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!

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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!

Master Bedroom Evolution

Our master bedroom has been a true work in progress.  It may not be the style of the day, but it has evolved into something we like.  The latest addition is this scrumptious pintuck duvet cover from West Elm.  I love all the sculptured bedding I’ve been seeing lately.  My inspiration was from several of these at Anthropologie.  They were just a little out of the price range!

Here is what our bedroom has evolved to to date.  I was ready to lighten it up with natural creams and light french blues.  We also acquired some new case furniture for this room last year.  We had known we wanted some, but weren’t really actively looking.  We just happened onto this set one day while browsing and we knew it was it.  The price was also reasonable!

“Where did we come from?” you might ask.  Here is a peak into the past lives of our Master:

Flashback!

Shortly after we moved in…

Our first generation of décor.  Creamy green walls and gold touches with greens and pinks.

A new bed, fan and other various décor.

Starting to add creams and blues.

Back to Today!

I wanted to order some custom made vertical stripe panels from an Etsy shop, but the person I was working with was a little slow for me, though very kind.  Or I was too impatient.  So I went off to our local Loomcraft and found this swirly fabric I loved.  And I went to town making these panels myself.

You can see the addition of some other blues through lamps and accessories.

Oh, and here’s that yummy duvet cover again! 

Psssst.  I’ve never been a huge fan of that painting.  I would really like to get a sign like this to put over the bed, but I can’t seem to convince the hubby.  What do you think?

I think this cover looks so romantic without being too girly.

VOILA!

I have only one wall which I haven’t shown.  It is still on my to do list to rearrange the numerous pictures of our kids on that wall.  For now it is a bit of a disaster.  If When I get that done, I’ll be sure to add a photo to the blog!

Thank-you for stopping by to visit our happy Master Bedroom evolution!

Do you have any rooms that have evolved over time?  How have they changed and why?

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.

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.

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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.

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2 Days Later…

Wow, that got here fast!!!

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

DONE!

Ahhhhh... Much Better!