The Master Bathroom

So, when we first moved into our new home back in September of 2012, this is what our master bath looked like:

Nothing special, right? It had a nasty wallpaper border around the middle of the wall which we immediately removed, but beyond that, all the other decor emergencies on the first floor took precedence, so... that is why we are only NOW getting to our bedroom/bathroom after over 18 months in this house. 

The paint color in the master suite was putrid. Seriously, gross. I can't even tell you if it was some sort of yellow, or a nasty light shade of green. How's that for bad? 

But, we lived with it for awhile as we focused on other, more pressing rooms. Many of those posts are here if you haven't seen any of our before/afters. 

As much as I want to personally rip out that worthless garden tub and expand our shower, it isn't in the budget right now and I am not 100% sure what I want there, so the left side of the bathroom will have to remain as is for now, aside from a new coat of paint and a new towel rack. 

This remodel focused more on the right side of the room, where the vanities are located.

I spent lots of time perusing pinterest to see what caught my eye and pinned and pinned until I had a plan!

BEADBOARD!  

Yep, I decided to tackle a beadboard wall above my vanities. But, first, those nasty hollywood light fixtures and wall sized cheap-o mirrors had to GO!

and while we're at it, I don't much like that medicine cabinet either. 

As I scoured the internet for the perfect mirror, I found this one!

And I fell in love. 

In fact, this one purchase was soon to enhance and inform several other key decorating decisions. 

So, the first thing I attacked was the large, glass wall to wall builder grade mirror and down it went. 

Then that ugly light fixture!

and lastly, the equally ugly medicine cabinet.

Demo is really cathartic, y'all! 

We kept with the same basic color pallete we used in the master bedroom. 

these are our colors from Sherwin Williams, though we ended up going a bit lighter and more coral with the orange shades. 

We used Watery for our blue/turquoise color and Snowbound for the trim. 

before....

after...

In my perfect world, I'd have removed all that popcorn, and I did on one small section of "shelf" ceiling above the vanities, but I just didn't have it in me to fool with the valted ceiling popcorn removal right now. 

Colin couldn't resist getting up on that high ladder despite the fact that there wasn't a job for him just yet. (All that know him well know just how hard it is for Colin not to "help"!)

Tom cut the first section of beadboard for me and I decided to get the first coat of paint on it before getting it on the wall. 

Since it was now time for installation, Colin and Tom stepped in to help get things lined up just so. 

I put a good bit of liquid nails on the wall to help the board adhere well and then we placed some small finishing nails in strategic places to reinforce. (Is it just me, or do I kind of sound like I know what I'm talking about?)

The next job was to get rid of that horrible cabinet color. (Can you tell there really wasn't much that I DID like about this room?)

The first job was to slap a coat of primer on them. Some folks spend the extra time to sand them down first, but I didn't bother. In fact, I even let Tommy do the second cabinet because accuracy wasn't important on the primer and he really wanted to help. 

In looking at color swatches, we found one called Dustblu from Sherwin Williams that matched our new mirrors almost perfectly. 

I got new hardware at Hobby Lobby.

(They go on sale for 50% off almost every other week, 

so if you are shopping for hardware, just be patient!)

I couldn't be more pleased with these cabinets. 

The light fixture was from Lowe's. 

I even hung it myself! 

I tell ya, you can find easy tutorials for any job on pinterest. 

Also from Lowe's, this cool rug!

Ok, true story...

See how the pattern of the rug matches the shape of my mirror? 

Well, as much as I'd like to say that was on purpose, it wasn't until someone saw one of my pics on facebook and mentioned that did I even notice! Happy coincidence. 

The old towel rack had to go too. One, because it was flimsy and cheap and also because it was too narrow to properly hang two side by side towels. 

I found this really nice one at Marshalls Home Goods, along with those great coral towels.
(This was my one serious, I really never pay that much for stuff, kind of splurge.) 

I had to wait a few weeks for all this to move from step to step since Tom and I are both working during the week and the weekends were our most productive times, but it has been worth the wait.

Now, we are on to the left side...

once the beadboard was all installed and the trim put up, it was time to caulk. 

This was something else to add to the list of things that I've never done! 

I saw a post on pinterest that had some great tips on taping before you caulk and while it is tedious, it was so worth the effort. 

It should be noted that I seriously hate to tape. I don't tape anymore when I paint. Frankly, I have a very steady hand and I don't normally need to. I get better lines free handing things than I do when I waste all that time and money taping. But, that being said, when it comes to caulk lines, it was very worthwhile. 

See how clean this looks? 

Next job?

Replacing that icky medicine cabinet with a nicer, open, in wall box.

I decided to extend the beadboard in white as the back of the box. 

Then, Tom found some scrap board in the garage and cut my border sides. 

They weren't primed, so I slathered a quick coat if primer, and then two coats of white trim paint. 

I also painted two coats of trim paint on the box trim. Even though it was already primed, it always looks better with two full coats of paint. 

It's already starting to look better and I haven't even added the trim.

After getting Tom's help to measure and cut the trim, I painted each piece and used my hairdryer to speed up the process. (Come on, don't act like you're surprised that I was rushing things. I certainly have to wait on the Lord sometimes, but I don't have to wait for paint to dry, so I'm NOT GOING TO!) 

After the second coat, I put the trim up.

As you can tell, the trim isn't completely flush since the wall wasn't perfectly square, so...

enter the magic of caulk!

I definitely wanted a clean line around this, so I taped. 

Ta-da!

Not bad, eh?

I certainly prefer it to this:


I love that we did this job ourselves and I love how it turned out. If I had known just how good I would feel updating this personal space, I'd have done it long ago! 

So below is the toilet room and while it has been freshly painted and we got a new floor rug, it is still bare walled and needs some love. 

I'm hoping to find some nice wicker baskets (think window boxes of sorts) to hang on the wall above the toilet as a nice storage area.

Here is the finished look from the doorway.

What do you think?

The final touch came tonight as I was putting Tommy and Cooper down for bed. 

I was looking at this painting that Tommy did of a flower and vase (like when he was 6!) and realized that it would be the PERFECT touch above the tub!

So, yes, I promptly stole it right off his bedroom wall and hung it! #dontjudge!

You have to admit, it's perfect!