Kid's Bathroom Renovation Reveal

Wow, these last two weeks have flown by and I am glad they did. Looking back, I'm always amazed at how we didn't run into any snags with the renovation of the Kid's bathroom and that we (I mean, JEFF) had basically a smooth ride. Thank goodness.

So... let's revisit where we started. A 1960's style bathroom. I'm sure that back then it was delightful then (right?). 

Here's the bathroom as we had just begun the demolition of old "gold stone" tiles...

Blech.

Vanity removal. Boy, I was never so glad to see that thing go. It took up so much room in this small space.

And let's not forget what Jeff had to deal with after removing all the tiles: a rotten sub floor.

He rebuilt the non-efficient "pressed board" sub floor, putting in a bathroom efficient piece of wood that was moisture resistant.

And then the real fun began.

We decided to go with maple laminate flooring because tile and my children don't get along. They've cracked their heads on it more than once. Laminate isn't necessarily cheaper, or even easier to install because you MUST seal between each plank to keep out moisture. If we find that this doesn't work, we'll put in tile. lol Everything online says that it will and I hope so because it's not cold to step on and it looks clean all the time (and EASY to clean. you just use windex and it's shiny shiny).

I got the idea to have the mirror built into the wall from this photo the below. I liked the clean look of it. Jeff had a tricky time making it but he was up for the challenge. :) Love him.

The laundry chute needed rebuilt and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

This was really the whole inspiration (photo source, Coastal Living).

I just loved the white and the pedestal sink was TDF.

The result. It really has far more color than I envisioned but since it is a kid's bathroom I felt this was a good thing. When we redo our own master bath I'll keep it more nuetral.

The wainscoting is Valpar's Ultra White in semi-gloss and the walls are Valspar's Cream in My Coffee in a Satin finish. It was on sale last week with $5 off a gallon. Score!

I'm a sucker for a good towel and I snagged these huge and super fluffy towels at Target for $3.99 each. They've been washed several times and you can see how plump they are. Yum. The white towels on top of Diana's (Echo in the Bone) book are not hand towels. They're actually kitchen towels in a thick waffle weave. They're not as big as hand towels and a perfect size for kids. You can get a bundle of five for $4 smacks. Easy peasy.

I absolutely adore how this turned out. From the wonderful clean lines of the Nantucket-style molding to the glass millifiori vase, this space has been transformed. The new sink and fixtures just make me smile. So clean.

The Hello Kitty hair dryer hangs from a $5 dollar Target dragonfly hook. It was so cute, that I had to purchase her. She's so sweet! I might need more. ::wink wink:: Also, I'm loving my Scentsy plug-in ala Suzan Stang and just last week I snagged some great deals on new Summer scents! :)

At night when I turn on my Scentsy plug-in it just makes this tiny area light up with joy. The kid's (mainly my girlies) are going to love it.

You can find the dragonfly hooky here.

Some years ago, maybe six or seven, I found this millifiori glass vase. It's huge and extremely thick. I was originally $99 (from Marshall's) but they had it on the deep-discount table for $24.99. I simply had to have it. It's been moved around my house over the years, wherever I needed a punch of color but I think it will stay here. It just makes that area look happy. Don't you agree? I know. Me too.

Jeff hasn't finished the trim and hinged door on the laundry chute, next week. :)

The print hanging is vintage (circa 1946). :) My Mom bought it for my bedroom when I was a young girl. It's one of my absolute favorite prints. Two little girls fighting over the love of a boy.

You can find the "il bacio" (which means "kiss" in Italian) here. Mine is in the Sepia style.

I have yet to finish the molding in the hallway, next week. I am actually looking forward to it...notice the grime of fingers on the front of the door frame leading into the bathroom. nice. stay classy.

Young House Love bought this curtain for their bathroom reno, and I wanted it too. Yay for a $30 purchase from where else? Target. It's an ultra white curtain so it should be easy to keep clean. Hello Biz.

Everyone has their own hook and fluffy towel. Hooks $3.99 for a two-pack. Again Tarjay. :)

This toilet paper holder is brilliant. Target had a two-paper holder but it would have been too large, what with the rack here and all. Thankfully after a quick stop to Walmart I was pleased to find they had a single paper holder for $2.97. No kidding. Cool huh? You just hook it over the rim of the toilet and put the lid on top. I love it. I never wanted one to attach to the wall because if you remember Nathaniel fell into the old one and pulled it straight off from the tiled wall. Not wanting to take another chance like that, I opted for an easier solution with this removable one on the toilet's tank. Plus, since this is a small space it takes up no room at all. Coolness. :)

This is the view of the hall closet from the bathroom door. Behind horrible louvered doors, it's always housed our towels and more junk than I want to admit, and yesterday I had about twenty bees in my bonnet, I decided to paint it. Yup. This wasn't in the original plan. Totally bonus extra goodness mess crap. lol However, after removing the doors and making the space clean and tidy, I am thrilled with the outcome. It's deeevine. Love love.

