One of the first things we did was to liven up the downstairs "guest" area with my collection of colorful maps, and a new collection of fun, and useable! kites. Over the years we've added more and more kites - guests are welcome to take them down and fly them on the beach. Hmmm, I may have to do a whole other blog to talk about this room!
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| Family Room |
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| Guest Bath |
After leaving it in its functional but dark and desperately blah state for a couple of years, I finally decided it was time to bring it up to the same level of brightness as the rest of the guest floor.
In the above photo, the bathroom looks nice and bright, but believe me, it was a cave! I tried different shower curtains, but standing in the shower was a dark experience with the only light coming from the vanity strip above the mirror. At first I was thinking we'd have to put in another fixture, but then I realized it was the mammoth "medicine" cabinet (top left of photo) that was blocking the light. So my first step was to take that sucker down!
I tried to do it alone, and it would have worked except it was HEAVY... So down it crashed onto the toilet tank. My hubby came running, and so did the water! No photos of this setback (thankfully), but a trip to the hardware store and lots of towels later, all was well again with no major damage to the room or to my well-being :o)
Once that was done, I went out and bought the brightest, whitest high-gloss bathroom paint I could find (a cave, remember?).
After taking down the light-fixture, prepping the walls and taping off everything else, it looked like this...
After getting a couple coats of paint on the walls, I tackled the mirror. I'd been reading blogs like this one (momtastic) thinking I'd like to add a frame to it. I'd bought a couple of pieces of 1x4 pine when I got the paint, so I measured and cut and glued. My mirror didn't turn out nearly as perfect as Momtastic's did (I lack patience for details), but I love it. I thought I'd taken some in between shots of the project, but can't find them.
So, while I waited for the paint on the walls to dry, and the glue on the mirror to set, I made a trip to Walmart. I had ordered a cute little white medicine cabinet and some bright colorful wall stickers from Amazon.com, but hadn't been able to find a shower curtain that really clicked with my plans (not so much "plans" as "I'll know it when I see it"). Plus, I really wanted to find one of those curved shower curtain rods that expands the space inside the shower/tub. Success - I scored a perfect shower curtain with a couple of matching accessories. My idea was really taking shape - brightly colored dots and frogs. Fun!
Finally, everything arrived - I had a blast laying out the dots on the walls. I had purchased several cute sayings, and took great liberty in cutting them out so they'd say what I wanted them to say! I placed them a couple inches from the ceiling, starting at the mirror and running all the way around to the door.
The little white cabinet went together easily. Extra wood from the mirror project was perfect for adding a shelf inside, and a couple of cute dotted knobs and some wall stickers completed it. My "inspiration piece" for the room fit perfectly on the outer shelf - the two fish in the rowboat (left side of shelf above the yellow washcloth).
I didn't have to buy towels or a matching rug, these are all things I already had from a previous house.
Here's the mirror after the glue had set enough to take the tape off (still needed to caulk and do touch-up). Note the lack of a light fixture. I kept the white six-bulb vanity light, positioning the mirror frame to fit under it as if it were a matching piece.
Below is the finished mirror and light fixture. I decided to use little round bulbs rather than the regular size for a more fun appearance. I left the vanity alone - someday perhaps we'll swap it out, but it works for now. The artwork above it is a print from an Oregon artist - frogs playing in a sink of running water - so cute!
It's a tiny bathroom, so it was hard to get photos of the whole project. Here is an angle that shows the new shower curtain and rod, as well as the size of the new cabinet in relation to the shower area.
This one gives you a better look at the bright colors (slightly crooked), and the next one shows you pretty much the whole room...
That's it - my bright, colorful and playful guest bath project! Hope you enjoyed it as much as our guests do -- young or old, it brings a smile.
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