Downstairs bathroom, after

I think I can finally declare this one done.

Well, done save for caulking and repainting the baseboards, which I honestly acknowledge may take until Christmas (possibly longer) and in the spirit of moving things along, I'll just share pictures now before the whole project fades into obscurity. (See that blue tape to the right of the sink? That's where I started taping off to caulk and paint and got wholly dispirited.) Seems logical.

For reference, the before:

Whoa, nelly. I'm so in love with this room now. I think it might be my favorite in the house. I like to sit in the dining room while I eat breakfast alone in the mornings and look at the sun beaming into the bathroom and smile. Hit's so purty.

I learned a good lesson with this one: a bathroom facelift is a good place to start, decorating-wise. There are fewer variables, and more direction than you have with most other rooms. All the characters-- shower, toilet, sink-- are set, you just have to pretty it up.

In the grand scheme of things, we didn't do much. We tiled, that was the biggest thing. We also moved the electrical box about eight inches up the wall (it was oddly low, since the previous medicine cabinet had come with a built-in light. Me, I wanted a nice, classy ceiling-scraping light fixture, to draw your eye up and sit pretty atop the mirror I scored at one of my new favorite antiquing haunts.

The price was marked $38, I said how about $25, and the guy says, "How about $20?" That, friends, is my kind of place! My dad repaired the mirror frame, and I painted it cream. (Behr Evening Sun, the same color as our headboard.) 

I chose to work with the vanity and sink we inherited-- they aren't bad, really, just generic. Generic can be upgraded, though. Pretty easily. I got a new faucet and cabinet hardware (from Home Depot) and primed (with Benjamin Moore's SmartPrime-- great stuff!) and painted it Valspar Woodlawn Music Room. I don't really know what that means, that color name, but I like the yellow a lot. It goes really nicely with the walls, which are Behr Baked Brie. 

Other things I did: painted the tile over the sink (quick, cheap fix), made curtains for the window and the shower, hung a new wooden blind, bought new towel bars, switchplates, and a new rug from Anthropologie thanks to a very awesome birthday present gift card. 

Eventually I'll hang those two yellow-flowered plates on the wall over the toilet, but I need to find something to hang in between them first. Eventually-eventually we'll swap out the ceiling fixture and move the whole electrical box to the center of the room... that's eventually-eventually because it will involve tearing out the floor above down to the studs. Fortunately, the room directly above this is our upstairs bathroom, and tearing that floor down to the studs is exactly what we plan on doing. Eventually-eventually.

So it goes.

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