I am a wife, a mother, an auntie and a friend. I love thrifting, garage sales, re-purposing, creating, painting, anything that makes our little rental home more welcoming, comfortable and cozy. I have discovered the "art" of amateur photography & I love the idea of capturing the beauty in the ordinary everyday things that surround us. Blogging is a wonderful way to make new friends and share with people who have the same interests. My personal taste in decorating leans towards "casual cottage/coastal decor". I now have a small shop on etsy, called "SandySeashore" where you'll find some of my vintage finds, my photography and some handmade things. I hope you take the time to check it out! Thanks for droppin' in!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Finally! Adding Charm to a small space, bringing the beach to the bathroom,



It's taken a while, but finally, the first step of the bathroom makeover is done!
  
  1. Cosmetic changes
  2. Vanity and sink changes
  3. Filling holes, caulking, final paint & touch ups
It's been painted, bead board wallpaper added, trim and ledges added. Still quite a few things to do, but we're one our way...it may be tiny, but it will be absolutely charming when we're done! (I hope!)
before








I started by adding bead board wallpaper to the ceiling! Yeah, I know, wall papering the ceiling is quite the arduous task, especially when you are doing it by yourself. Poor hubby was trying to sleep since he worked the night shift the night before...I was trying to be quiet, why is it when you are really trying to not make noise, you drop stuff & knock stuff over? Thank goodness the bathroom is as small as it is, 9X5 to be exact! 


After the first wet glob of goop landed on my head, I decided to embrace my Canadianism  and wear a toque (pronounced tuke) ~ just like Bob & Doug!

 Except it didn't look so good on me! 

 Yeah, Ugh! I know, not very becoming! Oh well, at least my hair wasn't pasted to my head!
(Where is my beer, eh?)


On Friday, Hubby and I went to Bellingham to pick up a few things...
A light fixture for $24.99
Several pieces of trim, pre-primed 1x2's and 1x4's...
2 rolls of bead board wallpaper, which is 24.99/roll here and 15.99/roll in the U.S.!
 Some fabric for the skirt of the vanity (upcoming project)
with the blues, greens and beige tones I wanted.

This is the general idea for the existing vanity.

 
I found this ugly little duckling for $2.99 from Goodwill.


I also bought some candles and white spray paint and a few other little things.


One of the things I bought is something I would HIGHLY suggest to anyone who plans to put up wallpaper!




It made it so much easier to get rid of  air pockets!


Yay! It wasn't fun, but I did it! I chose to put it up width wise instead of lengthwise, for two reasons:
  1. it meant shorter pieces of wallpaper to hold up!
  2. the bathroom is only 5 feet wide, I thought putting the lines width wise might make the room look wider, instead of making it appear even longer and narrower if I had put it lengthwise. 
Does that make sense to anyone else or just me?

Now, for fear of it falling down due to steam, hubby added these strips of 1x2


Every seam is covered by a strip of 1x2". 
Isn't that pretty?! I love it!
First I had to contend with this ugly thing!
Gross isn't it!? It was rusted, so I sanded it and painted it with white Rustoleum paint.
 I liked this light fixture, but it was too big and bright for the small space...
so we replaced it with this one. It's more in keeping with the scale of the small room.
I also painted the upper part of the walls this soft blue tone. It's very fresh looking with all the white!
We'll likely put a small moulding along the wall to cover the gap. I still need to fill holes, lots of them!
Then, I put up more bead board wallpaper, on the walls this time.
 It's amazing how much gooey paste is on this stuff! Ugh! Well, at least it wasn't on my head this time!

Then my fabulous hubby decided he'd do the trip/ledge for me! But first we hung the "medicine cabinet" above the toilet.

It's actually an old cupboard we bought from a garage sale for $5 years ago. It was about 18 inches deep until I took a saw to it, and turned it into a shallow medicine cabinet.




 As you can see in these pics, he then added the trim/ledge. I will have to fill the nail holes on all the trim and paint it when we are completely done with everything else.
I wasn't going to have him bother to put a ledge on that little wall space, but I think it looks kinda cute!

 Remember this little frame I got on one of my "Frugal Friday Thrifting" adventures?


I filled it with blue and green beach glass to match the color scheme.
And, do you remember the old ladder I got from a woman in Flinn Slough?



  I remembered I had this old fruit crate, the wood is a perfect match to the old ladder!
Bonus! Great for storing magazines & room freshener.
I love the rustic feel of the ladder and crate paired with the crispness of the white.
A few well placed trinkets...




 I also have some sewing to do, the  shower curtain needs some trimming and hemming! See the trim on the shower curtain?
It's actually a coverlet, one of 3 actually, that I found at a garage sale. I got one Queen size and two twin size white cotton coverlets for $10.00!
I've decided to use one as a shower curtain. I feels so luxurious and cozy! I just have to come up with a better way of hanging it. It looks pretty ugly right now, but I just wanted to see if it fit. I'll post a nicer pic later, when I've fixed it!



 The wall below the ledge with the "beach" word on it will be covered in bead board once we replace the vanity top.
 The blue wall above it will need a paint touch up when I've completed the wallpaper.

 Again, don't give me a hard time about how I've hung the shower curtain, it's temporary! LOL

 I used a tall vase (thanks Margot!) to store spare rolls t.p.!
Perfect solution, keeps it handy and dry!

As you can see, it is a very small space. I think all the white helps it appear bigger.

 The door will also get a fresh coat of white.
 I really like the coverlet, it's so pretty!

So, next on the list: The Vanity

She's getting a makeover, no doubt about it!

  • paint (white)
  • replace drawer hardware with new hardware
  • remove doors
  • make skirt to replace doors
  • remove top
  • replace top with stained/varnished wood planks
  • replace sink with glass vessel sink
  • replace faucet with new faucet
Then comes step three which includes filling all the holes, putting up bead board wallpaper on the one small wall, adding any moulding to the ceiling, painting the bead board wallpaper and trim/ledges & doing any other paint touch ups that are needed. 
+
Fixing the shower curtain!
I love the freshness of a newly painted room, don't you? It just feels so clean and new. Ahhh.
I'm looking forward to next weekend, when I can get more accomplished!
I'll report back then, until then,
Have a great week! 
:)
 

4 comments:

  1. Good God, you're talented girl!

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  2. OMG Sandra this is GORGEOUS!!!!! I love the ceiling and all your treasures looks so amazing there!!! OK, you are the cutest eh!! LOL!!! I love your toque!! You are so funny and I know you had that beer eh!!! LOL!! I really really love it and can't wait to see the vanity when you work your magic!!
    love ya!!!
    xoxox

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  3. Love the beachy look of your Bathroom, Sandra!!! The rustic ladder is really great...

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  4. Great job!!! Way to cover up a bad hair day!!! If you want some buttonholes done on the coverlet, let me know. I love the ceiling...you have such good ideas! xo

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