That before picture really gives the "before" way too much justice. The bathroom was really, really bad. I am so happy with how it turned out. Now if we could just get the rest of the house finished. :)
My french quote. "Sing away your sorrows and cast away your cares." Vinyl so graciously provided by my cousin over at Decal City. Check them out!
I couldn't find the exact mirror I wanted. They were either too big or too small, the frame was too big or too small or not enough detail or way too much detail. So we bought just a standard mirror and then hubby framed it in for me.
The walls in this house are all plaster. The plaster in the bathroom was looking a little shabby. But we really didn't want to tear it all out and drywall it. I also love, love, love wainscoting, so we decided to beadboard the bottom of the walls and leave the top as is since that part of the wall was in pretty good condition. The ceiling was not, however, and we were trying to decide what exactly we were going to do with it. My brother suggested we put the beadboard on the ceiling also. Brilliant! I love the way it looks.
The linen closet. I love this thing! I wanted it to look like a piece of furniture more so than a closet. I think the hubby did a great job. I love the handles and the screen. Love it!
It is so hard to get a picture of the entire shower. The diagonal pattern on the ceiling of the shower is repeated on the floor. The glass mosaic tiles on the back of the shelves is repeated in subway tile size bits and scattered randomly throughout the rest of the shower. And that little hook next to the shelf nook, yep, I made the hubby put that in. It is for the bath scrubby. I hate when they hang on the handle and with that shower head, there is no way it was going up there. So I had him put in a hook specifically for that little scrubby!
Details, details, details. So many little things I love in this bathroom. All these little details have been collected over a very long period of time. Some of the things I bought many years ago in the hopes of using them in our house in Tucson. Sadly, that never happened, but they have all found a lovely little home here. Some of the things I found digging around in antique shops, thrift stores, or yardsales.
This not so pretty metallic gold shelf I got at Goodwill for $2! I wasn't too sure about it but decided for $2 if I didn't like it, no big deal. I am so, so glad I got it. Amazing what a coat or two of black spray paint will do. This is now one of my most favorite things in the bathroom.
Sitting on the shelf is a vintage Avon bath set I won in an auction also for $2. The apothecary jars are awesome. I bought one at an antique shop for $2 (I guess it is a theme for this shelf area) and one I bought at a yard sale for - get this - $0.10!!! I love yard sales! The Paris lady is from a Ross store in Chicago. I still have plans for her hooked skirt, someday that may get done.
Gotta have a magazine rack. This works perfectly and was a great find at a Goodwill for $2.99.
This antique Bayer aspirin jar was picked up at a local thrift shop for $1. The flowers are scraps from the curtains and twigs from the yard. So cute.
Another favorite area of mine. Ok, I need to quit saying that because pretty much the whole bathroom is my favorite. These handles are from this very, very awesome antique shop in Grand Rapids. Phil's Stuff is one of my favorite places to riffle through. Seriously, it is two floors of awesomeness. If you go, go with someone who likes to do the same, because you can spend hours in that store. In the basement of this store is a room dedicated to house items. Old handles, claw feet, hinges, grates, you name it, it is there. I searched through all the bins of old cabinet handles and couldn't find two matching like I wanted. As I was very sadly about to leave the store "Phil" plopped down a bin of new handles that needed to be put down in the basement. These two beauties were right one top. Quick coat of black paint and they are a perfect fit for the bathroom. The screens are from Home Depot and those got a quick coat of black paint before they were installed.
The towel/robe hooks are from Home Goods from many years ago. The candle holders are another find from Goodwill at $1.99 each. Already black so no painting required.
And finally, the curtains. Since I live so far from my great seamstress sister, I had to tackle these by myself. I love they way they came out. The shower curtain fabric is from Joann's and is awesome. It is french script with the english translation following. I coveted this fabric for a long time. Three times it was in my basket to get for the bathroom and three times I put it back. I couldn't decide, was it too much, not enough, do I just want the window curtains and the shower curtain to match? But every time I would put it back and then come home and wish I had bought it. So finally, back to Joann's I went and - yep, out of stock and they were not reordering! Thankfully the wonderful lady at the cutting counter found some for me at another store and had it shipped up. Whew - I guess you know I then bought whatever they had left.
So there she is in all her beauty. You really should just come see her in person though, she is beautiful!
