Powder Room Redo

This is a repost from my other blog "Sunnypond Home" from Jan. 2009. Since I would like this blog to include more home decorating, I decided to add it here for new readers. This post will be updated soon with new additions!

************************************************************************

This is the only before photo I could find of our powder room. It is from the home inspection. Not much had changed. Slightly different wall art, slightly different wreath. Walls a little dirtier from little hands.

And then I saw a bit of inspiration from a photo online from a bathroom in a magazine. One of those "Living" magazines. Maybe Coastal Living? Maybe not.

I definitely wanted to do a brown color on the walls. When I had a color specialist out, she helped to narrow it down. I (again definitely) wanted new lights. Notice the lovely builder's special light strip. You can barely see it in the photo, but I'm guessing there is enough there to know what I'm talking about. I also wanted a new mirror and a new towel holder. I don't have a photo showing it, but the previous owners put up robe hooks. It never worked for our towels as they'd slip off. Maybe they had towels with a loop on them? I wanted to keep the artwork I had in there but make it the main piece. And then later I was inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick to purchase this shelf at Hobby Lobby. I had kind of wanted a little shelf above the commode anyway. Not sure if all the items up there will stay. The candle thing in the middle will probably be replaced.

The color in the room is called Firewood by Benjamin Moore (1027). The mirror was on clearance on Marshall's Homegood for $20! I got that right around the time I was doing some Christmas shopping. Again the shelf is from Hobby Lobby on sale for about $15. The artwork is "Hello May" from Ashley G. I consider that my "modern" piece in this more traditional room.

So what I purchased today was the towel holder and a set of two hand towels. The holder came from TJ Max Homegoods for $9.99 and the Waverly towels were on Clearance at Target for $5.59. I ordered the light fixture from lamps plus on sale.

The only thing left is to find a waste can. We also hate our toilet paper holder. I guess you can't see it in the after pictures, but it is the same as in the before. Oh, and we are thinking about replacing the lovely faucet someday too. And when I get back to "normal" I plan to make a reversible tissue box cover too.

I hope you enjoyed this Makeover. I may not be the best designer in the world, but I like this a lot better now!

Mantel Relief

Our mantel was looking really boring.  I’d followed some advice from online decorators to make the arrangement of the accessories symmetrical.  But ever since there was no more holiday decor to spruce it up, it was not doing it for me.  So I decided to go asymmetrical and a little abstract.  I looked at it and whatever came first to mind that was missing, I did whatever I could with what I had to make up for it.  And so we had this…

(Yes the painting is supposed to be a little off center.)

(Yes the grate is broken in the fireplace, we have another on order.)

And I was happy.  I had imagined a tall green vase, but the glass was nice, you could see the crabapple tree branches through it.

Then the speaker guy came to help run a wire and I forgot to take that vase down.  And it broke.

But I remembered a sign for a Pottery Sale at the local community college.  I had wanted to go because I love pottery and I assumed the prices would be pretty reasonable.

So I went, and found a couple pieces I did like and they were indeed priced reasonably.  So no we have this…

   

I think the branches are wilting now.  The second piece of pottery is in another room.

Around here all the blossoms are coming out.  Nothing in our yard yet, but caught this beauty outside of the local Park District building.

Celebrate

Making New Bonds

Last week today my brother John proposed to his girlfriend Kris!  (great name, right)  We met up with them the next day for lunch to be with them and congratulate them.  There is nothing quite like being with a couple after they have just gotten engaged, especially one that you care about so much.  They are so happy and we are all just thrilled.  They are planning something roughly a year from now.  I don’t think I could ask for a better sister-in-law to be. (sniff)  Even though all that really matters is that the two of them are happy with each other.

 

She’s going to be a wonderful aunt too.

Making a New Life

This week my long time friend Kim (from high school), took a big step and bought her first “on her own” home.  She is starting over in life and making positive strides at every turn.  I’ve been a phone support for her as much as one can be over the last couple of years as she has gone through some real struggles and I am just so happy that she is growing as a person and moving on in her life.

Making a Journey

Jason’s brother Scott and his girlfriend Jen have taken a very long trip to Asia.  Just recently they have completed the Annapurna Circuit—a 21 day trek through the Annapurna region of the Himalayas.  If you’d like to read more about their very interesting trip, you can check it out here.

