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... although it wasn't even planned.

Sometimes one thing leads to another, and when I am involved, it isn't always necessarily as planned.  I am good at taking something and running with it {or as my husband would say, making a mountain out of a molehill}.  Me running with the purchase of a new vanity caused the entire bathroom project to have the Lorax effect.... it kept biggering and biggering and biggering.


It all started out when our old vanity had seen better days and the drawers busted due to little climbers and the fact I hadn't kept a good stool at their disposal.   The vanity had been painted multiple times and was never intended to be long term anyway {although 12+ years was pretty long term}, so I was excited to pull it out and say farewell.  And being that we had leftover materials from lower level and guest bathroom projects at our disposal, it seemed as though the stars were aligning in our favor of a sweet little bathroom update.  All we would need to purchase is a new vanity and boom, much better right?!  Not quite.


Once the old vanity was removed, the walls needed to be painted and far more than what we had left in our touch up paint jar.  So, the cheapy in me just pulled out a gallon of paint we had on hand and painted the walls in Behr's Burnished Metal.

Bryan installed the flooring {these from Home Depot which we have used in our guest bathroom and throughout our entire lower level}, and we also updated all of the trim in the bathroom.  We followed the exact same process as we shared in this post here {which also links back to more step by step tutorials}, so I didn't duplicate the documentation process this time around.

This is where the biggering comes in.

The new vanity really opened up the bathroom and allowed us better storage {I will touch on that in a moment}, which also meant we could remove the stand-in storage cabinet we had been using.  Removing the small cabinet left the big giant wall looking sterile and blank and the dinky hooks looked just that; dinky.  My wheels were spinning and I decided that subtle stripes paired with beautiful new substantial hooks would be much more fun for the space.  Simple, yet functional while also filling the big empty wall.  No big deal.

I shared the beautiful stripe and house number projects in my last update.


And then things went entirely downhill.

As I was taking and editing the post photos, I noticed that the light was catching areas that needed to be touched up.  So after I posted my last update, that is exactly what I went to do.  I touched up edges and corners and even a missed spot on the stripes here and there.  Then it happened.

Jennifer Jones was painting a wall, Jennifer Jones had a great fall.

Yep, I fell as I was touching up the ceiling.  Completely lost my balance and not so gracefully bruised my wrist, ribs and ankle.  At that point I called it quits, slowly walking away to allow my touch ups to dry and to take a few days to recover.

Once the touched up areas were dry, I was left completely disappointed.  Because the metallic glaze was a mixture that I created, even though I stirred and stirred and stirred some more, it didn't provide the exact coverage.  In fact, the spots I "touched up" only looked worse.  Blotchy, runny and oh so wrong.  I panicked.

I went and spoke with a paint specialist at Sherwin Williams and asked about finish options to fix the metallic mess I created and to see if they had any options that would allow me to redo my stripes.  I was told that applying any type of metallic glaze can be a finicky process due to running, mixing and edging, and that they usually recommend hiring a pro.  Um, that was not part of my plan.

So, we went to Home Depot and heard the same thing from there paint department.  Somehow, I got lucky and most of my stripes looked beautiful, so I am guessing that if you can get it all on and blended at once, you should be OK.  Just don't attempt to touch it up after.  Ever.

Feeling deterred and frustrated and sore... I chickened out and purchased the exact same color of paint as the walls were already finished in, only in a glossy sheen.  My fingers were crossed there would be enough of a difference between the eggshell and gloss paint sheens, to still achieve the subtle stripe effect.

Re-taping was easy, we just followed the lines we had previously created so no re-measuring was required.  Hubby and I whipped out the glossy stripes together in under an hour, and started pulling the tape again.  This time, it was nearly impossible to even spot a difference.  Strike two.


Before getting too much tape pulled, we stopped knowing we would have to paint yet again.  Nervous to head back to the glaze I loved and risk messing it up again, I decided to just find a pretty complimentary shade and call it good.  Lame I know but sometimes you have to know when to fold 'em.  I went with Glidden's Misty Moonstone and it was juuuuuust right.  Did you hear the sigh of relief from there?



Other than the paint drama, the rest of the bathroom came together easily and quickly and makes me grin for a lot of different reasons.  In fact, I was fairly happy with our previous bathroom refresh, but this one takes the cake.

