Master Bath of My Dreams

It's my favorite time of year, Pinterest challenge time over on Young House Love and Bower Power (this time teaming up with Decor and the Dog and The Remodeled Life! Not only is it a great excuse to spend some time DIYing, but it kicks my butt to get something done I've been wanting to do.

The master bath has been a long slow process of one project at a time, starting with painting the trim and cabinet white, making a shower curtain, hanging a new mirror and light fixture, updating the electrical switches, making wall art, and painting the walls. Now the finishing touches - a new faucet and stripes!

The pin I chose is actually one from Young House Love's blog, a tutorial on painting horizontal stripes in the bathroom. See it here.

I started by measuring the whole height of the wall and dividing by 7. I wanted 7 total stripes so I would only have to paint the middle 3! Each stripe ended up being 13.3 inches (total wall = 93 inches). I measured from above the baseboard to the ceiling.

Then I marked the wall from the ceiling down with a pencil. I taped across my pencil marks to make the stripes. YHL does a nice tutorial here if you want more details. Then of course, I ran out of tape. Which put a pretty big halt in the project. :-)

So I got more (and better) tape - I noticed later that the green tape did a better job keeping paint from running under it than the yellow tape did. Then it was easy - 2 coats of gray making sure to pull the tape off while the 2nd coat was still wet.

 

 
I did have a little bit of touching up to do (see tape issue above) but it was mostly user error. I did not do a great job making sure the tape was stuck really well to the wall in the corners and that was my main mistake.

 
The beautiful stripes on the wall also inspired me to go out and buy the last couple of items we needed for the bathroom makeover to be complete: a new rug (chevron of course) and a little plant for the back of the toilet. I wish it was real, but the bathroom has no windows so it would surely die. Nevertheless, I thought the bathroom needed something alive looking in it.

I am beyond happy with the results. I keep telling my husband I am just going to go hang out in the bathroom. While it was nearly the last living space I made any changes in, it was well worth the wait. Maybe patience is the key to good design?

Here is a (terrifying) look at the before. So sad looking! It is hard to believe it is the same room.

As I am writing this post I am realizing almost none of the projects in this room have appeared on the blog, so let me tell you about a few of them. I found the mirror at Goodwill last summer for $8. My sister and I each bought one - we think they must have come from a hotel. It was an ugly gold brown and I spray painted it white. I had been on the lookout for a faucet for a long time but didn't want to take the $70 hit it costs to get a new one. My father in-law happened to just have this one in his garage! He even came for a visit to install it.

New Faucet

This light fixture was from the Restore and cost me around $10. It was again an ugly gold. I spray painted it white and now it is beautiful! Special thanks to Dad and T.J. for installing the light and the mirror. I love the scrolly detail of the light fixture with the lines of the mirror. Finally, the shower curtain is made from some of the fabric I picked up at Mood NYC this summer.

And so this concludes the Pinterest challenge. By far the best one yet! See my previous Pinterest challenge projects by clicking the following links: (button wreath) (clay earrings) (flower ring) and (bee running costume).

Happy Valentine's Day

Mmm, heart shaped pancakes. These blueberry filled delicacies were my only request for today (that and unwavering love).

T.J. used cookie cutters on the griddle to make perfect little hearts.

My other two valentines made an appearance at the table to do what they do best, beg! I may have indulged them a little this morning.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Vday Cards

Like I mentioned earlier this week, T.J.'s little sister came down for a visit last weekend and we made Valentines! We actually made our Valentines together last year too. I cheated a little this year and used store bought cards, but added my own flair with stamps, stickers, glitter, and decorative tape. Sophie went old school and made hers out of cardstock, then added the deco.

We had quite a spread of supplies. Sophie said she felt like she was in a meeting in a really cool office. :-)

V-Day Quilling

This past weekend I had some guilt free craft time when T.J.'s family came to visit. Last year they must have come around the same time because T.J.'s little sister and I made Valentines together then (see them here). I asked if she wanted to make some again this year and she agreed, we even did a little bonus project.

I had been wanting to try this paper crafting technique called quilling since my mom got Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts from my sister a few years ago. Well I snagged my mom's book with the intention to try it and now I finally have. I think the project turned out cute! And it was easy enough to be fun for kids.

I think quilling hearts is probably the easiest of the things that can be quilled - for example, check out this "H" I pinned awhile back. It is so intricate! But the hearts were fun and simple.

Martha's Instructions

We used kabob sticks and pens for a variety of sizes. 

Here's how Sophie's turned out.

And here is where my quilled paper art is currently living. I am contemplating how much better it would look in a white frame, so I may have to bust out the spray paint next.

I actually have surprisingly little Valentine's Day decorations for how much I love pink and glitter, but my collection is slowly growing! Last year I made this heart pillow. Card post coming next!

Pop Some Tags - Thrift Shop Challenge

This past Monday I trekked in the rain and the fog to my local Goodwill to participate in Young House Love's genius, Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge. Since their post last Friday this song has become my theme song! If you haven't heard it yet, check it out here.

First I had to drop off my load of donations. I keep a super cute tote bag my sister made me that says "Give" in the laundry room and it collects Goodwill donations for weeks or months at a time. I just grab it on my way out the door. Anyway - when I rolled up to the donations door I of course had the Thrift Shop song playing. Much to my pleasure, the donations guy was totally into it! He was laughing and made a comment about the song. Which made the whole trip worth it. While I didn't find too much of anything wonderful inside on this trip, I did find some house slippers as mentioned in the song.

Whenever I see a whole bunch of something like this at a place like Goodwill I imagine some crazy woman that stocked up on 30 pairs of something silly like slippers - and her husband made her donate them all to Goodwill. More likely a store donated them, but it is funny to imagine!

Since I do not have any thrifting spoils to show off from this week, I thought this would be a good opportunity to pay homage to all the wonderful things I have found at thrift stores since I started seriously thrifting back in June of 2011. My husband tells me that it has become a hip thing for kids these days to do - so I guess all us DIYers better watch out!





So here are a few of the before and afters of my junk turned treasure. Click the pictures to see the posts about them.

#popsometags!