The Confession

You see, there’s a general theme that’s going throughout our house. It’s not something positive. It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s something that I have been working on changing. And I have actually been doing a good job at fixing.  Have I piqued your interest? Well…

We have naked walls. Our house is naked. For the most part. Sure, we have a couple things here and there, but not nearly enough. And I’m the problem. I just can’t seem to bring myself to commit to anything. The things I like are far too expensive. And every time I look at a magazine or read a blog I think, “I should do that!” Which means I’m changing my mind 5 or 6 times a day. How am I supposed to commit to something when there’s so many options?! So, there’s my confession. My house is naked.

Like I’ve said, there’s been some progress. For example, the hallway picture frames.

Which actually have been filled! So get excited for that.

And now I have made progress in our bathroom. Remember, I’m avoiding cutting the fabric for curtains. Yup, still haven’t started. Yup, I’ve had the fabric about a week. I WILL have the curtains done by Friday. I will. I’m hoping if I write it here, I will feel pressure to do it?

Anyways, here’s a picture of the bathroom in all its naked glory:

Naked.

I saw on etsy a cute sign that said, “good morning sunshine” and I thought that would be cute in the bathroom by the sinks. A nice little sign to pick me up in the morning because I am so not a morning person. I used a black frame we had lying around, and a 29 cent shimmer piece of paper from Hobby Lobby, and Photoshop.

Cute, right? Nothing fancy. I hope the cheery yellow helps me be more.. well, cheery in the morning. I’m sure J would be appreciative of that.

There were two other black picture frames sitting in the closet from some abandoned project that I knew I could use above the toilet. Is there a better word for toilet? Hmm..

I printed out this quatrefoil stencil. I made the stencil the full sheet of paper. I was going to just print it out the yellow color but of course I ran out ink.

 

So I actually just used yellow paint and painted right on the paper. And I’m glad that I did. It makes it look more like art and not just printed on computer paper.

Ah, nice, sunny yellow. Anyone else create some cheap art recently? Or have a naked house?

Speaking of sunny, we just got our plane tickets for our July wedding in the Bahamas! Can’t wait!

Project Preview

 Since I've been in Ohio the past week and ignoring this ol' thang, I figured an update was due. Here's a preview of what I worked on before I left.. One last finishing touch in the bathroom. And I promise you won't be hearing anything else about this bathroom.

The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly: The Reveal

Ah that feels so good just to type that. The bathroom face lift is done! Since this is new house we didn't have any major renovations to do. It just needed a little work. Hopefully this face lift isn't like Heidi Montag's --better before. Jeremy and I have plans to put in hardwood floors in the future, so that's why the ugly vinyl floor was left. This is what the bathroom looked like when I moved in:

Oy.

And here is what it looks like now:

 

I followed younghouselove's advice and bought an extra long 95" shower curtain. It makes the bathroom feel so much larger and spacious. 

Ah, I love it.  Too bad it's only the guest bathroom because I love it so much I want to hang out in there.

Here are the previous posts to catch you up:

The Good, the Plaid and the Ugly 

The Good, the Plaid and the Ugly: Part Two

The Good, the Plaid and the Ugly: Part Three

This is linked to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

The DIY Show Off Project Parade 

The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly: Part 3

So as you know, I've been working on the bathroom. I moved a picture and hung some new glass shelves and built a frame for our mirror.

I knew I was never going to love the bathroom with the laminate wood vanity sticking out like a sore thumb. Once I got the OK from J to paint this bad boy I started immediately. Since it's laminate I wasn't exactly sure how to tackle this so I googled and I found this as a guide.

To start off I lightly sanded everything with 220 grit sandpaper to get the sheen off. I was careful not to sand down to the bare wood or particle board. I wiped down everything to get the dust off and got to priming. I used an oil-based primer. And this is where I had to practice the art of having patience.

It sat like that for 7 whole days. Talk about being antsy. No rushing the 7 days either. The primer needs that long to fully cure. I figured if I'm going to go through the hassle of this I don't want the dang thing to be scratched from anything that touched it. So I waited. And day 7 came. And then I painted. I used a color called Clean White from Lowe's pretty much because I liked the name. Clean. ahhhh. I put two coats on and then I had to work on my patience again. The paint needs to dry for 3 to 5 days before it can be hung. This is to be sure the paint has fully cured before you start man-handling it to rehang the doors.

Alas, the day came to hang the doors. And the wait was worth it.

Please ignore the basket. I need to sew the liner so that's why it looks to bad.

So, have you ever tried to paint anything laminate? Did it hold up for you?

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

We've got the bathroom vanity all primed!

 Now its just the waiting game. Since its a laminate cabinet the primer needs 7 days fully cure to make it more scratch resistant. Booooo. Five days down, two to go! 

So while we're all anxiously waiting- here's a picture of my cutie-boy Harley! 

 

He's watching Comet from Full House.

Random Little Fact: I used to look like Michelle when I was little, so of course I was obsessed with the show. Because of this, I've always wanted a Golden Retriever named Comet. So flash forward to puppy naming time- my little boy didn't look like a Comet. So I compromised and that's what his middle name is. Mr. Harley Comet. :)

The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly: Part Two

I ended last post with the shelves being hung and picture moved:

But if you take a gander at the mirror it's plain and frame-less and adds nothing to the room. So I did a little googling and most sites recommended a chair rail molding with the lip on the back to fit around the mirror. Unfortunately for me the bottom of the mirror sits directly on the bathroom sink so that was not an option. Instead I picked out some trim that had a flat back. I cut the pieces at a 45 degree angle- like a picture frame. And yes I did accidentally cut the angles the wrong way--twice. :) Too bad J wasn't there to help, the cutting part is usually his job!  I used some L-bracket's to attach the four pieces of molding together. Originally I had planned on using Liquid Nails for mirrors to simply glue the frame directly to the mirror but the way our mirror was hung on the wall with the brackets made the trim not sit flush.

With a little thought (rare for me haha), I came up with the idea of using hooks to simply hook the frame over the mirror. It actually ended up being a better solution because it's less permanent. 

And voila!

Oh, and if any one is planning on trying this at home make sure you paint the back side of the trim too because it reflects in the mirror!

Next up: Painting the vanity!

The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly

There's actually nothing good about this bathroom. But there is a whole lot of plaid and whole lot of ugly.

This is what the spare bathroom looked like when I moved in. Holy Moly. I don't know what part is my favorite. Perhaps the plaid shower curtain with the matching curtain hangers? Or the knotty pine wood thing on the wall that's displaying a beautiful collection of NOTHING. Or maybe the bleached towel.. So hard to choose! Sadly this is the only picture I have to remember how awesomely bad this bathroom was.

Here's what it looked like up until today:

Much better. I painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Cape May Cobblestone. Added the Andy Warhol picture and put up the gray shower curtain. But it was still a little bare. So I started perusing the blog world and found this bathroom:

Source: Abby from http://www.talesandtrials.com/

And I went on the hunt for some glass shelves. Originally I thought of some plain wood floating shelves but I really liked the glass look. I especially liked these babies from Pottery Barn:

Buut they are $39 each and I wanted two. I don't think J would have been very happy with me if I bought them. So I figured target would have something similar to these. And oh boy did they.

That's pretty close! They were only $20 each!  And I like the brushed-nickel finish better anyways.

So where did the Andy Warhol picture go? Why here, of course.

Next up: Framing the mirror. So stay tuned for the next installment of The Good, the Plaid, and the Ugly.