My visions for this bathroom down the road include a lot of tile, including a whole new tub and shower.  Knowing the direction that I see the bathroom heading, anything purchased this time around had to fit with those plans.  I searched high and low and when I spotted the vanity online I knew it was "the one".  The vanity was one that I could see myself loving for the rest of the life of our home and had all of the characteristics I was after.


And that vanity was an absolutely game changer.  Attempting to translate size within photos is nearly impossible, but this bathroom is a whopping 5' x 5'.  The beautiful new vanity {purchased here from Lowes}, was actually not as deep as our previous version, giving us an extra few inches of floor space.  That few inches paired with the leggy base resulted in a bathroom that felt twice as big. 


Although smaller, the cabinet actually works harder for us in the storage department.  The previous vanity had one small cabinet paired with two small drawers.  The drawers held random bathroom clutter and the cabinet was utilized for cleaning supplies.  There was no room to store our extra set of towels, however, the open shelf on the bottom of the new vanity solved that problem instantly.  Love.


To organize the inside of the cabinet, I added a caddy to hold the cleaning items and rags on the left....


While a basket on the right holds daily toiletry items.  I gave the bottom of the basket a coat of the coral paint to tie it in with the house numbers and freshly painted stool.


Speaking of house numbers, they are so stinkin' darling floating above each of the bathroom hooks.


The entire bathroom is done in neutral grays and blues for my boys and to stay consistent with the flow of the rest of our home, but the little pops of corally pink sure speak to me. 


A few years ago we switched from towel bars to hooks in the bathroom, and I will never turn back.  Hooks are so much easier for my boys to use.  No need to fold anything nice and neat, just toss the towel back on the hook and go.  Occasionally, towels would slip off of their hooks, so this time around we sewed small ribbon loops onto each towel.  Couldn't be easier for the boys to maintain yet adds a sweetness to the space.




We toss a soft bathmat over the edge of the tub which is placed on the floor during showers, so I opted not to put down a rug for now.  This allows the stool to glide across the floor on felt pads, and encourages the boys to grab the stool when washing and brushing.

Of course all of the room accessories were curated from items we already had around our home.  My favorite elephant print still set the tone with its fantastic colors....


While the other frame was updated with a small print I received with a recent order from Aedriel.  The shower curtain was purchased at Home Goods and allowed for us to play a game of musical shower curtains around the rest of the house.

The hand towel may be a little too much stripe on stripe, but we already had it on hand and the color was too perfect for now and really ties in the house numbers and stool on the opposite side of the room.


So that is the story of our little bathroom update and the three attempts at getting the perfect stripes.


Have you had a "third times a charm" project recently?  Or a room that started out as one itty bitty update and kept biggering and biggering?

I couldn't be more excited about the change I made to our Master Bathroom space this week.  It is the end of week three of the four week "Wait No More Challenge!", and I have been checking off some major "to do's" from our list.  In fact, each week our lives have gotten better and happier as I tackle the major home-front pains we have been feeling.


This update has been a long time coming, as our Master Bathroom is used multiple times per day, yet has really suffered some neglect.  My youngest started getting in a habit of using our bathroom and many of his belongings were taking over...


OK, not a cool mom move.  Majority of the mess was mine, his bathroom belongings were a minimal part of the problem.


You can read about the planning process here.  I started by removing everything not affixed to the floor, and even gave the room a fresh coat of paint to tone things down a bit.


The update to the paint color made SUCH a fabulous difference.  The entire room felt twice as big and so much more spa like.  The next step was to address the dirty grout, a little Grout Renew made another big difference.


Although I really wanted to freshen up this space and prolong a down-the-road bathroom renovation, I didn't want to spend a fortune.  I purchased two new shelf brackets, two storage boxes and two glass canisters.  The rest of the changes came as a result of shopping our home and doing a major decluttering and organizing session. 


Hello beautiful new-old bathroom!  Such a difference a day makes!


A reader asked what I do with old decor as I switch things around, I will cover all of those details in a future post, but look at the benefit of getting creative with things you already have.  The mirror was in our Master Bedroom, but I feel like it was always meant to be here.  I couldn't be more smitten about the natural wood paired with the new wall color.  Sure, it will drive a game of musical mirrors, but a little change is a good thing.


The previous wall shelf was so shallow, it couldn't hold most of our main bathroom items.  After I purged everything down, I realized I didn't really need it at all any longer.  But I did want to fill the space above the toilet with a place for greens, a candle and cotton swabs.  I purchased two new gorgeous shelf brackets and for the shelf we cut down a piece of wood we already had.


