Gas station bathroom. That’s the only way I can describe what our half bath looked like. It is a tiny room, only 4 1/2 feet by 4 1/2 feet, but it was a whole lot of ugly. It was greige (shocker I know). The walls, floors, vanity and trim were all greige. There was a bit of color though. A purple popcorn ceiling added a bit of liveliness to the space and someone had painted a white border with wisteria around the top. The bathroom even came with some faux wisteria thumb tacked around the window.
Here are some before pictures:
Blah.
The purple popcorn ceiling was the first project. It took a half gallon of paint to cover all those hills and valleys. Then I painted over the stenciled areas to make the real paint cover more easily.
After many trips to flooring stores I found this sheet vinyl at Great Floors.
It fit the old cozy home look that I like without the cost or hassle of putting in real tile. It was the only major expense in this room.
I wanted to do this bathroom for next to no cost so I decided to use left over white and blue paint. I painted the top 18 inches of the room in a toned down version of the blue that was to go on the vanity. The rest of the walls I painted white.
Ahh, a blue, white and gray bathroom. It was so pretty. Actually I did not like it at all. The blue I used was mistake the first time I used it and the white looked dingy. I was one bummed puppy.
Next the poorly placed peel-n-stick tile needed to come out.
Someone just can’t let me have all the fun.
Ben was headed to Lowe’s to get some plumbing pieces so I tagged along to buy paint. Yes, he had the here-we-go-again look, but I couldn’t leave it dingy. So, I went nude. Well, Sunset Nude that is. It’s a very light creamy yellow.
I put it up in place of the white. I still didn’t like it. It was the blue throwing it off. It had to go. Once the whole bathroom was painted yellow it felt so much more clean and fresh.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Now that I had the flooring in and the walls painted I wasn’t so sure about painting the vanity blue. I decided to paint it white and keep the room bright.
Well, things don’t always go according to plan. I had purchased a new facet to replace the gas station one. As Ben was taking out the old one he realized that the counter cut out for the sink wasn’t big enough for the ends of the water hook ups to come through. Those ends were easy enough to come off but the ends of the new ones wouldn’t go in. We figured that the sink could come out and the whole could be cut bigger allowing for the ends to go in. So Ben very carefully loosened the seal around the sink and pried it out But, of course, there was still a spot of glue attached and as the sink came out it lifted the Formica giving it a bit of a crack. Now I should tell you that I wasn’t planning on doing anything to the counter top so I had already tiled a back splash. This meant that removing the counter to replace it wasn’t an option. Ben let me know that putting the sink back in and ignoring the crack wasn’t an option either. (I was seriously wanting to go that route.)
I went out and got a new piece of Formica. Ben took out the old piece, cut the new one and glued it in place without having to disturb the counter or tile.
So now I had a white vanity, white counter top, white sink and a white backsplash. That’s just too much white! The obvious choice was to paint the vanity a color. I really wanted blue to work, but I kept going to green. I pulled out one of my favorite green t-shirts and held it up in the bathroom. I liked it.
A trip to Home Depot for some more plumbing was already planned thanks to the old p-trap under the sink crumbling like a cracker. So I tagged along again. I took my shirt with me and did some color matching at the chip wall. I chose one called Tuscan Hillside.
I had put some trim around the doors of the vanity so that it wouldn’t be so flat.
Once the glue was dry and it was all puttied and sanded it got to go green.
Ben asked if I would put a frame around the mirror. I cut some thin boards, painted them green also and glued them in place.
Once all the base boards and trim pieces were in and touch ups done I put my old shelf back up on the wall and added knobs to the vanity.
It was finally coming together.
Since the room was now done in yellow and green I felt like it needed some Spring like décor. I scrounged around the house and came up with some birds, an empty frame that I put a floral picture in, a bucket the kids no longer use, a lid to a kim chi pot for the bird nest, and a couple flower pots with moss from the side yard stuck inside.
I used the base of one of the pots as a soap dish. I ran a bead of hot glue around the bottom so that it wouldn’t scratch the counter.
This has all been done for a few weeks. It took a while to take the picture because I really wanted to have some freshly picked daffodils on the counter. Ben offered to buy me a bouquet from the grocery store so that I could be done, but I decided to wait for mine to bloom. I did agree to re install the door until it was ready for pictures.
I was also hoping for a sunny day to take the picture buy we’ve only had about 30 hours of true sunny skies since October (or so I’ve been told) so waiting for the sun just isn’t the best idea.
So here it is all done.
No longer do I think it looks like a gas station and hide in embarrassment when guests use it. It’s now very sweet and cottagey.
Who doesn’t like a good before and after?
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