Thursday, April 4, 2013

It's been so long!

It's been so very long since I've posted on my blog!  Life gets in the way sometimes! I guess working, caring for middle-aged children (8 and almost 10) and working on my Etsy Shop keeps me pretty darn busy. That and buying a 'new' (built in 1886) house last summer has kept us all very busy.

Recently, my husband and I did a superficial bathroom makeover. By that I mean, we didn't replace toilets, sinks and tubs. First up, hubby ripped some holes in the walls to inquire about a pesky ungrounded outlet (that was right next to the sink where there are plenty of wet groping hands reaching for a hand towel)- so a major safety hazard!   As he dug in and found where the wiring went, we figured the bathroom was an add on to the end of the house that most likely used to have a outside door. Once upon a yesteryear, there was a wall switch that turned on an outside light!  So after hubby rewired, and put in new outlets and switches, he patched up all the holes with drywall and compound and it was ready to paint.

BEFORE: white walls, brown trim around window and baseboard. The door and closet louvered door were also dark brown.



AFTER:  Aw, very spa-like, yes?  Love the paint which is Valspar by Lowe's, color is Tranquility.


The LIGHT FIXTURE is from Lowe's and even came with the lightbulbs!  The mirror has to go as it doesn't match so I'll keep my eye out at the second hand shops and or flea market for something I can paint or fix up.

BEFORE: yucky dark door frame leading into the bathoom. I also painted the baseboard in this area, which is our laundry room (washer/dryer to the left).



Painting the bathroom door, which opens into our laundry room made a huge difference.



Side Note:  painting behind a radiator is a major pain in the back side. Usually this can be accomplished the same way you paint behind the toilet. My method is to wrap the toilet and/or radiator in plastic wrap, and use a very small skinny trim paint roller along with an extension to reach way down and behind. Unfortunately the bathroom radiator was too close to the wall so hubby used a giant pair of pliers to loosen the radiator and crank it toward the room (it was disconnected). As you can see in the photo below it's tipped away from the wall and the paint is drying. When it was complete it was moved back into place. Whew!


Here is the louvered closet door which originally had a dirty white plastic knob (yuck)! Plus the thing was filthy so it required quite a bit of scrubbing before I was able to paint.  Also, both the closet door and bathroom door were removed from their hinges and painted flat in a spare room.

BEFORE:


AFTER:  Thank goodness for spray paint!



BEFORE:  Here is the before of the dark wood trim - what a transformation. The room seems so much bigger and fresher.



AFTER:  walls and trim have been painted.


BEFORE: 

AFTER:  The shower curtain is Treshold by Target.


AFTER: Towel bars are Threshold by Target. It's incredible how much of a difference it makes to switch out light switch covers from dingy and yellowed to bright shiny white. Same for the towel bars!






The final AFTER!  

Still need to hang some curtains, a sewing project for another weekend.  I'm thinking of a cafe curtain with appliqued birds.