The Decoration

Progress on the bathroom makeover is s-l-o-w going, at best!

Projects normally happen at a pretty rapid pace around here, but this summer has been different.

With Will flying up in Anchorage so much, and the kids home on summer break, it means projects fall by the wayside and summer fun takes a front seat.

And I'm not complaining! That's exactly as it should be!

(The summer fun, I mean. Not about Will being gone so much. We miss him!)

But I have been wanting to give the bathroom across from our kitchen a makeover for quite some time now, and when I finally convinced Will to cut some wood for me, I had to jump on the opportunity!

The goal:

To make this bathroom fit in with the part of the house that it is most closely connected to - the Family Room and Kitchen. If you have read my blog for any length of time, you probably know that quite a while back we gave our Family Room and Kitchen a big makeover by adding Board & Batten throughout the entire space. A decision that I don't regret and have yet to grow tired of.

The bathroom across from our kitchen has spent the past few years looking like this...

I wouldn't say it's terrible, but just not very special either.

This teeny, tiny 3 & 1/2 by 7 & 1/2 foot space receives no natural light whatsoever.

Not a bit.

If I had my way, a Solatube would find it's way into the ceiling, but Will assures me that this won't be happening anytime soon.

(Bummer!)

So, to tie this bathroom to the Family Room and Kitchen and bring in the feeling of "light & bright", we put up more Board & Batten...




Here is the Before:


And the...Almost-After:

(like I said, this summer has kept projects from happening quickly! It's not quite done.)

One of my favorite parts of this B&B treatment is that we added something at the back that is perfect for this space. You can't even tell that it's there currently, but once the space is painted and decorated, it will be the perfect addition to make the space more functional.

Can you tell what it is?

It's a shelf at the back, integrated right into the B&B!

A simple 6 &1/2" shelf is just what I need for propping up a frame or two, a scented reed diffuser and a few pieces of decor to bring the room together...

We just ran a piece of trim in front of the shelf, that perfectly matches the rest of the trim and it blends in seamlessly.

I love it and I cannot wait to decorate!

But first, the B&B needs a 2nd coat of paint as well as all of the existing trim and the door.

I'll finish it all one of these days.

If nothing else, school starts in 3 weeks and the projects can commence!

The passion for decorating is a pretty big motivator and I can't do that until everything else is finished.

Stay tuned...


**To see our take on Board & Batten and how we do it, click here.**

*And to see the follow-up to that post, click here.*

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Our main bathroom sits across the hall from our kitchen...

I'm sure that you've heard designers on television say:

That was the approach that I took here!

There are three main issues with this space:

1. It is very small. All business! No frills.

2. There is no natural light. None whatsoever!

3. The sink is pink. Yes, pink.

Since there are no plans for a renovation here, it was all about the paint and accessories...

I painted the walls a warm brown color with just a hint of pink in it. I needed the sink to blend in, rather than contrast and stand out. The medium brown paint added a little drama - just what was needed!

We added a rustic frame around the mirror, exactly like the one we did in our living room. This made a huge impact in the space!


I kept the accessories to a minimum. Being such a small space, it needs to remain clean and uncluttered...

The framed spiral staircase pictures bring your eye up, accentuating the height of the space instead of emphasizing the small width of the room.

Keeping the majority of the accessories in the same color family makes it relaxing and easy on the eyes...

My hand painted fern art brought the green near the mirror over to the opposite wall making the space more cohesive.

Overall, I think I'm happy with it.

It seems to work - pink sink and all!

I still have "Green" on the brain.
Yes, I realize St. Patrick's Day is behind us, but the past two days have flown by and I'm playing catch-up!

Which leads me to...

The need for some green art in the small main bathroom across from our kitchen. And I don't mean "green" as in earth-friendly (although, I think this would count as that because I did re-use what we already had!), but "green" as in, the color!

This particular bathroom in our house is pretty small.
It has a specific function, without any frills.
I have done what I can to make it nice and inviting for the few moments that anyone may spend in there.

We added a frame around the mirror, exactly like the one in the living room and that made a HUGE difference! I painted the walls a warm, medium brown color with just a hint of pink in it. You'll see more signature 90's mauve in this bathroom (just like the tiles in the hall and the living room fireplace)! In this case, we can't cover it up, so I had to find a way to make it all cohesive. When we moved in, the walls were a very light "packing paper grey" color which made all of the pink in this bathroom scream "hello!" The new paint color added some much needed drama to the space and took the focus off all of the pink.

But, back to the green.

I have this vase of greenery sitting next to the sink and I've always loved how it pops against all of the neutral colors that surround you in this space.

But I needed to stretch that color through to the opposite wall to relate the two sides of the space.

I have recently taken a liking to botanical art.
Specifically the ferns.

I looked at a few stores and found.....nothing!
Absolutely nothing!
Which seemed odd to me because I know that not too long ago you could find framed fern art everywhere. Obviously, I missed the boat on that one!

Hmmm.....what to do?

I was definitely becoming impatient on this one. I knew what I wanted for the space and I wanted it now.

I recently brought this Boston Fern into our home and I love it!

The wheels started turning....

Conveniently, there was an unwanted cabinet door that my husband had in the garage. He had made it back when he built the bookcase for our bedroom, but cast it off because it didn't turn out quite how he had wanted.

As far as I was concerned, it was the perfect canvas!

I started by painting the inset a Spring Green...

I cut a few of my fern leaves and laid them out how I wanted them to look.

I took the whole thing out into the garage, just as it had sat on my kitchen table, and gently spray painted it glossy white hoping that enough definition would come through and you would be able to see the individual leaves.

It turned out.....ok.
Definitely not like what I had imagined in my head.
Time to modify the plan.

I grabbed a different shade of green craft paint and a small paintbrush...

I watered the green paint way down (David Bromstad style!) and started to paint in the individual leaves...

I was happily surprised that it actually worked!

Moving onto the frame.

I taped off the picture from the frame and started with a dark brown semi-gloss paint.

Then I wiped on a layer of matte black paint.

The goal was definitely to make it look old.
Not like it was the product of an idea I had 10 minutes ago!

Once it was dry, I took it into the garage, gave it a quick sand with the palm sander, sprayed a good coat of matte polyurethane on it and called it a day!

Does it look professional?
Probably not...

Am I at all worried about that?
Definitely not!

It does for the space exactly what I had set out to achieve!
And I made it myself!
With stuff that we already had!
And that feels good!

I'll post pics of the bathroom soon!