Eventually I'll begin to purchase the fluffy Target towels in the soft cream for guest use. The bottom shelf (the floor) will have fabric baskets for the kids winter gloves and summer goggles. :)

I used paint that I already for this job, and the inside of the closet (two coats) took nearly a full gallon. Good grief there were a lot of corners and edges and holes and crevices. Ack! Plus I wanted to paint both sides of the shelves. It really makes this space so much bigger! Loveliness I tell you.

The IKEA thick-cardboard boxes are a great purchase, totally not expensive either. They come in two-packs, the largest box set being $6 bucks, the smallest set $3 bucks. Love these. The top green tin has our First Aid supplies in it. :)

Remember to please. use. :) I remind my kids of this every day. lol

In the end, and including the cost of the shower (removal of old tiles, new tiles added and new fixtures) the total renovation of their bathroom was $1,000. It was well worth it.

Now on to the next project!

"ohhhh honey, can you come here? i have an idea........"

hee hee.

I'm linking up to Sarah's Thrifty Decor Chick Blog!

So that's what I've been up to for the last two weeks. I hope you're having a great Summer so far. Next week I'll have a lot of ready-to-ship items for you. See you soon!

Family Room Make-Over

Hello! I'm sorry I didn't get back to my computer the other day. My weekend has flown by (as usual) and I'll share photos later but for now, this is what I have been up to.

Before (click to enlarge)

(sorry it's a little blurry--I took this photo last night about 11p and I was very tired)

Yesterday I began painting my family room wall that was originally red brick. I never really liked the red brick and have wanted to paint this wall for about six years...but *someone* ::cough cough JEFF cough cough:: kept me from it. However recently, I talked him into just letting me have my way (which isn't that difficult to do) and so I ran out and got the paint. Sailcloth from Valspar. I love this color. It's just gorgeous.

This wall has been white-washed. I took the paint, poured it into a tupperware-like container and filled it half with paint and half with water. That's it. The consistency was like a rich milk. I wanted a Pottery Barn look and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

The skirting is removable so that I can put it up when company comes and I don't want them to see all the Polly Pocket Dolls and stuffed animals floating about. :) The fabric I purchased at WalMart for 50% off already-reduced prices (our WalMart was closing out their fabric section). I snagged the entire bolt (12 yards) for a wonderful $12.00. It was heaven. It was glorious. The birds began to sing! The fabric is a thicker fabric and it's actually a tight plaid with a fine red running through it.

Anyway, I'll put up more photos of the complete redo once I put away all my paint supplies and vac the carpet.

:)

If you want to see more photos of my Brick Wall Transformation, go HERE.

This post brought to you by...

The Time Traveler's Wife - two thumbs up!

Today was a fun day! I went to see the Time Traveler's Wife with Missy and we both LOVED it. Then I drove to Dry Ridge and met my folks so they could have my kids for the weekend..so i could get some work finished. :) Yay!

The Time Traveler's Wife was really awesome. All of the changes they made to the movie were nicely done and even though I wasn't thrilled that they changed anything at all, I was glad that they kept with the spirit of the movie. Eric Bana sure is a cutie and I lurve Rachel McAdams. :) I'll be buying it, I think.

On our way to the movies, we passed a yard sale with two rockers. I quickly called Jeff and asked if he would mind to go look at them for me, which he did and called to say they were pretty good lookin' chairs. He bought both for $15 bucks. Score! I was thrilled and couldn't wait to get home so I could try them out. In the next week or two, I'll be painting them (red I think) and of course there will be photos!

Just wanted to drop in and say hello. :) I'll be back tomorrow with a giveaway for a follower, so be sure to sign up if you want to be included.

Have a great night.

Oooooo! Projects! {in the words of Cher Horowitz}

I'm taking a break from work and decided to post one of my Summer projects (finally). This was actually done before the Scentsy party, so that's been what? A month ago? Something like that. lol Anyway, I hope you'll love my thriftiness. (yes. that's a word. shut up.) I'm so loving myself right now for being more eager to walk into a GoodWill (although this project has nothing to do with GW) and to find her inner SprayPaintingSelf.

It begins with this.
Any project requires a refreshment of some kind,
my vice is freshly brewed slightly-sweet iced tea.

You need spray paint.
In my case, I needed lots and lots of spray paint.

Normally, I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kinda gal,
(aka: instant gratification overrules proper planning and thus short-cuts are taken)

But!!! After reading my favorite blog (Thrifty Decor Chick), I find that she rarely takes such

short-cuts and generally does an excellent job every. single. time. That's why her projects are so awesome. Yeah. Seriously.

