More pandemic home improvements today—this time, our main bathroom. We have three bathrooms in our house, all of which desperately need to be renovated—like, completely gutted. The bathroom off our bedroom is the largest and will be the most expensive to renovate, so we started with a smaller project—our main guest bathroom and the one that gets used the most because it’s centrally located.

Here’s what we were working with.

BEFORE:

Everything was old and outdated. We knew the floor would be temporary when we put it in with the rest of the floors in the house, and indeed it got wet and started separating. The walls had this awful texture, the tub was old and sported a brass door track from a shower door that was ripped out, the weird angular vanity was falling apart—basically, everything needed to be ripped out and rebuilt. Walls and ceiling needed to be skimmed, lights and fan replaced, etc. My goal was clean and modernized from the 80’s finishes but not too modern—more like an old Chicago hotel bathroom vibe. Since we have a big tub in the bathroom off our bedroom and know we’ll always keep a tub there, we decided to transform this tub into a big open shower. We painted and put the wallpaper up ourselves, but everything else we hired out because we don’t know what we are doing when it comes to building showers and tiling floors. I absolutely love how this bathroom turned out. It feels like a completely different room.

AFTER:

Instead of linking things randomly throughout the post, there’s a list of everything linked at the bottom of this post so it’s all in one place. I found so many of the products we used for such great prices (the pendant lights are only $55, and the mirror was $35!) and saved a lot of money by shopping around and scouring the Internet. The shower is my happy place now. I put a little bowl of lava rocks on the floor, pour a few drops of lavender and eucalyptus oil and peace out in the bathroom with some music and a candle.

I wanted a lot of plants in the bathroom since I’ve been having a torrid love affair with them over the pandemic and plan to continue. So my dad built me a little plant shelf from a $7 piece of wood we had cut and stained, and it’s the perfect break-up between the wallpaper and tile.

Also—a little touch of Michigan with that summer lake dive print (from a Michigan artist too :o). With all the tile and blues, the room needed a little warmth; so I went with a wooden shade. It ties the wood plant shelf in and lets good light filter through to keep the room clean and bright. I added privacy film to the bottom of the window so we can leave the shade up to let light in and display additional plants.

I wasn’t planning on wallpapering the bathroom but found this stripe print from Chasing Paper after we finished and fell in love with it. It pulls everything together perfectly.

We started this bathroom project in the beginning of October and only finished it this week, so I’m SO happy to have it finished.

Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend.

Bathroom Sources:

Navy Blue Vanity, Wayfair
Faucet, Amazon
Globe Pendant Lights, Amazon
Hexagon Floor Tile, Lowe’s (white grout)
Subway Tile  on walls and shower grouted with warm gray
Stripes Away Wallpaper, Chasing Paper
Mirror, $35 from Marshall’s
Shower Fixures, Amazon
Gold Shower Squeegee, Amazon
Rug, World Market (I love this rug—it’s also in Nella’s room)
Pink Polka Dot Towels, Homegoods
Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash Bottles, Etsy
Summer Lake Jump Art, Minted (from a Michigan artist)
Cordless Wooden Shade, Blinds.com
Privacy Window Film, Wayfair

If there’s a silver lining to this pandemic, it’s that we’ve sat in our houses long enough to appreciate the corners that bring us joy, identify what we want in a home if we were—say—stuck in it with no where else to go for a year, and tackle some projects on our list to make the corners that need a little help more functional and more expressive of who we are.  I recently tackled our bedroom, prompted by a partnership that gave us a new bed because if you give a mouse a new bed, she’s going to ask for a fresh coat of paint, a furniture refresh (new paint and hardware on a dresser) and an encore of the creative high that comes from switching things up.

Let’s start with the before.

It wasn’t bad but definitely needed a little love. The gray paint had served its time, and I was ready for something more airy and light. My dad and I had built that headboard, and I love it; but the elements in the room just didn’t feel cohesive together. (Thankfully, I was able to pass the headboard on to a friend, so it will still be well loved.) Our bedroom is often the first neglected room in the house because we’ll pretty up all the other rooms and sacrifice ours to hold the clutter. But I think we’re all feeling the importance this year of rest havens and loving our spaces, so I was so excited about giving our room this makeover.

Enter the room’s focal piece. I did an Instagram partnership with The Inside and fell in love with their fabric choices for upholstered beds. They encouraged me to choose a bolder pattern rather than playing it safe which was just the push I needed, and I LOVE the result. This blog post isn’t sponsored, but I can truly say the bed is amazing and the process of choosing it was so fun and easy.

I chose a big black and white check upholstered frame, envisioning blush walls for it to set against. I made a vision board of all the pieces together, and the outcome is as dreamy as my vision board.

Since we refreshed everything, this room has gained major popularity with everyone in the family. It’s our cozy place to watch shows together Saturday mornings. It’s where I’ll retreat to at night earlier than usual to unwind and read a book. And the bed is made early every morning because we love the way it feels to walk into a welcoming room.

After the bed, the new wall color is the MVP here—the most delicious shade of blush that was well researched thanks to my paint color genius sister and a slew of Pinterest pictures showing it in rooms before I chose it. I fell  in love, and it’s even better in person (I’ve answered DMs about this color every day since I posted it). Get a pen. Write this down: MALTED MILK from Sherwin Williams.

The dresser used to serve as our dining room hutch. I love giving rooms new looks in my house simply by switching things up and repurposing. At the end of this post, I link all bedding, pillows, bed, art, curtains, lighting, rug, etc. The art over the dresser is one of my favorites, and it’s a $5 download from Etsy, enlarged, printed at Walgreens and placed in a Michael’s frame.

The down blanket on the bed is another favorite. I had a down comforter but was so tired of duvet covers bunching up or hanging off the bed (and I had been through many). I definitely wanted down though. Last year, our power went out late summer and we had to sleep at our neighbor’s house who happened to be away. My neighbor is a designer, the queen of hospitality and the Linens Queen. After I enjoyed the most glorious sleep in her beautiful bed, I called her the next day and asked for all her bedding sources—Pacific Coast satin-lined down blanket (perfect for Florida weather and no need for the duvet cover). I bought two twin sized blankets for Nella’s room and loved them so much I ended up buying the king for ours.

Once I painted the walls blush, I decided to paint our dresser blush as well. I used our airbrush paint sprayer for the first time and painted it a shade darker than Malted Milk in a glossy finish. I added brass and leather hardware, and I think it looks SO much better than it did!

The blue chairs used to be in our living room. They’re Brett’s favorite, and they work perfect in our bedroom now. In keeping with the clean, airy new look, I went with monochrome for the curtains and found the perfect blush velvet ones. They’re super affordable, and they look and feel amazing.

It feel so good to love our space again, and I’m more motivated than ever to keep it a joyful haven for us.

Link Round-up:

Pacific Coast Down Blanket
Blush Velvet Curtains
Rug
Large Scale Vintage Portrait from Belle Art Prints
Green Velvet Throw Pillow Cases
Round Salmon Pillow
Tiger Pillow
Over the Bed Art: Lost in Thought Portrait, “Florida” Woman Portrait, Floral Still Life
Bed Sconce Lights
Blue Velvet Chairs