From Nightstand to Washstand

In this post, I just wanted to share the process of how our hand-me-down nightstands miraculously turned into super chic washstands flanking our new sink.  (It wasn't really a miracle, just handiwork by my awesome husband, Daniel - Love you, Daniel, you're awesome!)

My brother and sister-in-law gave me these nightstands after they got new furniture in their bedroom.  I had been using them in the kitchen, one stacked on top of the other, as a microwave cabinet/pantry.  When I came up with the idea of redoing the bathroom, these seemed like the perfect cabinet choice because they had these beautiful marble tops.  I love white marble in a bathroom.  Anyway, they were perfect except for one hitch - they were way too short.  They came to about mid-thigh.

Here's a shot of them before:

We decided to take off the existing legs and add longer legs with a shelf for a basket on the bottom.  Then, I would paint everything white and change out the knobs.  Using his handy, dandy pocket-hole-jig, (which he made me take a photo of because he said it is invaluable if you are going to be doing any kind of cabinetry work), wood glue and clamps, Daniel added the legs and the shelf.  Doesn't he make an excellent product model??

 Seriously, just look at his modeling skills!!

And here it is, after the legs and shelf were added.  It didn't matter that the wood was different, since we were painting them anyway, so we went with poplar from Home Depot since you can buy by the board foot.

Stay tuned for the final bathroom reveal in which you will see the painted, updated, fancy-knob version!  See how I keep you guessing?  This is like a to-be-continued post in which you HAVE to come back to find out how it ends!

Note: To see all our bathroom-related posts, where we started, and our progress up to this point, click here, here, here and here.

My Mirror Got a Facelift

Just wanted to share an update on the bathroom renovations.  The bathroom is officially finished -- WAHOO!  YAAAYYY!  [Insert angels signing in jubilation here].  Final pics will be forthcoming just as soon as I get them uploaded.

In the meantime, I just wanted to post about a  project that was critical in the whole renovation process.  This baby made such a huge impact on the space.

I'm talking about my mirror.  This mirror has been around as long as I can remember.  It belonged to my great-grandfather and was passed down to my mom, who stored it in the attic for years and years and years.  It was kind of a dirty gold, red, blue, green multi-colored baroque looking thing with years and years of grime all over it.  (I wish I had a photo of it then, but I usually lack foresight in these kinds of projects and always forget to take 'before' photos.) I cleaned it up some, but it always looked a little too gothic for my taste.  So, I painted it gloss black and hung it in my bedroom for a long time.

Here's a picture of it in our bedroom at our old rental house:

When we moved to our new house, there just wasn't any good place to hang this gal and so she sat leaning up against the wall in the bedroom for the longest time, collecting dust.  When I got the bright idea to tackle our phase 1 bathroom renovation, she seemed like a perfect choice for a statement mirror in the bathroom.  [Yes, the mirror is a 'she'.  She's too pretty to be a boy.]

Since I wanted the bathroom to be bright and airy, I decided to paint the frame white.  Daniel also pointed out that since it was going to get a facelift, the actual mirror should probably be replaced.  The silver on the back had come away in several places, making it pretty distracting when trying to see your reflection.  Luckily, we have a glass shop about a mile up the road from our house and they were able to cut a new mirror to size for around $35.

We had to take the old mirror out of the frame so that they could size the new one, which entailed taking off the old cardboard backing and pulling out all the nails that were holding the mirror in place. (Please excuse my messy, unmade bed / work table.)

Here's a pic where you can kinda see how badly the silvering was coming off:

And EVERYONE needs one of these in their house: 

Since this hefty lady weighed in at about 60+ pounds, it had broken it's wire hanger 2 or 3 times at our last house and fallen to the floor.  Miraculously, it hadn't broken but was cracked in a few places.  Cracks are nearly invisible when painted with black paint, but white shows every little flaw, so we had to do some spackling on the bigger cracks.  Once that was dry, I spray-painted her with Rustoleum any-angle spray.  It took about 2 full cans to cover it completely.  

And..... drumroll please.... here she is, in all her radiant glory:

Isn't she a beaut?!?  She made such a huge difference in the bathroom!  I love her and tell her she's pretty every day.  No, that's not weird at all. ;o)

Note: If you want to see where we started and our progress up to this point, click here and here.  If you want to see what we've done since, click here and here.

