Sunday, June 29, 2014

53 The Little Bathroom Update That Could...

... although it wasn't even planned.

Sometimes one thing leads to another, and when I am involved, it isn't always necessarily as planned.  I am good at taking something and running with it {or as my husband would say, making a mountain out of a molehill}.  Me running with the purchase of a new vanity caused the entire bathroom project to have the Lorax effect.... it kept biggering and biggering and biggering.


It all started out when our old vanity had seen better days and the drawers busted due to little climbers and the fact I hadn't kept a good stool at their disposal.   The vanity had been painted multiple times and was never intended to be long term anyway {although 12+ years was pretty long term}, so I was excited to pull it out and say farewell.  And being that we had leftover materials from lower level and guest bathroom projects at our disposal, it seemed as though the stars were aligning in our favor of a sweet little bathroom update.  All we would need to purchase is a new vanity and boom, much better right?!  Not quite.


Once the old vanity was removed, the walls needed to be painted and far more than what we had left in our touch up paint jar.  So, the cheapy in me just pulled out a gallon of paint we had on hand and painted the walls in Behr's Burnished Metal.

Bryan installed the flooring {these from Home Depot which we have used in our guest bathroom and throughout our entire lower level}, and we also updated all of the trim in the bathroom.  We followed the exact same process as we shared in this post here {which also links back to more step by step tutorials}, so I didn't duplicate the documentation process this time around.

This is where the biggering comes in.

The new vanity really opened up the bathroom and allowed us better storage {I will touch on that in a moment}, which also meant we could remove the stand-in storage cabinet we had been using.  Removing the small cabinet left the big giant wall looking sterile and blank and the dinky hooks looked just that; dinky.  My wheels were spinning and I decided that subtle stripes paired with beautiful new substantial hooks would be much more fun for the space.  Simple, yet functional while also filling the big empty wall.  No big deal.

I shared the beautiful stripe and house number projects in my last update.


And then things went entirely downhill.

As I was taking and editing the post photos, I noticed that the light was catching areas that needed to be touched up.  So after I posted my last update, that is exactly what I went to do.  I touched up edges and corners and even a missed spot on the stripes here and there.  Then it happened.

Jennifer Jones was painting a wall, Jennifer Jones had a great fall.

Yep, I fell as I was touching up the ceiling.  Completely lost my balance and not so gracefully bruised my wrist, ribs and ankle.  At that point I called it quits, slowly walking away to allow my touch ups to dry and to take a few days to recover.

Once the touched up areas were dry, I was left completely disappointed.  Because the metallic glaze was a mixture that I created, even though I stirred and stirred and stirred some more, it didn't provide the exact coverage.  In fact, the spots I "touched up" only looked worse.  Blotchy, runny and oh so wrong.  I panicked.

I went and spoke with a paint specialist at Sherwin Williams and asked about finish options to fix the metallic mess I created and to see if they had any options that would allow me to redo my stripes.  I was told that applying any type of metallic glaze can be a finicky process due to running, mixing and edging, and that they usually recommend hiring a pro.  Um, that was not part of my plan.

So, we went to Home Depot and heard the same thing from there paint department.  Somehow, I got lucky and most of my stripes looked beautiful, so I am guessing that if you can get it all on and blended at once, you should be OK.  Just don't attempt to touch it up after.  Ever.

Feeling deterred and frustrated and sore... I chickened out and purchased the exact same color of paint as the walls were already finished in, only in a glossy sheen.  My fingers were crossed there would be enough of a difference between the eggshell and gloss paint sheens, to still achieve the subtle stripe effect.

Re-taping was easy, we just followed the lines we had previously created so no re-measuring was required.  Hubby and I whipped out the glossy stripes together in under an hour, and started pulling the tape again.  This time, it was nearly impossible to even spot a difference.  Strike two.


Before getting too much tape pulled, we stopped knowing we would have to paint yet again.  Nervous to head back to the glaze I loved and risk messing it up again, I decided to just find a pretty complimentary shade and call it good.  Lame I know but sometimes you have to know when to fold 'em.  I went with Glidden's Misty Moonstone and it was juuuuuust right.  Did you hear the sigh of relief from there?



