100 Subscribers and Building: Bathroom Refresh

Get it? Get it? Like growing, but building, because… I like to … build things?

But really, a few days ago I got a notification that I’d gotten a new follower – my 100th! While I was so excited, it also reminded me how little time I’d had to blog lately and how woefully I’d been neglecting it. It was a friendly reminder from the universe not to forget to make time for myself and what I love to do amid the daily rush. So, as I was sitting on the floor next to my almost-1-year-old, who was glued to the window watching The Hubster mow while my almost-3-year-old was upstairs watching him from her window, I realized I was squandering found time. So now here I sit, wildly composing before they figure out that I’m not paying full attention to them. 😂

Eye spy….

So, to celebrate my 100th subscriber, I’m doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Just getting back to posting about something quick and easy and what I learned. So here we go! I rescued our bathroom from the brink, and I’m here to tell you about it.

We have a half bath on our first floor and I absolutely hated this thing. I was convinced it was a total gut job. Don’t you agree?

It was (poorly) painted red, with blotches showing through and sloppy bits on the ceiling. And the red just looked awful next to the light brown trim. (It was the only room in the house that we hadn’t gotten around to painting the trim in and it just haunted me.)

And then there’s the tile. The only word I can use to describe it is “sloppy.” The grout? Sloppy. The spacing? Super sloppy. The height? Sloppy choice to end it at a height that’s halfway up the switch plates. The messy tiling just really gets under my skin. I think this bathroom has scarred me from ever attempting my own tiling. I tried to pop a few tiles off once, just to see what would happen, and they pulled off about a quarter inch of Sheetrock, so when those babies come off someday, they’ll require the whole bathroom to be re-Sheetrocked. Yay.

So I thought that someday I’d take the perfectly average fixtures out to save them, gut the whole thing, and start from scratch. But my mom was always telling me I should just slap a coat of paint in there and it would be miles better. No way. Impossible, I said. But, as usual with moms, she was right. So, Lesson #1 here, folks? Listen to your mother.  😂

And then, one night, it happened. I got the itch. We had a big party coming up for my parents’ anniversary (we’re talking 80 people and a giant tent in the back yard), and before I had enough time to think myself out of it, I’d gotten the white paint and started the trim. I did a deliberately messy job, getting it all over the walls, so that I had to paint them later.

I spent 3 nights after the kids were in bed painting like a fiend, maybe 2 hours per night. And I used leftover paint for the trim and the walls, so the cost was almost nothing. On the final night, I went to bed while it was still looking weird, in that partially dry, blotchy stage, thinking that at least it was a little better but kind of down on myself about how much of a non-improvement the paint was.

But when I woke up in the morning… it looked beautiful in there! The paint had evened out as it dried and I got that kick of positive motivation I needed to finish the job.

First up: that half curtain and weird spiral fogged glass sticker. I couldn’t have my guests able to see in / out of the upper half of the window. My solution: cover it up! I ran down to Walmart and grabbed a curtain I thought might work and a strange but adorable little owl. I hemmed the curtain with no-sew Stitch Witchery, got it up on the tension rod in there, and was just dumbfounded at the results. You guys, this bathroom isn’t so bad after all!

Bonus about the curtain: It goes perfectly with the hydrangea I’d painted ages ago!

I remember reading a post over at Bower Power about making time to do DIY projects with kids. At the time, I didn’t have any kids, but I remember thinking she was totally nuts to schedule a party to get motivated to finish a project. More than once when I was up late painting this bathroom, I was chuckling thinking about that post. Man, was she right! And as I sit here re-reading it right now, I’m laughing as I realize one of her other tips was “Work at Night.” My how my life has changed!

So with just a couple of hours of painting and a new curtain, I transformed this bathroom. One of my poor guests just two days later made the mistake of complimenting the paint color in there and was subjected to hearing my whole saga about this bathroom. 😂 I’m just so delighted. Now I love using this bathroom and I don’t tell guests to go upstairs to use one of the other ones. The tile is still wonky and terrible, but it isn’t so starkly obvious anymore.

The only thing I have left to do in here is update the artwork above the toilet. I painted it based on this beautiful art, but now the colors don’t work. Any suggestions? My mom suggested I photocopy the fabric from the curtain and put it in there…. maybe I should take my own advice and just listen to her! 🙂