A Zeal for Teal

You probably know I have a thing for the color teal.  Be it turquoise or teal, I can’t seem to get enough of it lately.  It’s starting to pop up everywhere around the house.  The guest room, living room, den, and the guest bathroom are all sporting some variation of that hue.  So while I was perusing last month’s issue of Better Homes and Gardens I came across their paint color of the month:  Timeless Teal!  One in particular caught my eye—Teal Zeal by Olympic.  It’s “undercurrents of green and brown” sounded like a perfect fit for my house!  My next decision was where to put it.  I first considered repainting the office since it’s got nothing but gray, brown, and black going on, but I knew Michael would never agree to let me paint our shared office teal.  The guest bath was my next vision!  (It was due to get a new paint job anyway because the flat paint I used had three years of water spots on it.)  I knew it would work with the brown vanity and the neutral linens, so off I went with my magazine page to the paint store.  And last weekend I got busy repainting the guest bath!

I started by clearing the room and repainting the ceiling which was sporting off-white with a little line of old wall paint colors around the edges.  Gah!  Then I trimmed out the walls with teal (this time using satin paint!) and rolled on the first coat.  The next day I trimmed the whole room again (good thing it’s a small room!) and rolled a second coat.  Then I commenced to scrubbing, caulking and trim painting.  I can officially say that today that bathroom is clean from top to bottom.  That’s not to say it will stay that way long. :)

And now all my hard work has come to fruition… it is gorgeous!

The new color almost matches the blue on the bottom of the shower curtain.  And it highlights all the white and neutral accessories in the room.  I love how the white trim pops against the dark walls.  This is my first time painting walls a dark color; I am usually a “top-of-the-paint-chip” girl.  So, I am proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone this time. 

I am so happy with my little jewel box of a bathroom!  What do you think?

  

Now we just need a new faucet and maybe a new rug, because this green one doesn’t match anything anymore! ;)

Curtain Call

Today I knocked one more thing off the great to-do list.  That’s the wonderful thing about blogging… it keeps me accountable.  I’m sure you were all sitting by out there waiting for my follow-up post about the Great Shower Curtain Hunt of 2010.  Without that thought, I’m sure the plastic liner would have stayed crumpled up in the shower for a few more weeks while I procrastinated on finishing the shower curtain for the guest bath.  After the makeover in there, we all knew it was time to retire the patchwork shower curtain that I made in college.  You may remember it… 

(I gave it to my Mama to use in her guest bathroom.  It’s pretty cute there, I must admit.)

Well, after two failed attempts to purchase a new shower curtain (one was too green, one shrunk when I washed it… puh!) and three failed attempts to buy fabric to make one (fabric too expensive and too narrow) I finally found something online that I could work with.  Not before I wasted four more dollars on a sample from Fabric.com (too blue).  The winning option came from here.  Although, unless you feel like a sewing project, I wouldn’t recommend you rush right over there and buy one.  That’s because when I washed this one (according to the package directions) it, too, shrunk about 6 inches in length!  What is with these things?  And why do they only shrink in length? 

How high’s the water, Papa?

Obviously, I couldn’t just leave it like that.  So, that brings me to the “custom” bit of the project.  I decided to add a contrasting fabric to the hem to lengthen the curtain to normal size again.  And once again, my local fabric store failed me.  I had a lovely piece of fabric picked out, even had a swatch leftover from another project.  Off I went, armed with swatch, to the fabric store.  Then I spent ten minutes wandering around holding my swatch up to various look-a-likes, only to find that they didn’t have any of the original fabric in stock.  Of. Course.  So I settled (like always) for the next best thing.  A brighter version of my dusty teal blue swatch. 

Home I came, to preshrink it.  (Come on, people!)  Then I simply cut off a few extra inches from the curtain (saving the butterflies for appliqués on another project) and sewed on a 12” strip of my contrasting fabric.  Voila!

I promise that dark blue color is in the print on the shower curtain.  It’s just very hard to tell. :)  With my curtain finished, I was left with a few scraps of fabric with printed butterflies.  I carefully cut out the butterflies, then sized them down to appliqué onto my new guest towels!  I just ironed a bit of fusible webbing on the back then ironed them on the towels and satin stitched to secure.  No antenna, though… you think they’ll miss those?

       

Cute.  Can you tell I have a thing for butterflies? 

Just don’t tell Michael, because he hasn’t noticed the infestation yet. ;)

Even though this shower curtain purchase was a long shot, and even though the green color I was hoping to match to my wall color isn’t even in the print, I love the colors in here.  The dark purplish brown looks so nice with the dark mahogany stained vanity (which has a lot of red undertones).  And while I didn’t plan to use teal or blue, it was a happy accident how it all worked out.  I’m even kind of glad that this one shrunk because it gave me the opportunity to customize it.  And I got some matching towels out of it, too.  Score. 

So serene… and so nice to finally have a room finished!  For now. :)

Now I’m just waiting for guests to come use my new towels! And the super clean shower!