Bathroom Updates

It's about to get real, folks.  This is what a renovation at my house REALLY looks like, in all its chaotic glory.  No photoshop here.  This is the real deal - all the mess, all the clutter, all the chaos, uncensored for your viewing pleasure.  In fact, we have been living like this for several months.  Have I stubbed my toes on various power tools over that period of time?  Of course!  Have I tripped and nearly fallen over all the clutter on more than 1 occasion?  Yes, I have, thanks for asking!  It’s all part of that good ol’ DIY charm! 

We have managed to make a little progress on the bathroom updates, despite the general disorderliness of the overall appearance.  Maybe you'll remember where we were last time, here's a shot of Daniel working on some wiring from the only attic access in the house.

I may have mentioned in the last post that a foot may or may not have accidentally gone through the ceiling and made that opening slightly bigger.  Fortunately, "the attic access wasn't really big enough to begin with, so this is really a good thing!"

Here it is now:

Much more spacious, no?

The lighting has also been added and greatly improved since we last met.  A new overhead light/exhaust fan combo has been added, along with new sconces.

Here's a shot from the attic at the fan installation:

And these are the new sconces:

Here's a shot of the whole room... it's a hot mess, I know.  

Just imagine navigating all this every time you have to take a shower!  UGH!

Daniel also finished all the trim and molding work, which looks really nice, despite the mess.

We have also been working on patching numerous holes, dents, and scratches in the wall.

And check out this awesome window treatment:

That's right, some duct tape and a garbage bag - what could be more shabby chic?

Daniel also hung the new shower curtain rod at ceiling height and I put up the new extra long fabric liner.

I'm still on the fence about the curved rod since it sticks out into the already narrow space a lot more than I envisioned.  I'm going to live with it for a while to see how I like it once all the other elements come together. Then maybe I can better decide whether or not to change it out with a straight rod.  

Well, that's all for right now.  I'll post more pics as we get more updates finished and get ever closer to finishing this seemingly never ending project!

Note: If you want to see where we started, click here.  If you want to see our progress, click here, here, and here.

Living Room Switcheroo

Remember how a few posts ago I said that I could simply change out a few things in my living room and it would completely change the whole look of the room?  Well, I did, and it did.  Here's the before with the fall colors and turquoise accents:

Well, I decided to change it out for Christmas and bring back the red and black.

All I had to do was turn my decorative doors around, switch out a few pillows and blankets, switch the mirror over the fireplace, change out some artwork, switch out the coffee table (written out, that sounds like a lot more work than it actually was) and add my few Christmas decorations.  (Yes, I do realize that Christmas was almost a whole month ago, but what can I say, I'm a master procrastinator.)

And presto-change-o, it looks like a whole new room!  :o)

Yarn Wreaths

I decided to be crafty for Christmas this year.  I am lucky enough to have both of my Grandmas nearby and so for Christmas this year, I decided to do these yarn wreaths for them.  I figured since they're not holiday-themed, they can keep them up anytime of the year (if they want... they might think they're really ugly and just hang them up so I don't feel bad, but Grandmas are great at making you think all your creations are beautiful, whether they are or not)  I not-so-sneakily asked them what their favorite colors were, and they were, respectively: pink and purple.

I have to give credit for this idea to my mom, who when I asked for suggestions of what to get as gifts this year, she said, "why don't you make them each a wreath?"  Great idea!  So, I hopped on Pinterest and subsequently pinned about 100 different ideas.  I really liked the yarn wreaths because you can make them in any color of the rainbow, so the possibilities are endless.

Pinterest also has a ton of ideas for fabric flowers, which I thought would make a nice addition to these wreaths.  I sort of adapted this idea to my needs using scraps of fabric that I got from.... yep, you guessed it!  My Grandma!  She has an entire dresser full of scrap fabric from past crafts and sewing projects so I "borrowed" all of it... for "Christmas crafts".  Bahaha, I'm so sneaky.

Anyway, I picked up a couple skeins of yarn in pink and purple, my wreath form, and some straight pins for pinning on all my fabric flowers.  Then I went through all my scrap fabric and picked out coordinating fabrics in pinks and purples to use for my flowers.

Here's the materials I started with:

I was originally going to do the whole monogram thing, but in the end, I couldn't figure out how to attach the letter and there just didn't seem to be any good place to put it, so I left it out.  

I used a straw wreath form (make sure to leave the plastic on!) but you can use any type.  I've also heard that a pool noodle duct taped into a circular form works great.  

Anyway, just start wrapping your yarn around the wreath form... and around, and around... for about a solid hour and a half until it's completely covered.  This took about 3/4 of the skein of yarn and did take almost a full 90 minutes to finish.  