I learned a handy tip about spray paint. Use primer. (Can you see the gray cans? Those are primer cans. I'm so not slacking on this job.) But the cool thing is, you can use basic ol' WalMart paint for $1.00 a can and then purchase a more expensive brand for your final coat. My "expensive" brand was Krylon and it was $3.96.

Do you have one of these? They're quite handy if you're using a lot of spray paint.
Spray painting can be murder on your pointer finger and since I use my hands for "real" work
I figured it would be smart (I know!) to get one of these here guns fer my "project".

$3 bucks at Lowes.

My Mom bought a table and chairs set in the early seventies from good ol' Swallens Department Store. She thinks they were $88 dollars for a table and four chairs. When she bought them they were yellow. They have gone through several changes since. Sometime in the mid-eighties, she gave the set to my brother and his wife. Maribeth (my SIL) put purple covers on them and then later changed them to the pink plaid (that you see above).

They always looked nice wherever they were... until they got to my house. That's when they went to pot. lol The table had been through a lot of years and wear and tear, and didn't last very long here. It went to the curb a couple years ago. ::sigh:: I'm sure I could have fixed it, now that I'm in this restoration mood, but alas it's gone and nothing I can do about that now. Spilled milk.

So, the above photo is how they were given to me. They are cute, no? :) They're very sturdy chairs and the wrought iron is so thick, that they would never bend even if a fat large person like me sits in them.

This is the underneath. I used Jeff's drill to remove the screws and began removing the staples with a knife (slowly). Then I added batting to the top of the padding to make it a bit fluffier. I know, how handy am I?! (this was my mother's idea, lol, i can't take credit)

This is the chair pre-primer.

I am so glad that I used primer (I've never done that before...although it's been a very long time since I spray-painted anything of real worth). The primer made the black spray paint go on so nicely, well worth it.

Here's the chair with the black paint.
Talk about a major overhaul. I brought them into the year 2009, no?

And, here's the final result with the new fabric on them. I put new stoppers on the bottoms of their legs so they wouldn't scratch my floors. I am so thrilled with how they turned out!

The fabric is called "Linen Like" from Joann's Fabric and it's a cherry red with raised cream shimmery flowers. Moon was with me when I bought it and the fabric was screaming my name for me to buy her. What? You don't believe me? Whaa? Well, ask Moon. She knows. She was there. She heard it. It was jumping all over the place for me to take her home... so I did.

Then I found out I needed MORE fabric and called my Mom and made her run to her Joann's (she didn't literally run, be she got there in about twenty minutes. no seriously. she did.). I totallllly lucked out because she got me another few yards and now I have enough to make some accent pillows for my sofa. Yippeee!!! Cheap thrills. I know. Issues.

I also made a valance too, you can see it below...
easy peasy...

Here's my living room...

You can see where I accented red on the square wall blocks. Love them.
Target end cap. $2.37 each.

Cute ceramic elephant with trunk up. Tuesday Morning. $1.19
(originally $29.99)

If you're wondering what's behind my sofa, it's a long piece that Jeff made for me.
The idea came from HERE. Btw, the lamp shade isn't purple. It's brown. Just looks purple.

This is my dining room with a ton of chairs and three leaves in the table. Ready for people. lol
Normally I have no leaves in it and only dining room chairs, so ignore the extras.

I do not like clutter. I do not like little bits of this and that all over the place. I like clean walls and things that have purpose (or things that look good...I like that too! lol). I used to have all sorts of crap stuff sitting on tables, tons of stuff to dust. Then came kids and tiny fingers and lots of things got broken and I realized very quickly that these were just things and really? Did I need all this stuff here? No. So out they went.
I suppose you could say I'm a minimalist? I suppose.

Okay, here's the valance.

Dark day, sorry about the poor lighting in this photo. lol But you can see the valance at the top...
I used batting over the wood fixture that Jeff made for me (two years ago). Thankfully,
I finally got around to doing something with it. Yeah. We've only lived here for five years.
That's not a long time, right? lol

More red accents on the lamps.
Value City on clearance. $9.99 each.

The "live/laugh/love" thing won't be there for long. I found a black wooden piece of writing in script that says, "Friends" and I'm going to paint it red and put it there. :) Can't wait!

Okay folks. That's the end of my first redo. I am very proud. I truly lurve (!!!) how my chairs came out. I use them as "extras" for my dining room. Two are on the sides of my buffet and two are on the blank wall (after we removed the three leaves from the table, mind you). My house isn't terribly large but with everything being so clean, it looks even bigger. :) LURVE it!!

I hope you enjoyed it. I sure did!