Now that there's a happy surprise on the way, it's up to my husband to do most of the dirty work and up to me to pick the pretty parts. Colors. Knobs. Fixtures.
Wall tile. Check.
Floor tile. Check.
Lights. Check (Quintuple check! do YOU know how many lights that means?!)
Shower curtain rod. Check.
Tub & Sink faucet/fixtures. Check.
Toilet paper holder. Check.
I'd say I'm, by far, surpassing my lovely "assistant" in this area of the remodel. Bathroom is ready for neatly pressed towels and fancy pallet storage to hold mason jars with cute puffy cotton balls and q-tips. However, there's still a LOT to be done until the decorating stage sets in and I get to start freaking out about getting a NEW shower curtain!! I mean really, we've had the same curtain for like ten years. Actually, make that about 12 years because it was purchased when I lived with my sister back in the day before my hair was turning gray and when I had a brain and could remember the names of people without going down a list!
So let's pick up where we left off. First let's talk about the lights.
We had these suckers.
After seeing the ways these lit up the entire bathroom (and neighbor's yard 25 acres away!), I knew I wanted something bright. One-two bulb fixtures weren't going to cut it. There's something about a stark white, clean, blinding bathroom that just makes me feel so good!
I wanted something farm-like. Maybe like this galvanized sconce from Lowes:
Which I love. But like I said, I want lots of blinding light and I'm loving the side lights and how they reflect from both sides. Plus these are $40 a piece. Not bad at all....but.....I can do even thriftier!
So I see this blog post about using multiple lights and turning into something all your own! I was sold. They aren't side lights. They aren't the galvanized lights. But it was super cheap. And it's all my own!
Do you see these suckers? They aren't as cute but they are ONLY $5 a piece! I did the easy part and got five of them. Hubby and my uncle did the crappy part of spacing them juuuust perfectly above the mirror!
The plan is to take them BACK down, and spray paint them with the bronze spray paint. It has a really nice metallic shimmer to it. It will look nice with the fixtures. One day.
I think it will look amazing. And for $25. Who can complain? And guess what???
Pure beautiful blinding light. I love it. Exactly what I wanted! To finish them off, I am replacing the globes with mason jars!
Moving on.....
Let's now chat a little about the left wall behind me there. Hubby has been hard at work building me some built-in shelves. This is a small bathroom with not a whole lot of storage. And because I'm addicted to Pinterest, I'm going to do every single little fad that's going around right now for a farm-like bathroom.
Wainscoting
Built-in Shelving
Faux Brick.
Subway Tile.
DIY Countertop.
Glass knobs.
Everything!! The tackier the better, right?! Well I hope that isn't the case but we'll see!!!
So the left wall...
Hubby has been doing this project without me, little by little, here and there as he gets a chance. We decided on three shelves with the bottom shelf being at the level where the wainscoting will begin. And the vertical slats will be about every 12"-16" inches, totally depending on that vent (details to come!). We opted to not put a door over the built-in, for now anyway. I want to display a few hand towels, and perhaps a naked hiney picture or some perfume bottles. Make it staged and fancy like we have uncluttered lives. Because built-ins do that, you know?!
It's a total lie though. I have hoards of sample bottles and half-used Bath & Body Works lotions and scruffy old washcloths. But we'll pretend those things aren't shoved in hiding *somewhere*!
To this date, the wall has been mudded & sanded three times and is ready for wainscoting and paint! YAY!
Now for the faux brick wall.
I've been reading and researching, pinteresting and thinking....what to do with those stupid tore up sheetrock walls. I knew they had to be replaced or covered. So when I ran across a post about white-washing faux brick, BINGO! I remembered my sister had several sheets from her old Salon. So I called her up, she GAVE them to me!!! cha-ching!!! I love you sisterrrrr! Whoop there it is. Solution to the sheetrock dilemma and a cheap one at that!
So yesterday, I get a cup of half water, half of my mint green paint and stir it up and test it on the sheetrock. I'm not loving it. It took like 7 coats and was just too time consuming. As you can see in the picture, after doing the 50/50 white-wash (in the center), I took my brush and dipped it in the straight up paint, and brushed onto the top. I MUCH prefer the thicker version. My sponge brush was still wet with water...so I think my solution is to still white-wash, but with a much thicker consistency for more coverage. More like 90/10-ish. I'm not a scientist. And I don't do fractions (or percentages as you know) well either. I guesstimate.
Now here it looks really white. The paint is not all that minty. Juuuuust a hint. I didn't want toothpaste. Or 1960's cafeteria plate. Just a nice bright hint of mint!
I let the paint dry. My mom came in and said she liked the white-washed because it had more character. So I had the idea to come back with a dry rag and just buff it a tad. And I love it. We both did! So, this is the finish we will be going for!
The only other thing to report on at this time are the cabinet drawers.
I chose a dark gray paint color for the entire cabinet to mimic this style. White was my first, and obvious, choice. But with all of these muddy little hands, I figure grey should hold up better. Plus is popularrrrrr! ;)
(Image from Pinterest.)
I have only painted the drawer fronts so far. Before painting, though, I gave each drawer a good sanding. Each drawer side since they are sliding wood on wood. And also each front to remove as much of the previous layers of paint as possible. What's funny is the mint green color that was the last layer, is pretty similar to the mint green paint I've chosen for the walls!
Do you see the mint green? It's a few shades darker. But definitely minty fresh! or was at one time!
I've given them three coats of the gray with a small sponge roller. This first picture is with one layer.
(At night they are pretty dark but the lighting isn't helping in this shot.)
Now that the fronts are done, I'm trying to decide if I want to paint the insides of the rest of the drawers, possibly the mint color? or give them a good coat polyurathane for protection against mold and wetness and be done? Thoughts??
I'm so anxious to see everything come together. You know you get this master plan in your head, but with Pinterest discombulating my brain with 10 million different ideas and themes and colors, you just never know what it'll look like once it comes together.
I pray, good!
More to come with Bath Reno: Part III
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