Other than the paint drama, the rest of the bathroom came together easily and quickly and makes me grin for a lot of different reasons.  In fact, I was fairly happy with our previous bathroom refresh, but this one takes the cake.

My visions for this bathroom down the road include a lot of tile, including a whole new tub and shower.  Knowing the direction that I see the bathroom heading, anything purchased this time around had to fit with those plans.  I searched high and low and when I spotted the vanity online I knew it was "the one".  The vanity was one that I could see myself loving for the rest of the life of our home and had all of the characteristics I was after.


And that vanity was an absolutely game changer.  Attempting to translate size within photos is nearly impossible, but this bathroom is a whopping 5' x 5'.  The beautiful new vanity {purchased here from Lowes}, was actually not as deep as our previous version, giving us an extra few inches of floor space.  That few inches paired with the leggy base resulted in a bathroom that felt twice as big. 


Although smaller, the cabinet actually works harder for us in the storage department.  The previous vanity had one small cabinet paired with two small drawers.  The drawers held random bathroom clutter and the cabinet was utilized for cleaning supplies.  There was no room to store our extra set of towels, however, the open shelf on the bottom of the new vanity solved that problem instantly.  Love.


To organize the inside of the cabinet, I added a caddy to hold the cleaning items and rags on the left....


While a basket on the right holds daily toiletry items.  I gave the bottom of the basket a coat of the coral paint to tie it in with the house numbers and freshly painted stool.


Speaking of house numbers, they are so stinkin' darling floating above each of the bathroom hooks.


The entire bathroom is done in neutral grays and blues for my boys and to stay consistent with the flow of the rest of our home, but the little pops of corally pink sure speak to me. 


A few years ago we switched from towel bars to hooks in the bathroom, and I will never turn back.  Hooks are so much easier for my boys to use.  No need to fold anything nice and neat, just toss the towel back on the hook and go.  Occasionally, towels would slip off of their hooks, so this time around we sewed small ribbon loops onto each towel.  Couldn't be easier for the boys to maintain yet adds a sweetness to the space.




We toss a soft bathmat over the edge of the tub which is placed on the floor during showers, so I opted not to put down a rug for now.  This allows the stool to glide across the floor on felt pads, and encourages the boys to grab the stool when washing and brushing.

Of course all of the room accessories were curated from items we already had around our home.  My favorite elephant print still set the tone with its fantastic colors....


While the other frame was updated with a small print I received with a recent order from Aedriel.  The shower curtain was purchased at Home Goods and allowed for us to play a game of musical shower curtains around the rest of the house.

The hand towel may be a little too much stripe on stripe, but we already had it on hand and the color was too perfect for now and really ties in the house numbers and stool on the opposite side of the room.


So that is the story of our little bathroom update and the three attempts at getting the perfect stripes.


Have you had a "third times a charm" project recently?  Or a room that started out as one itty bitty update and kept biggering and biggering?

sources:  floors, vanity, light, stripe towel, candle, vase, frames, elephant print, shower curtain, hooks - discontinued from Pottery Barn, towels, stool

Paint colors - Behr's Burnished Metal / Glidden's Misty Moonstone


53 comments:

  1. And you did it again! Gorgeous!

    And for the elephant in the room (haha)... HOW did you attach the house numbers to the wall? I assume it's simple- but I'm just not visualizing how it would work since you can't access the back of the wall.

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    1. Thank you Caroline!

      The house numbers we were designed to stick out from the wall. We marked where the pegs would go into the wall and pre-drilled, then just pressed them into the wall.

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  2. Where is the mint green cleaning supply caddy from? I love it!

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    1. Hi Jenelle,
      The caddy is from World Market: http://www.worldmarket.com/product/mint+housekeeping+utility+bucket.do?&from=fn

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  3. Where is that amazing elephant print from?

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    1. Hi Carly,
      The elephant print was purchased from Parima Creative Studio: http://www.parimastudio.com/elephant-no3

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  4. I love it all! We recently updated our boys' bathroom too and also use hooks for their towels. We purchased a ready made countertop from Lowe's to instantly update our vanity, replaced the factory mirror with a framed mirror, and my husband installed beadboard along one wall. I have always loved stripes but thought it would be too difficult. I might have to try them someday. It adds so much to the bathroom. p.s. I love your website and look forward to all of your posts. :)

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    1. Sounds like a lot of really fun updates that most likely made a huge difference! I wanted to do the board and batten as well, however, this project was never meant to get as big as it did so it got vetoed this round. :) I bet yours looks stunning!