Once your wreath is wrapped you can start embellishing it as you want it.  I cut out flower shapes in the scraps and layered them and then used buttons for the flower centers and straight pins to attach the flowers to the wreath.  No sewing necessary.  For the rosettes, I simply took long strips of fabric and then twisted it and rolled it into a circular pattern and pinned it on as well.  I just kept adding until it looked full enough.  For the leaves, I cut the fabric in a leaf shape, pinched the end together to make it more 3D and pinned them on.  Surprisingly, this part went pretty fast... faster than wrapping the wreath.  

Once I had the first one finished, I simply copied the same pattern using different colored fabrics so they would both have basically the same design in the end.  

And here's the finished product:

   

 

All in all, it was really pretty easy and fun.  I might get ambitious and make more later on.  There are some really adorable Halloween, Thanksgiving, Winter, and Christmas themed ones on Pinterest.  And if you have extra yarn or fabric lying around, it's a great way to use it up.  This would work well with ribbon too, and probably go a lot faster.  I'm thinking a cute feather boa wrapped around the wreath form might look adorable too... hmmm....  The possibilities really are endless!

Sneak Peek

I want to tell you a little story.  It's about an impatient wife, and an exasperated husband.  What had happened was.... I came home one day with a bright idea to rip out our completely functional, somewhat dated, bathroom vanity and put in a bright shiny pedestal sink, paint the dingy walls, add new cabinets, lighting and a fancy mirror.  Easy peasy!  In my brain it was anyway.  We already had the pedestal sink from a previous reno that we never finished, and we had two nightstands with marble tops that would be perfect for storage cabinets!  All completely free!  Easy!  Done in a flash!  Bahahahahahaha!

Here was my brilliant idea:  (Disclaimer: SketchUp is the devil. You can just bump a wall out here, drag and drop a sink there, and it's all looking beautiful on paper in about 5 minutes.  That doesn't really happen in real life.)  Here's the bathroom as it was before we moved in:

The footprint of the bathroom is pretty long and narrow and eventually we'd like to take out that wall across from the sink (which is the back of our master bedroom closet) and turn that into more space in the bathroom.  That's waaaay down the line, though.  Right now I just wanted to do a Phase 1 reno to make the bathroom a little prettier and more functional.  

The bathroom has always been a little dingy and outdated, which bugs me.  As you can see from the pics above, the vanity is awkward (Why is it off-centered?  Why are there no cabinets below?  Why would you leave the plumbing exposed?  Why are the countertops painted?) and it makes for a tight squeeze with two people trying to get ready in the mornings.  The sink was originally blue (as was the tile and tub) but the previous owners painted (yes, painted) it all white.  They didn't do the neatest job, so the paint is coming off in places and there's a lot of brush strokes and drips clearly visible.  There's some really ugly lighting in there and it's dark like a cave at night.  

Changes on my list included a fresh coat of bright paint, new lighting, and some bright white cabinetry and a new sink.  I eventually want to get a new tub and tile surround, and tile the floor with some pretty white hex-tile, but that's not in the budget right now, so that'll have to wait on the back-burner for a few more years.

I sketched up my ideas and it seemed so easy!  Did I mention SketchUp is the devil?  Here's my SketchUp plan:

The floorplan:

View of the new pedestal sink and storage cabinets:

Some floating shelves above the toilet for more storage:

And a new ceiling-height white shower curtain to hide the painted tile/tub:

After one evening of angrily ripping everything out, which almost ended in Daniel divorcing me on the spot, here's where we ended up:

Yes, those are holes in the drywall, which is so old they don't make the same thickness anymore!  Yes, the plumbing is off-centered just enough so that we have to move all the pipes!  Yes, the electrical is so old that will all have to be re-done!  Yes, there is mold growing on the walls because there is no exhaust in this room! Yes, that's yet another expense to be added to our already over-stretched Phase 1 "free" bathroom renovation budget!  Yes, we do have to replace a big section of the ceiling where Daniel almost fell through while trying to re-do the wiring!

Whew!  I'm tired already.  And my part of this thing hasn't even really started.  This was one of those projects that I think will only take a weekend or so to complete, and then 5 months later, it still looks like the pics above.  We have made some progress.  We have a working sink.  Beadboard has gone up.  Some wiring has been completed.  That's about it.  But I'll be sure to keep you posted on our Phase 1 progress!  Stay tuned!

Note: If you want to check out our progress, click here, here, here, and here.