Getting Healthy

This past two weeks have been pretty excruciatingly painful and a little scary for me.  I had a side effect to an antibiotic I was taking for a skin problem around my eyes.  I woke up early Monday morning with a burning pain pulsating down my esophagus.  At first I thought it was my lungs, considering the problems I have had with them earlier this year.  But when I was awake and lucid I knew that wasn’t the case.  It felt like I was swallowing involuntarily and it was PAINFUL.  Like swallowing a mixture of dry ice and fire.  In addition to that, it was even more painful to try to eat.  If you’ve ever had a baby… it was equivalent to bad labor pains and quite similar in the nature of the pain.  24 hours after trying to get a hold of my doctor’s nurse, she returned my call to tell me to STOP taking the meds!  Even so, a day later I was in Immediate Care more than a little scared about what felt like my insides being ripped apart.  A confirmation that it was esophageal inflammation and spasms caused by the antibiotic I was on eased my fears, but didn’t do much for the pain.  Finally, after 11 days of major discomfort, yesterday the pain eased and I was able to swallow without having to hit something or cringe.  I am oh so happy and feeling celebratory that it is over and that it was indeed just a reaction and not a more serious internal problem.

Butterflies

They have popped up twice for me while perusing Etsy and blogs today.  First is this super sweet vase from Red Hot Pottery.

Next up is this quilt from the LIttle Birdie Secrets blog…  to DIE for!

If you like this, you should do a little more looking around over there.  Lots of great ideas and plenty of cuteness to take in!

Something Fishy: A Bathroom Redo

Welcome to the kids' bathroom!

I don’t know why I felt the need to redo this bathroom…

What’s not to like? Fish wallpaper, check, gold-tone light strip, check.

Lopsided white fabric for window treatment (left by previous owners). Cheap and bent towel racks. Check and check.

More fish on the shower curtain (again previous owners)? Yes please.

*************************************

Well I did it anyway, stripped the wallpaper, spackled, sanded, primed, painted, installed…

I chose a blue/gray wall color (Santorini Blue by Benjamin Moore). The final color from my top three favs was chosen unanimously by Ella and Miles. Good job guys, I adore this color!

 

I actually found the shower curtain a while ago at Bed Bath and Beyond and have had it up for several months/a year? It was kind of the inspiration for the wall color.

Light fixture was from LightingShowplace.com. Um, this was a PAIN to install. It did not fit into our light box in the wall. So I spent nearly an entire day which included several runs to Home Depot and Ace to figure out a workaround.

New towel racks from TJMaxx/Homegoods:

Other Nautical-ish details…

 

 

How to hang a starfish (my version):

And a future addition that I just purchased from Etsy is the green and white buoy on the right from Beach Grass Cottage:

For the most part, I did this all myself. And I’m pretty pleased with how it is turning out.

*************************************

2 Days Later…

Wow, that got here fast!!!

And I bought a set of “sand” colored towels.

DONE!

Ahhhhh... Much Better!

Lovely Day

This year, after we took the Christmas decorations down, I had the urge to decorate a bit for Valentines Day. And so, we were all set for Feb. 14th! I bought this LOVE banner at a local store for 50% off, as well as two of glass heart ornaments to match the one I got last year as a gift.

And now that it is Feb. 15th, I guess it’s time to take it down… Now what? I’m not putting up St. Patty’s Day decor! Too early for Easter stuff…

The Remaking of an Ottoman

I had all of the fabric pieces ready, so I finished up the ottoman on Monday. The staple gun was my best friend. That and some upholstery strips and tack strips.

Adding the corners:

Now the sides:

Covering the cushion/top:

Done. I have finally gotten over the fact that it’s not perfect and am really enjoying the newly covered set in our family room.

This post has been added to :

Check out all of the other talented slipcoverers there!

A “New” Chair

Meet our “new” chair.

We have a chair that has not done well with our cats. The fabric that is on it is woven and a magnet for scratching cats. So instead of get a new chair, I decided to make a slipcover for it. It worked out well. But the cats got to that one too. So a few years later we reach the dilemma again. Do we get a new chair?

As you may have guessed, the answer was finally “No.” We have a couch made from a chenille fabric and the cats don’t bother it. So I went out to our local Loomcraft home dec fabric warehouse and searched for some chenille. I found the perfect fabric and it was even on sale for 70% off!

At first I was upset I had cut up the pattern pieces I had made from muslin for other various project. But I think in the long run, my couple of years of sewing experience since my first slipcover led me to make a better fitting cover with new pattern pieces..

The entire process was so much easier and quicker than the first time I tried to do this. Back them I remember how I felt this was one of the hardest projects I ever did.

Which makes me feel good that I have made some progress in my sewing skills and techniques.

Even my husband says this one looks better.

Hope you you enjoyed that little tour through a few steps along the way to the completed project!

Next up is to reupholster the matching ottoman…

This post has been added to :

Check out all of the other talented slipcoverers there!