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  5. Beautiful! I'm wanting to paint both my living and dining rooms (split by a craftsman type "arch"/columns). I painted both rooms a few years ago but am craving something new. It'll be my second time, not counting the previous homeowners colors...so maybe this can count as a third time....

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  6. I love the elephant print! Where did you get it? The bathroom looks fantastic!

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    1. Thank you! The elephant print was purchased from Parima Creative Studio: http://www.parimastudio.com/elephant-no3

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  7. GORGEOUS! Your "refreshes" never cease to astound me. I am coveting those big, beautiful hooks in the worst way. Also, I need to investigate the Honest Company cleaning products.

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    1. Thank you Keltie! I really love the Honest Company products, but found I wasn't great about keeping up on their subscription and ended up with a few too many tubes of toothpaste and bottles of toilet bowl cleaner, lol. I suspended it for awhile but also just saw they started selling their products at Target, which I love. :)

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    2. oooooh, one more reason to go to Target :) Definitely going to give them a try!

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  8. Love the elephant print! Where'd you get it?

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  9. I'm also in love with the hooks. Where did you find them?

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    1. Hi Jennifer! The hooks are from Pottery Barn, but I purchased them on an auction site since they are an older style. I am always stalking auction sites for Anthropologie and Pottery Barn Hardware, Etsy has great options also. :)

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  10. Love the striped towel -- reminds me of "cat in the hat", given your seuss theme. seriously, your post made me chuckle. minus the part where you had a great big fall. hope you feel better soon!

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    1. Thanks! And true it is a nice little nod to The Cat in the Hat in the boy's bathroom. Love it!

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  11. Sounds like a tough road, but so worth it! Everything turned out great. All the little touches are lovely and the extra storage perfect. Great job!!

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  12. Love all the changes. I feel like I am constantly reworking rooms at home. Dave is happy we are in our summer rental until the end of August. I think he needed a break from the constant projects...me I am having withdrawals ;)

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    1. I bet! Sometimes I think a break would be good, but I know it wouldn't be long and I would be having project withdrawals as well! Enjoy your time away this summer!

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  13. Love the update, where did you find those awesome hooks?

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    1. The hooks are from Pottery Barn, but I purchased them on an auction site since they are an older style {no longer available}. I am always stalking auction sites for Anthropologie and Pottery Barn Hardware, Etsy has great options also.

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  14. I've been in this situation so many times - DIYing always leads you to these kinds of projects after awhile. Glad you made it out, no broken bones, and with a lovely bathroom update! :)

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  15. We painted my old office with a random can of turquoise from ReStore and my wife painted beautiful white chevrons on one wall... The taping took foreeeeevvvvveeeer, oh and did I mention the previous person had painted the ceiling BRIGHT BLUE?!? That took coat after coat of white and lots of back breaking painting on popcorn ceiling. Finally it looked gorgeous and I was so happy. Next thing I know the owner is saying she hates it and it all needs to be put back.... Grooooaaaan.

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    1. Oh no!!! So sorry to hear that! That makes me sad, I can completely imagine the labor that went into the project. Sounds like it was amazing while it lasted!

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  16. I'm so sorry the metallic stripes didn't work out! It was so pretty! This is equally as gorgeous, though! Love all The Honest Company products you use. I use them almost exclusively, with a few homemade cleaning concoctions as well. Hope you are feeling better from your fall!

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  17. The whole bathroom update is mind blowing. I admire your efforts in maintaining the colour contrast of grey and white in all the objects. It is not easy. I read from the other comments that the elephant design is purchased but did you DIY the frame for it?

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  18. Beautiful work. You can really see the passion that was put into this work. I love seeing environments that support the person both with efficiency and with beauty. Our homes should always make us happy!

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  19. Where did you get the towel hooks? We love using hooks.

