Good morning sweet, sweet friends!
Have you missed me?! I sure have missed you all! My inbox has been so quiet these days without all of your comments filling it up. :( But I finally have something to show you all today! The fruits of my labor, so to speak! We have finally finished our bathroom makeover and we couldn't be any happier with it! I have lots of photos to share with you all, so grab yourself a pot of coffee, a teabag or two and get comfy! :)
Before we get started, you should know what the bathroom looked like before we went to town on it. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of the room before The Man started painting, so the only photo I have of it was the one the appraiser took before we bought the house.
It was never a bad looking bathroom, but for me, coming from a design background, the caramel walls were fighting for attention with the navy roman shades and the granite vanity countertop was getting lost in the shuffle. So we lightened the wall color, changed out the valance and made it look a little more like a country bathroom should!
I {heart} this bathroom! It's clean, simple and relaxed. Just as a bathroom should be. The vanity and granite countertop were already in the bathroom when we bought the house, but it had chrome drawer pulls and knobs which didn't suit the 1890 farmhouse. So I changed out the hardware for some oil rubbed bronze (ORB) ones. The vanity lighting was also chrome, so we bought this pretty fixture which matches the faucet set we will eventually buy for the vanity. (We're waiting for the price to drop again!) Can you make out the mason jar liquid soap dispenser? I love that piece!
The original mirror was large, rectangular and boring. We bought this oval mirror at Home Depot for $18 and mounted it off the wall to give it more of a presence. Don't you LOVE that jug?! I had been searching all over for a reasonably priced ironstone jug, but they are out of my price range right now, so when I saw this beauty (which matches my Waverly valances!) at Target for $13! Sold! :) The soap dish is actually a silver plated dish I found at a local
antique store. I love using old things in a new way!
This artwork is really cool and a totally unexpected piece for a bathroom, but that's what I like about it! Last summer, we bought the frame at a garage sale for $8 and the artwork is an old magazine advertisement we found at a antique consignment shop in Vermont.
I bet you don't have a scale like that in your bathroom! LOL! I didn't think we'd ever have one like that either, but after one night at a local auction, The Man turned up with one and it found it's way into our bathroom. It works too! Who am I to say no to letting him put his stamp on this room?! He's got to live here too. :)
When we bought the house, a dear friend of the family let us go shopping in her garage for things we might be able to use and when I spied her Waverly curtains, I knew I could use them! It's has a nice, vintage look to it and it just works in this bathroom. Every room needs a little greenery, so I added this wicker wall planter. See that hand towel? Can you guess what's holding it up??
Yep! It's this old door knob and backplate! How cool is that?! Did I mention that I love the unexpected in a room? The backplate was purchased at the antique store I told you about earlier and we found the knob in a box when we bought the house. It's amazing how well they go together! This is a working door knob because I cut the entire piece, including the wood off a broken door we had in the shed. There's probably a few carpenter's screaming a few choice words in my direction now, but hey - a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
It wouldn't be a country bathroom without an old ladder in it! This old painters ladder now has a new life as my towel rack. And just in case my little girl can't resist the urge to climb the thing, I attached it to the floor and wall for more safety. :)
The original shower curtain rail was your typical metal tubing with metal rings. But with all the vintage things in the room, I couldn't bring myself to put that rod back up there, so I used a wood curtain rail and wood drapery rings instead. It gives the room so much more warmth than the old metal rod! I made the shower curtain myself. I had to add some ruffles to it! There's a second curtain on the inside so the ruffled one is just for looks. But ain't she pretty?! :)
This curio cabinet is what started it all. We found it at a neat, little folk art store in Fitzwilliam, NH and at $45, it's probably the most expensive thing in the room! I love all it's chippy paint and the glass side walls it has. It's just a neat piece!
The Man rolled his eyes at me when
this toilet roll holder turned up in the mail. He couldn't believe I bought it but honestly, with all the other interesting things in the room, I really couldn't bring myself to buy a standard, run of the mill holder after what I used for the towels! Behind the main door to the bathroom is a huge closet which houses all our candles and miscellaneous bathroom stuff. There was no door on this closet when we bought the house, so we found a louvered bifold door on Craigslist and used it as two doors on the closet. Since we're not keeping any linens in this closet, we decided to put the cat's litter box on the floor of it so it would keep it out of sight. Great idea right?! Well, The Man decided the cat needed his own bathroom makeover too...
He got some carpeting, and some floor and wall accessories to boot! LOL He's a funny man that husband of mine! Well, what do you think? Did we do a good job? We love it and now I think this bathroom fits this old house. :)
Next up, we're tackling the utilitarian laundry room which you have to walk through to get to this bathroom. It needs to be warmed up too!
Hugs, Sandra
.gif
)
Having only ever done two other distressed pieces before this one, I was a little nervous as to how this one would turn out. But I knew those legs would look sensational after a bit of distressing and a coat of wax! I painted three coats of Benjamin Moore's Vapor on it before sanding it down and distressing the edges.
Then I applied a coat of dark walnut wax paste all over the base, waited a few minutes then rubbed it down with a dry cloth. The wax does a really good job of darkening the exposed wood areas as well as protecting the painted finish. I hit some of the detailed areas twice since I wanted those areas to look a little darker.
I had lost my patience with the top, so I pulled out my palm sander and went to town on that thick, black goop...I mean, paint. It clogged up every piece of 40 grit sandpaper I had, but it was coming off! After getting most of it off, I sanded the rest by hand then applied a couple of coats of the dark walnut wax paste to bring out the wood grain. It's not perfect by any means, but it will do until I find a replacement. :)