I dug out a spare frame and printed one of my own photos to use as inexpensive art.  The photo is of a peony in our backyard, the greens are from the same peony bush.


I did purchase two canisters from Target to use for cotton products.  I had my eyes on these, but didn't want to shell out the extra cash just to have gold lids.  So the ones from Target received a coat of spray paint paired with some gold Rub-n-Buff for a similar effect.



After I was able to relocate many of the bathroom items back to their proper homes, I found that I had plenty of room to put everything else back (children's items were put back in their bathroom, travel toiletries were moved to our closet pile and other random items were also put away).  This time, I made sure to really assess how we use the bathroom and put things away according to our daily habits.  Here is a quick tour of each cabinet and drawer.


I have been using a nail caddy for years now, and still love it.  It just received a quick cleaning and a little re-arranging and it went right back where it was living.  I lost the hardware for the handle somewhere along the way.


Quick tip: When displaying daily toiletries in glass faced cabinets or inside of acrylic organizers, simply remove any package labeling that may be distracting.  The nail polish removal bottle now looks more decorative than it did when the giant label was showing through.

As I mentioned, I ended up purchasing two decorative storage boxes.  One holds cotton pads for face washing and nail polish removal.


While the other is now the home to my hair accessories.


Previously, my hair ties (a.k.a. Loom Bands) and hair pins were spread out all over our home and a hot mess in the bottom of my makeup bag....


The small box paired with some folded cardstock for dividers, now keeps each type of hair accessory nicely divided, yet easy to take out and put away.

Our original "His" and "Hers" baskets were working out nicely, but they were short and added to the visual clutter inside of the cabinet.  They both were pared down to daily necessities, and Bryan's items now live in a taller basket inside of the cabinet (so when he tosses items back inside, the mess won't be visible).


My daily supplies now live in a bin hanging on the back of our door.


I had multiple miscellaneous canisters of bath salts, which I condensed down to a single jar.  I used one of the empty containers to now hold our dental floss.


Before, the drawers had organizers and held a variety of our supplies, but with little distinction between them, they all just become dumping grounds....


The drawers received a good scrub and were still showing signs of wear, so I got out some drawer liner and cut a few sheets down to size.

 
This time around, I assigned each drawer a specific duty.  Top drawer holds all of my facial care supplies.


While the next drawer now holds extra dental care items.


And the bottom drawer still rocks as hair tool storage (placed inside of empty quart sized paint cans).


Now the only items in each vanity drawer are a single toothbrush and tube of toothpaste.


Under the sink is similar to prior days, one pull out drawer holds all of our bathroom cleaning products. 


I can't get enough of these Multi-Purpose bins, they are inexpensive, easy to clean, light weight, narrow and can function for endless organizing tasks.  In the past I tried to do stacking bins for cleaning supplies, but these just work so much better for daily use.  One bin for cleaning products and one for dirty rags.

The other drawer holds the toiletry items that I don't use each day, but didn't want to purge because they still get used on a weekly or as-needed basis.


On the opposite side of the room, we removed the hand towel rack from the wall.  It was just a clutter catcher and we are ultimately going to install a door to our closet, so we have to get use to the lack of wall storage anyway.


As you can see above, the shower was also purged down and empty bottles were recycled.

The small stool received a new coat of paint and works great for holding a towel and robe while showering.  We only keep two towels per family member, so while two are being used, two clean ones are waiting in the basket on the hamper.


And that completes the Master Bathroom tour!  So fresh, clean and organized and such a dramatic difference from what we have been living with.  Even after taking my first shower in the space, I felt so much more relaxed than I had been previously.  There is something to be said about the impact that visual clutter can have on your feelings.


Between painting the walls, updating the grout, small DIY's, completely purging and reorganizing the space, I easily invested 12 hours into this project.  However, I don't regret a single second of the time spent. 

To really celebrate this week's hard work, let's check out a few side-by-sides of the before and after pictures.







I really have been in awe of the projects you are sharing each week!  And each party is receiving between 35,000-50,000+ views!  Let's keep the organizing momentum going this week!


UPDATE!  Congratulations to this week's winner!  #29 has been selected by Random.org as the winning participant of Week Three!  Keep an eye on your email, I will be contacting soon to coordinate your Organizing Store gift card winnings!    




You can find all of the challenge details in this post here, and also download some FREE project planning printables to help you get started!

Have a great weekend everyone!