Search Results for: 1/2 bath quickie

A quickie in our 1/2 bath turned out to be the highlight of our day.

We went in feeling upset and frumpy and left feeling vibrant and satisfied.

Get your mind of the gutter people!

You must think we are crazy for taking on so many room makeovers lately – but this one was a mini makeover.  Which means less time, less money and less room for error.  My favorite kind.

Our 1/2 bath is right off of our side entryway.  So, you walk in, laundry room to the right and bathroom directly across.

We despised this space.

 We learned to get over the orange toned tile floor when we purchased the home, but the matching orange countertops that lurked in the kitchen and bathroom are eating us alive.  I’m not kidding when I say that I have the same facial expressions of walking into a porter potty as I do when I walk into this space.  It never felt clean (regardless of how much I scrubbed).

We have family and friends over all of the time – and this bathroom gets all of the traffic.  It is a room that we apologize for prior to people walking into … it looks that bad.

With the holidays right around the corner, giving this bathroom the look it deserved shot to the top of the list! We re-painted the family room a few weeks ago ( I know, I swore up and down I loved the white)  It did not take long until we painted it the Revere Pewter color we used in the rest of our spaces.  We loved it so much that I slapped the very same paint onto our 1/2 bath, and the desire to kiss it some more was stronger than ever!

The picture below is prior to the new paint color –

I could not take a better picture if I tried.  THAT is how dark + dirty the bathroom felt.  Even with new lighting and a new mirror, it was still screaming “HELP ME!” Wondering what that cup of what looks like red wine is? No, I do not drink in the bathroom, while that does sounds tempting.  We had a bout of fruit flies SO randomly last week + a cup of dish soap and red wine vinegar, with saran wrap on top tightly, and a few holes poked on top attract those bad boys like none other.  They disappeared within a few hours.

(This has been brought to you by Abby’s Tip Of the Day)

Totally kidding.

Okay, so more importantly.  My inspiration for this room started with these shelves I stumbled across on Pinterest …

(SOURCE)

These Restoration Hardware inspired shelving hit the right spot with us.  Of course we love the rustic wood shelves, but the pipes that are made to hold them up are what won us over.  Off to home depot we went, and followed the measurements we needed for above our toilet.

Brought our supplies back home, and got to work!

We had to spray paint the pipes, flanges and caps black – which was a total cinch to do.  Two coats 45 minutes apart and they were complete.

Staining the wood took a bit more thought.  We knew we wanted more of an ashy muted stain – with enough warmth and contrast.  We ended up using a driftwood gray stain for the first coat –

Don’t let this frighten you.  I know it’s blue – but this will be the hue lingering underneath.

We chose a walnut stain for the final layer of stain, my jaw dropped with each wipe down.

 I am completely head over heals for this combination and will fully take advantage of repeating this throughout our house!

Are they beautiful or what!?

Once the stain had dried, as well as the spray paint on the pipes – we were ready to get the shelves onto the walls!

The process was truly a cinch.  Screw pipes to wall, with anchors of course for extra safety, place board on top to check if it is level – and there you have it –

I had a bouquet of gorgeous blue hydrangea to bring some life to the shelves, but my lazy butt never got around to pictures in time.  We still have to paint the screws black – which we plan on doing with nail polish to make it quick and simple!

Art work was purchased from Home Goods – The mini blue vases were from my mother

The basket is from Home Goods as well, towels are from Target and the vase was from a bouquet my brother sent me in the mail.  Such a good guy!

We took a simple 5$ thrift store mirror and painted it black for the time being – and it seems to be working out just fine!

We still have to paint the vanity, and do countertop resurfacing this week – Hopefully after that we will have an entirely new look to this bathroom!

We are doing this exact shelving in our kitchen this week.  It’s safe to say we are beyond obsessed with how easy and functional they are.  Rustic, with a touch of an industrial edge!