;)

La Salle de Bain

Preface

I’m going to let you in on a little secret… my house is not perfect.  And neither am I.  ::gasp::  Let me tell you a little story about how imperfect we are.  And the great lengths we go to disguise it.

Chapter 1

The kind folks who lived here before us left two stick up hooks on the back of the bathroom door.  Sounds innocuous, no?  I’ve done the same kind of thing… only to my parents’ house and college dorms.  I definitely wouldn’t do it in my own home… my beautiful, perfect, double-stick-adhesive-free home.  So, as soon as we moved in and I began slapping “Sarah” all over this place, (namely slapping a purple wreath on the bathroom door… poor Michael) I had to remove the seemingly innocuous stick up hooks.  Let’s just say they didn’t go without a fight.  And maybe I wasn’t the victor this time.  And maybe this ruined my chances for a “perfect” house.  ::sob::

This is why 3M invented command strips, people!

Anyway, I tore off part of the fine wood particle door with the first hook and left a great chunk of adhesive foam with the second.  Grrr!  Not to be deterred by this bump in the road to my perfect house, I slapped that purple wreath over the marred surface without a second thought.  And then I proceeded to ignore it for two years. :)

Chapter 2

Enter, bathroom makeover.  Pictures are un-hung, towel bars removed, and silly purple wreaths taken down for the painting to begin.  And there, right where I left them… the ugly marks from the evil stick up hooks… mocking me again!  Y’all know me, I’m not going to be mocked by some sticky foam and scarred wood!  Enter spackle and scraper and elbow grease!  Take that sticky foam!  Tick, tick, tick…. spackle dry… sanding…

GAaaAahHH!

Evil sticky foam spackle section leaves a lovely little smooth place on otherwise wood particle textured door!  ::wail::  Paint over evil smooth spackle spot and wait for inspiration.

Chapter 3

Enter ugly butterfly canvas print. So ugly that I never even took a before photo.  And so ugly that the thrift store practically gave it to me to paint over one day.  Yay!  We are saved!  Paint over it we shall!  But what? 

A sign so people will know they are in my perfect, fantastic bathroom, in case the surroundings and fixture fail to alert them.  A sign with “Bathroom” written on it.  Yeah, but in French!  Cuz French is fancy!  Parfait!

Search internet for fancy design for fancy sign.  Find fancy font (Freebooter Script- dafont.com).  Resize and print.  Add more flourishes for extra fanciness: 

With pencil, transfer to newly painted canvas.

Paint to match wall color.  Add brown shadows = Super Fancy!

Hang on door over ugly spackle spots.  Voila!

 

La fin.

Vanity Fair

After many hours of sanding, staining, cursing, and aching… the guest bath vanity is finished!  No more worn, dated cabinets of unknown orangey color and “antiqued” brass knobs.   It may be the same old cabinet from 1984, but this beauty has a new lease on life!

Here’s another look from before:

And here is my photoshopped inspiration photo:

And now, the big reveal:

From inspiration to reality was as easy as a few days work, a can of stain, a $25 mirror and $17 in new hardware…  I used a one-inch artist’s brush (that seems crazy, but it worked for me and gave me better control than with a big paint brush) on the first four coats followed by one topcoat applied with a foam sponge brush.  I am in love with the results…

 

I snagged the satin nickel knobs on Ebay for less than half the cost of Lowe’s.   And I simply spray painted the old hinges with oil rubbed bronze and reused them instead of buying nickel ones.  They blend in so well, you can hardly see them. :)

The new mirror looks right at home now with the matching cabinets.  Our guest bathroom is so beautiful after the transformation!  Soon, I will forget how it used to look and the overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride will go away… we can’t let that happen, so here’s a side by side comparison of the before and after composite photos for your (and my) viewing pleasure.  :)

    

(Please forgive the bad splice job; I just can’t seem to figure that out!)

So, what do you think?  Are you ready to give it a try on your old vanity or some other piece of furniture that needs a face-lift?  You can bet this will get the ball rolling around here.  I have plans to do the master bathroom cabinets and our office bookcase in the future. 

That brings us to the end of this fair vanity makeover.  Still to come in the guest bath project are a new shower curtain and artwork.  Keep it here for all the latest!

P.S. Before you ask… those are green apple candles in the iron urn (Thanks Debbie and Nichole!).  Don’t know why you would want an apple (or a bunch of them) in the bathroom… but they are green, so there you go.  Don’t ask me…. I can’t explain my motivations. :) 

Guest Bath Progress

Hello!  I am back with the latest updates from our guest bathroom makeover.  I told you last time that we got a new mirror and light fixture to replace the funky brass ones that were left by the previous homeowners. 