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  20. Jen! First of all, so sorry about your fall- ouch!! Like you really needed that during that stripe craziness! Ha! I have been following the story on that bathroom... phew, happy ending! I love how the stripes look now- more contrast that before :-) Hate to bug you about where you got things but I am... I am dying over the shower curtain and towels. So I have to ask... where did you get them? Sorry! :-) We are in the very beginning process of building a house and I love this idea for my sons bathroom. Thank you and am so glad you are ok! The bathroom looks amazing too!

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    1. Don't be sorry and thank you for the kindness! The shower curtain is from HomeGoods and the towels are Target. :) Congrats on the new house! So exciting!

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  21. Metallic paint is the WORST to work with! We used it on the recessed portion of our dining room's tray ceiling and it was hugely frustrating. A paint contractor friend told us later that he would have sprayed it on, rather than rolling or brushing. Your recent post on the new paint sprayer made me instantly think of that nightmare metallic paint. Maybe try it next time!

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  22. Darn, Jen! So sorry that you hurt yourself. Don't worry I am TOTALLY not judging. I would have done the same thing. Hah.

    How do your boys like the update? It is such a good mix of masculine and girly!

    Good job, girlfriend!

    Sarah

    www.sarahsdaybook.com

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  23. I currently have four paint samples in my bathroom, after getting rid of about five others. At least four trips to Lowes for those samples, but I think i finally have it figured out. Crossing my fingers!

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  24. Good for you for sticking it out and finishing the project so beautifully! The final paint job looks much better to me than even the first one did, way to go!

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  25. It turned out gorgeous!! The contrasting stripes are perfect. I'm so sorry about your fall and I hope you're feeling better soon! xo

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  26. I LOVE the bathroom and I am totally giggling at the Dr Seuss reference! :D

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  27. Great work. Congratulations in finishing the project! The elephant print is very cute. I want it inside my bathroom too!

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  28. I love the vanity. The pic of it on Lowe's looks like it has different handles and I love yours! Did you replace the handles?
    Thanks!

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    1. Hi Hayley! Great eye! I forgot to mention that, but yes, we did update the handles. I went with these that I had been admiring for awhile, and they are absolutely fantastic: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Martha-Stewart-Living-3-in-Polished-Nickel-Finial-Cabinet-Hardware-Pull-136246/202241370

      xoxo!

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  29. I love the way that turned out. I would love to update our bathroom but I have no idea what I'm looking to do. My bathroom is pretty small and I like how yours turned out. The first thing I noticed was the red and white striped hand towel. I love it!

    http://rpointer-revans.blogspot.com/

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  30. Ahh....if your three boys can share a bathroom that size I have hope for our two kids sharing one that size too! And, looking at your bathroom we might be able to get a tub in there too (currently, it just has one tiny shower-worst idea ever for a main bathroom)!! LOVE the vanity and stripes. I am not sure I will ever talk my husband into doing stripes again after our last attempt :)

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  31. This is a great redo. And comes at a great time for me since I am collecting and considering options for my kids bathroom. Are you happy with your flooring choice? Have you had any concerns or problems with it and water damage from the shower/tub? My kids have let so much water leak out of the shower that the baseboards have expanded beyond recognition. How do you keep your boys from destroying your baseboards? What training technique have you used?

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    1. Hi Andrea! We are definitely happy with the flooring choice and how it holds up to moisture and water. Also, we updated our trim to a composite trim that is mold resistant and water proof. We found it at Home Depot, it is light weight and we love it. http://www.homedepot.com/p/TRIMFINITY-LWM623-9-16-in-x-3-1-4-in-x-12-ft-Composite-Plastic-Base-Moulding-TM623/202071730?N=5yc1vZara1Z1z0uk32Z1z0wixeZ1z11cv2

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  32. What a wonderful redo! After showing my husband your bathroom I've convinced him to update ours with some stripes. Do you recall where the towels on the vanity sink came from?

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  33. We are finishing up a bathroom for our kiddos and I have hooks for the towels as well. Can you please tell me what you used to attach them to the wall so that they do not pull out of the sheerock? Thanks!
    --Gayla

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    1. Hi Gayla! We always try to find a stud or use drywall anchors to be sure the kids can't easily pull them out of the wall. xo!

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    2. Yes, that's the problem. We have a stud on the first one, but I have four hooks for four kids! Thank you for your reply.

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