Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Girl's Bathroom Reveal

As promised. The Girl's Bathroom Makeover Reveal. I have been working on this project from start to finish since last October! So it feels so great to finally get it done. Transforming a room and making it into something you love takes so much time. It never happens in a day. And honestly there are still things I could still do to make it better. Two things I really wish I could have done: 1. Switch out the lighting (I imagined a small pretty chandelier near the shower), but replacing lighting and hiring an electrician is expensive. 2. Add a frame around the mirror to make the whole room a bit fancier, but that ended up being impossible because the medicine cabinet was so close to the mirror, there wouldn't have been enough room for a frame. But I figure we are not going to be in this house forever, so as long as its the best it can be now, its good enough for me! I really do love the way it turned out and I am glad that I was able to make it into a bathroom that is not only fun for the girls, but nice enough for when we have company. Without further ado.

BEFORE:  
Here you can see my paint swatches on the wall. This is right before I painted it. Good thing I remembered to take the Before photos!

 I almost forgot about this hideous thing. You'll see what I did to fix its ugliness down below.

I suppose I will never know why builders decide to put that horrible "stage" lighting in bathrooms. Its so unflattering and so ugly! We have it in our master bathroom as well and it just kills me.

Kind of a sad little corner. The one redeeming quality is my beautiful Anthro shower curtain that I just had to have for this bathroom. It was just too fluffy, I couldn't help it.

Boring, boring boring white walls! And to top that off there was this dried glue all along the top of the walls that I had to scrape off before painting. It must have been a wallpaper border that the previous owners had taken off. They forgot a little glue...

There was a point when the whole family was sharing this shower. I am so grateful those days are over!


AFTER:
I painted the whole room a very pretty "Sage green" color. I am quite in love with it. Purple has always been a favorite color of mine, but green has been taking over a little bit lately.

Isn't it just so much better!? No more institution-like white walls.

This typography I bought from an artist, The Painted Arrow. I love it because it is the perfect mantra for my girls, who can be quite dramatic at times....to say the least. I searched and searched for a vintage looking wooden frame for literally months and finally found this one at where? Michaels. Go figure.

The pink glass bottle I had in my room growing up and I think it is so fitting that the girls have it in their bathroom now. And those Sweet Peas? From my garden!!! They smell so yummy.

The girls also got a little soap dispenser update. I made sure it was plastic so that it wasn't broken in a day. I also made sure Princess was able to push it down before I bought it, because those dispensers can be a little tricky for little hands.

I made this hand towel hanger with just a piece of wood, the iron hardware (I found that at a local hardware store. Bigtime score!) and some stain. I love that I was able to incorporate wood elements and also a crown....because as you know, my daughters are princesses.

This is a great green bin (IKEA) that we have had since Princess was a baby. It works great for storing all the bows, headbands, clips, ribbons and any other hair accessories. The little glass cup I found at a garage sale for 25 cents. I had to have it because it goes perfectly with the colors in their bathroom. I use it to hold all of their hair rubber bands.
 

My most favorite change in the bathroom. The replacement towel rack. I made it to match the hand towel hanger and I just love the two pieces so much. So much better than that boring metal bar! Finding towels that I liked was another huge challenge. Finding the right shade of green...a pink that wasn't gross bubblegum pink. I wanted the room to be girly, but not so girly that a guest would feel like they had entered into Barbie's bathroom. I got these two colors and then a coral color. I love that they are bright and fun. The nice thing about the paint color in this bathroom is that if I ever want to tone it down, all I have to do is switch out the towels and little decorations and it will completely change.  




The "Bath" sign I made from wooden letters, gold paint and scrapbook paper to match the colors in the room (bought all at Michaels).


We hung a white shelf above to toilet to give that corner a little more interest. I love this idea that I found on Pinterest of putting a framed picture of your kids having fun in the tub. They are just the cutest memories and what better place to put them?

Then of course you can see my latest DIY. Animal Jars. Perfect for storing little bathroom toiletries

and in my case, potty training treats (bribery) for little miss Peanut.

 Even the toilet looks cleaner with a new coat of paint behind it. Haha!


This is the first piece I bought for their bathroom (Michaels). It was pretty much the inspiration for the whole room. Pinks, greens, fairies and woodland creatures.


Lets not forget about that gorgeous Anthro shower curtain. She's angelic.

 Hers and Hers pottys.

Now that the whole family isn't sharing this bathroom, the girls can finally call it their own.

Kind of a boring picture but I wanted to point out the toiletry shower hanger. I once read that if you want your guests to feel comfortable in your home, you should use the places that they would use, i.e. sleep in the guest bedroom and shower in the guest bathroom. That way you will see if anything can be made more comfortable for your guests or if anything is missing. I wanted to make sure that I added this piece to the shower so that guests had plenty of space to put their things and also so that they could be kept out of reach of the girls. We have had one too many experiences with a razor.
 

 A few last looks at my latest creation.

 And that's that. Hope you enjoyed seeing my Girl's Bathroom Makeover!

Monday, August 11, 2014

Animal Jars

Good morning friends! I hope everyone has been enjoying the Summer. It has been a non-stop busy Summer for us. Weddings, birthdays, date nights, dinners with friends...Every weekend has been packed full and it feels like we can hardly catch up. I'm actually pretty excited for school to start because I feel like we will be forced to slow down then. School nights will become sacred again and weekends will be dedicated to family time. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. Maybe the school year will be busier than this Summer, but I'm really hoping that I'm right so that things can settle down a bit. I have had the girl's bathroom 90% finished since the beginning of the year, but I just haven't had the time to get it completely finished. So over the last week or so I have been putting on the finishing touches so that I can finally call another room in the house, "Finished.". I thought this project was the perfect fun thing to finish up the room. 

Animal Jars

For this project you will need:
Small mason jars or other glass containers (glass condiment jars would be a great size for this)
Little plastic toy animals 
Spray paint in the color of your choice
Super glue and Gorilla glue


1. If the lids on your mason jars separate into 2 parts like these ones, you will want to glue the parts together first thing. Most mason jars are like this, but you may be able to find lids that are one piece. I know that I have a honey jar with a lid that would have worked, but I figured glueing the 2 parts together wasn't such a big deal.

2. Prepare a space to do your spray painting by laying out some cardboard or newspapers or even an old towel.

I chose these cute little guys for the animal toppers. I have always been partial to "forest" animals. It went pretty well with the theme of the girl's bathroom as well, which you will see in a day or two. I love the owl and sweet little fawn. And of course I had to have a fox because, well, "What does a fox say?".

3. Spray paint the jar lids and the animal toppers. You may need to do several coats. Allow to dry completely between coats.

4. Dab a tiny bit of Gorilla glue onto the animal paws/claws and then stick them onto the jar lids. Allow to dry.

Then these cute little jar toppers are finished! Here's our foxy fox,

Our sweet little Bambi,

And our wise owl.

These Animal Jars can be used for a variety of things. Use them in bathrooms, guest rooms, kids bedrooms,  the kitchen or just as a little decoration somewhere. They can be painted in any color to match your decor. I used mine to house cotton balls, Q-Tips and since potty training our youngest is on the horizon, I filled Mr. Fox with some bribery jelly beans.




Hope you enjoyed today's post. Stay tuned for the girl's big bathroom makeover reveal!