One down, lots to go

Progress has been made on the bathroom redo.

 the walls have been painted!I chose James River Grey by Benjamin Moore.

Yes, there are a lot of paint samples down there. I had to keep a certain wee babe entertained while I was working, and she loves to paint.

See? I told you the light fixture didn't look any better in place.

Next up is cladding the bottom section of the wall with some scrumptious paneled boards. Hope the husband is ready to fire up that saw...

I need YOU!

Ladies- opinions please!

After testing a couple of paint samples on the wall I think we have narrowed the color choices down to two:

james river gray

mount saint anne

We also intend on painting the trim and the boards we are installing a creamy off white. The trim in my house isnt white, and we actually prefer the softness, so we are sticking with it.

Here is where I need your help

I found two fabrics I like and want to use in the space, but before I pull the trigger and buy them I want to know if you all think it will work.

Here are the two fabrics

shower curtain, if I can make it work

Window treatment

What do you think?

Advice, please!

A long overdue project has been started

This weekend I finally bit the bullet and got started on the bathroom project. You know, the one I was supposed to start a month ago? Yea, that one.

Here is what my bathroom looked like until Saturday

After three coats of primer, here is where we stand today

I think it is going to take another coat of primer before we can start painting. I chose a No VOC primer, Kilz Clean Start to do the priming. It is a little thin, but has almost no smell and no VOC's. I am still waiting for my thank you card from the Environment:)

What's that you say? What is that dangling over the sink? Oh, thats just the scary beyond all reason light fixture I told you about but never showed you before. 

I am going to show you now, but you may want to ask small children to look away from the screen. 

Oh.My.Gracious

If you are wondering if it looked better on the wall as opposed to hanging off it, the answer is no. :)

So, one more coat of primer and then we begin testing paint colors on the wall. I am still not sure which color to use, or if the shower curtain I picked will look right in the space. Ya'll will advise me right? Pretty please? 

Meeting in the Middle

I mentioned something about an update on the bathroom project I have been talking about, right? Hmm, I wish I could say I have done a lot of work in there, but unfortunately I have done more thinking about the work than actual work itself. That is to say- I haven't started. In my defense I did manage to clean out the coat closet, and even though I didn't find a doorway to a magical land back there I did make it easier to find everything else.

We also removed a pair of 30 year old bi-fold doors that formerly took up residence in the entryway to my living room, which revealed a huge framed opening into said space, making my house feel much larger than it did before. And brought some much needed light into the living room as well, big bonus!

Which got me thinking about other ways to bring light into my house, which then resulted in some window film on the sidelights around the front door being removed.

So, see? I have actually been doing some stuff, just not anything I said I was. Kind of like Friday nights in High School...

Ahem, back to the subject of the bathroom remodel. I have been going back and forth on the beadboard/ board and batten issue. I don't really want to use beadboard in there, I much prefer the board and batten look but I don't think it will cover enough of the wall underneath to work in the space. Which left me wondering if there was a way to meet in the middle between beadboard and board and batten. Googling "what would it look like if board and batten and beadboard had a baby" yielded nothing(how is this possible?) and I really began to lose steam on the whole thing until I saw an episode of Design Inc (Sara Richardson- how I drool over everything she does) where the team(!) used thick boards across an entire wall and it was gor-ge-ous! It was the perfect mix of the look of beadboard with the delicious chunkiness of board and batten. The meeting in the middle! So I am off to Lowe's to hunt through the miles and miles of wood they have to find the perfect boards for this project. The lovechild of board and batten and beadboard- if you will. Hopefully soon there will be an actual update on the  bathroom reno, rather than an excuse riddled explanation. Maybe:)

Bathroom Plan

Since I have already listed the many, many things wrong with the bathroom the next logical step is to talk about what I'll be doing to fix them.
The current plan includes

* LOTS of paint in hues of cream and a soft turquoise blue

I am still in the deciding phase, but I am leaning toward using

James River Gray

the cream I want to use is called Richland, but there doesn't seem to be a color swatch available online.

*bead board or board and batten on the lower walls

I love both the look of board and batten and a really high wall of bead board. In the end, bead board will probably win out since I am trying to cover the wallpaper rather than taking it down.

