Josh's VLAM Bathroom Makeover

About two months ago I discovered the glory that is the mis-tint paint section at Lowe's. I found a lovely, satin, indoor, grayish/tan paint color and bought it for $10, thinking it would be perfect for the project I had planned in Josh's bathroom this summer.

Turns out that can of $10 paint also turned into painting the ceiling (with paint I already had thank goodness), changing out door knobs, picking up a couple fresh towels, sewing a new curtain, replacing the shower rug, touching up the doors, vanity, and trim, and giving the whole bathroom a good deep clean that it desperately needed.

I just can't half-do things. I believe it's a trait I've picked up from my husband after being married to him for four years.

I don't even want to show these pictures because lawd they are ugly. But this is what Josh's bathroom looked like before we were the happy homeowners of 422 13th St.

Notice the fake oak cabinetry, the OAK TOILET SEAT, the mauve blinds, and the plain white walls. Mercy.

The very first thing I did when we closed on this house four years ago was rip down every vertical, mauve, light blue, gray, fabric blind that existed in every room of this house. And actually a few days before we closed on the house I removed the duck switch plates, the eagle medallion by our back door, and the metal butterflies on our fence. I physically couldn't move into a house with ducks and eagles and butterflies as décor.

When we bought this house, there was just too much to tackle. I was so overwhelmed by so many ugly things that I just went crazy and did the first and fastest thing that came to me. For many of these rooms, that was paint like a lunatic. I picked colors and 'themes' for each room, but nothing in our house was cohesive, or neutral. I just knew I hated white walls and oak trim and doors.

And before you judge my hasty decisions and red and green and purple walls...remember that I was 21 for goodness sake!

Anyway, after a few months Josh's bathroom looked like this:

I bought a couple brown towels and hand towels, a tan rug, and added some beachy touches. Basically I wanted to be able to show off the shells we've collected from our trips, and the only way I knew how to do that was to give this entire bathroom a concrete and obvious BEACH THEME.

This is a better picture of the wall color...not bad, but really dark for this small room. I also wanted to re-use one of the brown curtains from my apartment, so I made sure to tie some dark brown into this room as well.

Fast forward to July 31st, 2014...remember I had NO idea what this wall color was going to look like because I had only ever seen it on a tiny paint sample dot on the top of the can. Sometimes it looked green, sometimes it looked tan, and sometimes it looked gray. I couldn't decide if it would be lighter or darker than the current color, but I hoped it would be lighter. It was. ;)

So ignore the ugly linoleum and notice the white mirror and white vanity instead. Those were two of my worst projects but I am SO GLAD I did them a few years ago. I think that changed the look of the bathroom more than anything.

The towels and rug I found have a little tan, gray, dark gray, brown, and white all in the pattern. Which is PERFECT for this room. I have a couple leftover brown and white towels we will continue to use in here, and purchasing new towels in the future will be super easy because there are so many NEUTRAL color options.

 

I tackled this a few years ago when glass was 1/2 off at HobLob. Shells are now neatly displayed and labeled on the top of the bathroom cabinet. For a long time I had them in bowls and jars but everything just got really dusty, so this was my solution.

This letter B might be my favorite part about this bathroom. It's a brown/gold and fits perfectly in here! I still need to find the perfect fabric to make curtains, but for now I don't mind the white blinds letting a little extra light in. It makes the room so much brighter. Just make sure if you're visiting, before you take a seat you close the blinds. ;)

 

As you can see, we still have this Boersma Lawn Care 'situation' happening in here and it will probably stay this way. But at least I can get him to keep everything in pretty baskets. Everything here is easy for him to find and wear and it keeps the dirty grassy mess in one area instead of having it tracked back and forth across the house.

I didn't get a good picture of it, but on the wall behind the other door I have a cute, off-white, vintage shutter hanging. I didn't want this room get too 'girly' because it's Josh's bathroom, but I thought it helped carry my vintage glam theme into this room a little better.

Yes, that's what I've officially decided for the theme of our house. VINTAGE GLAM. It's when you mix a bunch of farm doors, old windows, and feeder troughs with GLITTER. Could also be called GLINTAGE or as this blog post is titled...VLAM.

Got rid of the clutter that used to be on the sink and the back of the toilet. The rooms in our house are pretty small, so things just look better if I keep everything organized and put AWAY in a closet or a drawer. And on the rare occasion I want something sitting out because it's functional and used every day (you should see the dirt that gets in Josh's ears!) I make sure it's simple and efficient and also...pretty.

 

Here's an up close picture of my fastest and easiest Pinterest craft to date. I found this silver 8x10 frame at Overflow last week and didn't have a real plan for it until I decided I wanted to add something chalk board-y to the bathroom. At first I was planning to just paint the side of the cabinet with the chalk paint, but decided that would be a mess and I'd be stuck with it forever. Instead I painted the glass on this frame with chalk paint, and now I'm just stuck with a big hold in the side of this cupboard forever.

And since I have 3/4 of a gallon of this mystery paint leftover, in a few weeks I'll be tackling my bathroom and nixing some of the zebra. Can't wait!

MmB