My Pinterest inspired bathroom and laundry room makeover!

Back in January, I decided to repaint our guest bathroom. I needed a project, and since it was the brightest turquoise you have ever seen, it seemed like the right room to work on. I totally shocked everyone when I decided to paint it a neutral color, but I wanted to try something new. And guess what, I like it!

I call this my Pinterest inspired bathroom because it looks like every other bathroom posted on Pinterest--neutral "greige" wall color, ruffle shower curtain, shelves over the toilet, you get the picture. I mostly took all my favorite elements from my "hall bathroom" board on Pinterest and copied them.

I got the shelves from Target. The jute covered container is a #10 food storage can that I hot glued jute on. It took forever and I got major rope burn on my finger, but I love how it turned out and it's great storage. The little yellow frame is a cross-stitch that I got at DI. It says "Dearest Daughter, God is near you". I thought that was appropriate, since this is my three daughter's bathroom. The other frame is Tempe's earring holder. 

Instead of a towel bar, I got four decorative hooks from Hobby Lobby and screwed them into wall anchors for the girls to hang their towels on. Don't mind the old wall anchors that I just painted over. I couldn't get them out of the wall and I stopped caring. Also, the wall color--I spent $3 on this. It's a funny story, actually. I found it in the Oops paint at Wal-Mart, but it was from Home Depot (had a tag and everything). I suppose I could have just walked out with it, but I took it to customer service and they agreed to let me buy it for $3. It's a great color, but flat, which isn't great for a bathroom. So far it's been ok and I figure I can afford to paint over it if I have to!

This bird cage is something I did years ago and it never "went" in our bathroom. Now it does!!

The cabinet in here used to be kind of light pine (I'm not sure what you would call the finish). I painted them white and put textured wallpaper on the door front and added some cut glass owl knobs.

I saw this on Pinterest and really wanted it, but those things are like $40 on Amazon. But after I started looking for one online, I found this one at DI for $4!

Ruffled shower curtain!
And now on to the laundry room. My laundry room is just a closet in the hall bathroom with some folding doors on it. It used to have three shelves that were barely hanging out of the walls and the walls themselves were all scuffed up and gross. And the lowest shelf was hung too low, so I couldn't open my washing machine all the way! 

I put up beadboard wallpaper on two of the three walls and painted the third the same color as that metal star (also as my garage door--another $5 Oops paint find!) Instead of three shelves, I just put two back up--high enough to open the washing machine fully. I wanted nicer brackets, but they are kind of pricey, so I just spray painted the metal ones. I LOVE how they turned out!!

 The top shelf has my girls' "special" boxes. I also keep gift wrapping supplies in here, but besides that, I keep it decluttered. It makes me so happy to open this closet and do laundry now!

spraypaint makes everything new

So a few months ago I got this pair of barstools at DI for $8 each. They're super nice construction, solid wood, and I love the curvy legs. They were a little banged up, but they looked ok. Then I got another bar stool (also from DI) that is similar but a different finish. I thought it would match my table and chairs, but it didn't quite match that either.

I left them like that for a while, but recently I got sick of having 3 different wood finishes in the same small area.

So of course, I went to the spraypaint aisle at Wal-Mart. I was reaching for my favorite (Krylon Cherry Red) but I decided I should branch out and try something new. I went with Krylon Global Blue instead.

Here's the chair after a coat of paint. It was way too bright blue. It was like a fluorescent marker.

But I still had some glaze leftover from this project, so I decided to glaze the chairs. I didn't take after pictures of the curvy bar stools, but here is the other one. I love how they turned out!

Since these chairs don't have a lot nooks and crannies for the glaze, I glazed them a little differently. I brushed the glaze on really thick and then carefully wiped it off with a dry rag. I went over the same area 3-4 times to get it how I wanted it. The great thing about glaze is it's very forgiving--if you don't like it, you can wipe it off with a wet rag before it dries, and if you want more, you can add more.

Goodbye, coffee table

So last year when I finally caved and told Jason he could get a flat screen HDTV, we had a little organization dilemma. That coffee table was supposed to be my temporary fix--well--I guess it was temporary, just not as temporary as I thought it would be.