*pops of  coral orange as an accent

chili pepper.

Again, still in the decision phase over paint. I am leaning toward using this color since it coordinates well with the textiles I already have for the room.

*new lighting in a rubbed bronze finish- I realize I didn't show you the lighting situation in the last post. It's scary beyond all reason. The front(glass) of the fixture threw it's self off the wall about 3 weeks after we moved in and the exposed bulbs have been (not-so) proudly showcased ever since.

*replacement faucet for the sink

*adding a window treatment and possibly replacing the blinds


of course I am also planning on replacing the shower curtain and towels.In my linen closet I ran across a set we used for a few months in our old house. It **may** work in this space, depending upon how it all comes together.

Anyone done this scheme before and has advice for me? Paint color recommendations? Offers to help paint? :)

Color Inspiration for the bathroom

Sherwin Williams Rainwashed

Benjamin Moore James River Gray

 Benjamin MooreChili Pepper

Benjamin Moore Fire Dance

 These are just a few of the chips I collected today, and a final color decision hasn't been made. But, a blue and coral combination feels just about right to take a worn out 80's bathroom into 2011.

New Year- New Room

Instead of making a New Year's Resolution this year(that I won't stick with past January 3rd anyway) I decided to make a list of things I want to change in the new year.

First on the list is our upstairs bathroom. If you could arrest a room for being unattractive and dysfunctional, this room would be on the Most Wanted List. It would have it's own card in the Most Wanted Deck.

Let's take a look at the charges facing this space:

1. Flagrant use of unattractive wallpaper

 view from entry door

 up close and personal- glorious isn't it?

Its on every wall, behind the potty and mirror. The same wallpaper has been in this house since it was built in the early eighties. 30 years of hair product over spray and questionable biological substances must no doubt be coating the walls in there. Oh, and did I mention that this wallpaper was applied directly to the sheetrock? No? I had to battle that monster in our main floor bathroom as well, and in case you haven't had the pleasure of prying archaic wallpaper off sheetrock that wasn't first sealed with a primer- it isn't even as fun as it sounds. Picture spending hours scoring and spraying, steaming and prying just to have pieces the size of quarter come off at a time. And after all that hard work you are still faced with the task of patching the many, many, many areas on the wall where the sheetrock was damaged in the removal process. In case I haven't accurately conveyed my feelings here- I hate, loathe and detest removing wallpaper.

2. Depositing/Dumping Without Permission

 see the rust stain to the left of the faucet opening?

it extends into the tub as well. Jealous yet?

Both the sink and bathtub fixtures are builder issue from the eighties, and unlike leggings and NKOTB are NOT enjoying a resurgence in popularity this year.  On top on being less than thrilling looking, the seals and fittings have decayed through many years of use, and instead of holding the water the faucets DUMP(drip) water constantly and DEPOSIT lovely rust colored stains in the bathtub and sink.

3. Violations of Cleanliness and Sanitation Act
Proper storage containers are lacking in our bathroom drawers, leaving the contents shuffling around each time they are opened.

Inside instead of seeing this

Source-Ikea

You see this

And this

I can't for one minute think that this is the best way to corral these items, or the cleanest way to store toothbrushes and flossers. Clear violations here.

4. Danger of Falling Objects

The shower caddy doesn't stay in place once you put toiletries inside and will lurch at will, sending the objects inside hurtling forward. Nothing has truly fallen out yet, but I wouldn't hang out underneath it testing my luck.

5. Stowaways found on board

Items we are no longer using, or don't even belong in this room have been located, hiding out in the cabinet. It's time for these stowaways to get the boot. Not shown in the above picture are the bazillion baby washcloths and towels stuffed into the cabinet. You use baby washcloths and towels on a baby. My kid is almost 5. So... yeah it's time for them to receive the old heave-ho as well.

That list of infractions is enough to light a fire under me to start brainstorming ways to address the issues.Let's hope the bathroom goes down quietly, and doesn't resist arrest.

Up next- a plan to take the bathroom off the Most (Un)Wanted List.