Lesson learned from this easy project, use Pinterest for inspiration.  Not every project will turn out exactly as shown in the picture – and that’s okay.  The whole point of the internet + magazines is to take in the inspiration and give it your own twist! Don’t be shy! Give it a try!

this post is sponsored by Chalkworthy.  compensation was given to complete this project.  thank you again for supporting our blog! 

(Singing in a disney characters voice..)

Finally, the day has come

My laundry room is finally done!

An ugly site it once was true

But now its beauty shines right through

And then the birds fly around me as I twirl in a fancy dress all while doing laundry in our brand new laundry room! I am beaming with joy on this quick flip you guys!!

The folks at Chalkworthy were so sweet and allowed me to collaborate with their product on a few ideas I had.  First, we did our planter makeover.  Now I am throwing at you another fantastic idea that is sure to take your laundry room to another level.

A few things first.  Let me show you what our laundry room looked like when we purchased our home …

Are you still there? I fainted to the first time I saw it too, not to worry.  The bulky cabinets were removed, the sink that looked like it belonged at a zoo somewhere and the room was given a fresh clean slate.

This picture above is how this room has sat for over a YEAR!! Now, if you compare it to the first, by gosh of course this room is to die for.  But it lacked everything a laundry room needed.

Functionality. Organization.  And of course, style.

I am obsessed with our shelving we have done in our kitchen + 1/2 bath.  Wanting to pull the same idea into the laundry room, I knew I would face some challenges.  While it would look great, it would not satisfy my need to hang Dan’s work shirts on.  This laundry room is SO tiny and beyond cramped so anything that I decide to put in there had to have a purpose.

And then the lightbulb went off! I decided to recreate these shelves but with a much lighter, more useful angle.  For this I decided to take a 6ft board, stain it once, and use Chalkworthy Cottage Paint to paint over the stain.  Once dry, I distressed the heck out of the wood by sanding down different areas.  Wiped clean, and sealed it with their clear wax.

Cottage could not have been a better name picked for this color.  Dreamy would be the next best.  I am in love with its subtle blue/green tones.

We used the same piping to fit this board, only this time utilizing a 5ft piece of piping to rock around the front.  THIS my loves, would be my new pole to hand Dans clothes on!

Genius right?! Say HELLO  to our new laundry room!

Our new shelf, made with Chalkworthy paint, in a distressed rustic finish really set the entire tone for me to put the rest of the decor together.

This time around we opted to use white spray paint to give the base of the shelf a much lighter, free floating look.

I am SO glad I decided to try a new technique with Chalkworthy, by first applying stain + following with the Cottage paint color, it gave this shelf so much dimension and a the look of it being a piece that has been around for years.

There are a few quirks I could not get around in this room.  The on/off bulky valve box that sticks out of the wall is one.  I did my best by creating my very own piece of art and hanging it lower to cover the top half.

This ‘Wash/Dry/Repeat” art, by golly just a washable crayola marker and paper folks.  Yes, I am a true artist 🙂

Second quirk we could not get around at the time, was the height of our ceiling.  Unfortunately we could not hang the shelf high enough to “comfortably” hang Dan’s shirts.  However, I get bonus points for still being able to fit baskets and such for my dryer balls and hand towels! 

I adore this new fresh look this laundry room now has.  Even with very little space, I am in awe of how much function we have added to it.

An end table I snagged at target last year made the perfect bench for the laundry basket.  Also serving more purpose with having a shelf and drawer to stash things away in.

Dan, there’s your pink shirt, and blue, and teal.  My, how did those end up in the room at random and go so well with the space??

I am ever so grateful for the brands that I work with.  Chalkworthy + Giani Granite (same company, different products) has taken me under their wing and help support our blog.  I may not have 100k instagram followers, or publishers clambering at me to write a book (i wish) but I do have amazing people like them that appreciate what I have to offer, and for that I am SO grateful.

One more before and after just to end this on a sweet note ..

I wish you all could come over and stand in this room! You would be sure to fall in love with it too! Perhaps even be persuaded to take on the 5 loads of laundry I need to do today?

 xoxo abby