Home Improvements: The Powder Room

We've got a little half-bath on our main floor.  It's like a closet.  And for some reason the previous home owners picked huge toilets for the bathrooms.  But that was the best part of the pre-renovation bathroom.  Seriously.  Here is the proof:

 I mean, check out that "exposed brick."  It was textured with sheet rock mud around the edges.  I spent a lot of time sanding the walls.  And you can plainly see the faux marble sink.  Lovely.  And let's not forget to mention the stenciling on the cabinets.  Someone spent a lot of time on this bathroom.  I feel a little bad for them.  I mean, we bought our house from some fantastically nice people.  But I can't tell you how nice it is to make changes that reflect my own tastes and style.


Now let's take a peak at the new bathroom!

It only took a few hundred dollars (I can't remember the exact amount...I had it in my head for a long time, but it's been a while since the renovation was completed!).  Isn't the transformation amazing??  Daisies were my inspiration--I wanted yellow and white.  Bright and clean.  Perfect for such a little space, and goes along well with the white and green kitchen, which it is adjacent to.

 We stripped the bathroom down to the sheet rock and removed the toilet.  I chose what looked like the perfect shade of yellow and I painted it all in about an hour.  Then I stepped back and realized that when the light bounced off of it I felt like I was in the middle of a lemon meringue pie.  So I took my paint back to Home Depot and asked if there was anything they could do to calm it down a bit.  They tried tinting it, but it didn't make much difference, so they mixed up a new gallon of lighter yellow paint and traded me for it, no charge.  Isn't that so nice of them??  That's why I always pick Home Depot over Lowe's.  And because there's a chauvinist in the Lowe's power tool department who didn't treat me very well when I was looking for a jig saw to use in installing my awesome new beadboard backsplash.  He said many insulting things, and he thought he was pretty funny.  Boo.

 Anyway, the new shade of yellow was just perfect!  With lots of help from my amazing pa-in-law, it only took two weekends to get it all done.  He installed the tile, which was also from Home Depot, and the next day I grouted it.  Grouting is a pretty simple task, but a painstaking one.    I was glad the bathroom is so small.  ;)  Then he put in the vanity and sink, screwed down the huge old toilet, and installed the new light fixture.  The sink/vanity combo, faucet, and light fixture all came from HD.  The mirror is from Hobby Lobby, my other favorite store.  It was a lovely shade of antique white, but next to the yellow walls it just blended in too much and every time I walked into the room I cringed a little to see how imperfect it was.  So I took it out back and spray painted it!  It came out perfect!  Before painting it, I smeared a bit of vaseline on the black parts so after the paint was dry I could just wipe it down and it would have the antiqued look again.  I'm pretty pleased with it.  :)

The towel holder was from Walmart and the hand towels were from Target.  The perfect little corner shelf was an awesome find from the online classifieds.  It was $15 and is exactly what I was looking for.  The owner was located pretty far away, but when I saw the ad it was love at first sight so I asked if she knew anyone who was coming up my way in the future.  The very next week I picked it up just 30 minutes from here.  It was originally black with bronze accents, but I spray painted it white to suit my needs.  I love the little details, and I love how perfectly it fits the space!

As you can see, I'm in love with the whole tiny room.  How do you like it?