westhighland White” on your computer screen is a very strange, bad color, and in my “official” one it’ll be replaced with a real paint swatch.

I cannot WAIT to get some of that green and coral into the bedroom. DIYing some detail on the curtains? Maybe! Putting new pillows on the bed to go with our new duvet? Probably! Having my main colors and accent colors on hand will help me when making decisions (scenario: “But it’s on sale 50% off!” “Does it go with everything else?” “No…”). Hopefully they’ll help me get a vision for the bedroom as well. Because I’m about ready to move into the guest room with it’s happy pillows and gold frame (and computer, of course).