I like to pretend that they took all their nice, updated fixtures with them when they moved, rather than believe that they always lived with these ugly ones! Of course, I do realize that not everyone has “pretty mirror” at the top of their priorities. ;)

Anyway, I digress… onwards with the update!  Remember my new light fixture (the wall color in this photo is way off, but at least you can see the light… hehe):

I installed this chrome beauty ALL BY MYSELF!  And I read the directions!  I know, it’s shocking. Not literally shocking, I was very careful and cut the breaker.  :)  I also wanted to show you what I found when I uninstalled the old light… wallpaper (and it’s hunter green… surprise, surprise)!  Isn’t it nice that they saved me a little relic under there?  I left it for the next person to find when they go to update my “horrible chrome light from the twenty-tens”.  hehe.  Maybe they’ll think I liked hunter green wallpaper with little dots, too. 

Now that we have color on the walls and a beautiful new light, we can get to the real star of the room… the vanity.  Remember, back in February when I asked you “to paint or not to paint?” regarding the vanity cabinets.  Well, two thirds of you (thanks to my three enthusiastic voters) voted for stained mahogany cabinets with nickel knobs.  That was my favorite option, too.  While the off-white painted version surely would have made the room look bigger… I opted to go with a more elegant, classic look.  One that complements the rest of our house, as well.  And one that has nearly broken my back with effort.  You know what they say: “Good things come to those who break their backs”… I mean, “Beauty is pain.” :)

So, to begin with, I took an antique oak mirror and stripped the bad paint job.  Then we applied four coats of Bombay Mahogany polyshade (stain plus poly), followed by a protective polyurethane layer to seal the deal. 

We took it from this grunginess:

To this beauty:

For the bargain price of $25 plus the cost of stain, I think it’s a pretty good deal for a thick, durable (read: heavy!) mirror with a solid wood frame.  And doesn’t it looks snazzy on the new green walls?  I’m in love!  I would have liked to hang it horizontally like in my inspiration photo:

But, my steal of a deal mirror was a bit too small to accommodate both me (short) and Michael (tall).  That’s the reality of living with tall husbands (right, Andi?).  I don’t think Michael would appreciate having his head cut off in the mirror. :)  Ultimately, I think it looks nice hanging vertically, and gives me a better view of my outfit, too! :)

Here is the unremarkable mirror before, with unremarkable cream walls:

And here is the fresh, elegant after:

LOVE.

Okay, that brings you up to date on the progress in here.  I’ll be back (hopefully soon) with the rest of the reveal—mahogany stained cabinets!  Yippee!  Plus hand painted art and a custom shower curtain (since apparently no one sells shower curtains lovely enough for my bathroom).  Stay tuned!

Guest Bath Sneak Peek

The last couple of weeks I’ve been busy on a little project.

And by little, I mean the room… not the tasks!

We have been redecorating our guest bathroom!   It’s a tiny 8’ x 5’ space with a tub and shower and full size vanity taking over the room.  The dated, worn cabinets and brass fixtures were begging for an overhaul.  This is the place:

    

Very memorable and inspired, no?

Don’t you just love that brassy gold mirror… with the ever popular elongated octagon shape?  Yeah, me too.  I’m over the moon. :)

So, to begin with, the mirror had to go… and the matching brass light fixture with fluted glass sconces.  Blech.  I’m not even going to qualify that with a photo.  Just use your imagination.

After finding the perfect wood framed mirror (manufactured in 1960… yay reusing antiques!) and refinishing it,

and the perfect(ly priced) chrome light fixture (yay, Walmart!),

then we were off to find the perfect (or thereabouts) paint color.  Our search finally ended with a lovely sage green called Bayou Shade by Valspar.

Here is your sneak peek!

Ahh.. so refreshing. 

So, that’s all you’re getting for today, but I will be back with more updates on the guest bathroom makeover!  There is more to come including mirror and vanity refinishing, a new shower curtain and accessories, plus some homemade artwork!  Stay tuned!

To paint or not to paint…

So, lately, I have been contemplating painting or staining our bathroom vanity cabinets.  They are sad.  And the grungy looking “antique” brass knobs are sadder.  My idea is to paint them an off white color with brushed nickel knobs or to stain them dark mahogany (like the rest of our furniture) with either oil rubbed bronze or brushed nickel knobs. 

In order to visualize what this might look like, I photoshopped a photo of my guest bath vanity.  Here is the before:

Yes, I’m standing in the bathtub!  Yes, it’s a small bathroom!  And yes, that gold mirror definitely has to go!

Here is the stained version with bronze knobs and matching mirror:

Please forgive my lack of photoshop skillz. :) But I think you get the idea.

Here is the stained version with (very shiny) nickel knobs:

And lastly here is the off-white painted version with matching mirror:

Okay, it’s voting time!  Which one is your favorite? 

The cabinets in the master bath are the same color and style, so this decision can apply to either bathroom.  Perhaps the painted ones would be better in the smaller bathroom to make it look bigger?  And the stained ones in the master?  Or does it need the contrast and impact of the dark stain in the small space? What do you think?

I’m also working on our guest bedroom lately.  I ordered new linens… and I’m trying to go with a yellow and white (with touches of light aqua?) color scheme in there.  Hopefully, when the bedding arrives on Friday, it will be perfect!  Then I can choose a paint color and get to painting over the cartoons on the walls.  I’ll keep you posted! ;)