Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Guest Bath Remodel: Lighten Up

Every time I hear the word "houseguest", I immediately make a mental list of everything that needs to be cleaned in the house in addition to all the home improvement we have yet to finish before the hypothetical guest arrives. And the spaces that are usually are the back of my mind because we don't use them all that often come popping right up to the top of the "sprucing up" list.

Like the Guest Bathroom, for instance.


Roughly 3 weeks before the ETA of our guests we began plotting our attack on the bathroom. We told you about how we installed a bi-fold door in the doorway to the furnace room - which immediately improved the bathroom about 10000%.

Then it was time for the fun part: painting!


So far our guest bathroom upgrades had only cost us $37 (which was for the bi-fold door and wood), plus some white paint we had on hand. For this room the name of the game was cheap & chic!

After taping the bathroom I pulled out our extra paint cans and surveyed the colors. Around about the time we bought our house I had discovered the Oops Paint section at Lowes - and became addicted.

We had quite a few paint colors to choose from, to say the least.


I opened up 4 of them and actually did a little testing! You should seriously be proud of me - normally I just pick one (I make sure that it matches the other colors in the house, first) and pray to the paint gods that it looks amazing on the walls (which so far it has! Hallelujah!).


Then I sat back and looked at them. They looked a little different on the wall than I thought they would, and the fact that the bathroom has no natural light from a window also makes a difference.

I also held up some of our leftover vinyl peel-and-stick tiles that will be going in here later, to see which one(s) would work with it...


In the end, the light and airy Desert Fortress (that we have upstairs in our Living Room, Dining Room, Hallway and Kitchen - oh, and the Master Bedroom Closet) won! Lucky for us, we had plenty - 1.5 gallons of it leftover, which was more than enough for the bathroom. It's such a great and versatile color - it's the exact color of a canvas dropcloth, so it goes with everything!

I painted and then we ended up hanging all the decorating items we had stored (until we got around to remodeling the bathroom)...

And this is how the bathroom looked for our houseguests (decked out for Halloween, too)!


We scored the mirror on sale at Lowe's last year marked down tremendously. It was $125, but we scored it on super-clearance for a measly $25! Gotta love a good deal like that.


We did splurge on the towel ring and a new toilet paper dispenser (goodbye nasty paint-splotched blue one!), but they only ran us about $30.

We bought white frames at Walmart for about $20, and filled them with original acrylic paintings I did in college - and a fun design I whipped up to match.


Bottom line: All-in-all, we only spent $112 on the bathroom remodel thus far (and we don't anticipate on spending much more since we have leftover flooring!).

And since everyone loves a good Before & After, here's the Before from way-back-when, & then the After:




Not too shabby, huh?

Yeah, we didn't think so. Of course we still have several projects left in here - a new light fixture (although I might miss the simple and rustic feel of a single lightbulb hanging on a wire from a hole in the ceiling... hah!), new flooring and then tackling that pesky and odd shower-in-a-closet!
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10 comments:

  1. Nicely done! Gotta love major change for a little change (hehe).

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  2. YAY! I missed you!

    And I am beyond impressed with the dollars you are stretching in here! It looks like you have spent well beyond what you have! And that mirror is AWESOME!

    Way to go! I am sure your house guests adored it!!

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  3. It's looking great! I really like that wall color- it warms it up more than just white. Can't wait to see it with the new floor! Love the mirror and artwork, too.

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  4. I'm having palpitations over the mirror- stunning, and what a steal! The whole project looks fantastic.

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  5. Nice job!! This makes me want to work on our house!

    I found your blog at Remodelaholic! I look forward to reading your DIY projects!! I am your newest follower!

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  6. Looks great Chelsea! The paint really brightens it all up and I love all the accessories,especially the swanky mirror! Great deal!!!
    Ready for more guests??? :)

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  7. Thanks, everyone!

    @Heather - While we love having houseguests, we're still recovering from my parents' visit! :)

    - Chelsea

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  8. Yay for makeovers! It looks great. I'm planning on painting our guest/hall bathroom soon. Maybe I need to check out the "oops" paint section at Lowe's! I've never heard of such a thing.

    Those art prints are so cute, too.

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  9. It looks great! I LOVE that mirror--what a great deal!

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  10. That mirror is AWESOME! I love how it all came together! I found you through HOH your guest post! I'm your newest follower! I would love it if you would stop by and check out my blog, if you like what you see I would love it if you followed back! Have a great 4th!
    Kirsten;)

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