Last week I found a gem at DI, in my favorite part of the store--the yard area. They keep the crappier furniture back there, but it's where I always find the best stuff. In my opinion, the furniture kept inside the store is way overpriced, but the stuff out back is juuuuuuust right. I picked up this funky old table for $15, spraypainted it with my favorite Krylon Cherry Red, and glazed it with a black glaze from Valspar (I couldn't find Ralph Lauren glaze anywhere, grrrr). I really love how it turned out!

Our Blu-Ray, satellite box, and Wii are in the middle compartment. The little door slides along a track so we can access them easily when we need to, but hide all the clutter when we have company. And we finally have enough storage space to get out the rest of our movies! Well, some of them at least.

The shapely legs and the intricate carvings are what sold me this table. Man, I am really not a great photographer, even with the help of Picnik, because the glaze totally accentuates all those details. It looks so great in real life!

Plus I have a thrifting tragedy to share with you in the coming weeks, so look forward to that!

Accent wall? Check!

I asked a few weeks ago about painting an accent wall... well... I decided to take the plunge and do it!

Ahhhh I love it so much! I'm so glad I decided to do it.

New paint and new bedspread means I need new pillows, too, right? I'm not thrilled with how the dark blue one turned out--I thought contrasting thread would look awesome, but it just shows my crooked gathers. Next time I will go with matching thread.

We got this dresser from D.I. last summer and I spray painted it brown. Love the shape, love the size--unfortunately, it doesn't have drawer runners, so it's not a very nice dresser. But I was going for looks when I picked it out.
Just a note about those framed prints above the dresser: I know you can't see them well in the picture, because I am not good at photographing things, but they are pencil drawings of architecture from the French Quarter and they are very dear to me. My grandparents lived in New Orleans while my grandpa was in school and he drew them while they lived there. Jason and I went on our honeymoon to New Orleans, so not only do they remind me of my grandpa, but also of our honeymoon. I'm really not a big "art" person--I would much rather have nice photographs than most art--but these are very special to me!

lemons out of lemonade

When we were first saw this house a little over a year ago, I fell in love. It was perfect for our little family and my dream house, with its windowseats, built in bookshelves, exposed brick wall, and two fireplaces. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the 10 x 20 foot mirror wall in the living room.

Yikes.

Hello, 1989.

But I wasn't about to not buy a house just because of a stupid mirror. I've given up on the idea of ever taking it down without having to re-sheetrock and subsequently re-paint the entire room (no small task with it's vaulted ceilings), but I still needed to do something to take the focus off the mirror.

When I spraypainted a DI frame cherry red to hang our new family portrait in, I carried it past the mirror wall and fell in love with the empty red frame against the mirror. That was the beginning of my empty frame collage.

I scoured DI for interesting frames for months, and finally came up with this:

Now I don't have a boring mirror to stare at all the time and the room has more color, dimension, and visual interest. Lemons out of lemonade!

spraypaint + DI = love

Today I took up my spraypaint cans and finished two projects I have been putting off for months. (ETA: the second project originally featured in this post now has it's very own post here)

First up, a birdcage bow holder. I had a frame and ribbon bow holder hanging on the wall in the bathroom, but I decided to spraypaint this gaudy gold birdcage (from DI, of course) and make it the bow holder instead.

I LOVE IT! The bows clip to the sides and headbands, loose ribbons, and elastics are inside the cage. It doesn't exactly "fit" in our electric blue and green bathroom, but when the girls share Helena's country-chic bedroom, I think it will fit in just right!

D.I. Christmas finds

I posted about my love of D.I. and spraypaint a few days ago. Well, here are some of the things that inspired that post!

I found this chapel birdhouse. It reminded me more of a haunted house in its original color scheme.

But an entire can of white spraypaint later (yeah, it takes a lot of white to cover burgundy if you don't prime), it became a crisp, clean Christmas chapel. I left the roof black but very lightly sprayed some white on it to make it look like a dusting of snow.

Seriously ugly, right?

ooh la la! Now my reindeer is the perfect place to stash our Christmas movie and book collection.

Of course, Helena has another idea of what it is for...

help

I just spray painted Tempe and Helena's wooden table and chairs and I hate it.

But I have GOT TO stop spending money on spray paint.

I feel so sad.

one project down...

I finished the makeover of my junky park bench and I LOVE IT. I spray painted it Cherry Red, wrought iron and all, and made a few outdoor pillows to soften it. Here is a picture overload of how awesome it turned out!*

*I am going to give it another coat of spraypaint--but you get the idea.