Pee Worthy?

OK, weird title, I know, but stick with me here.

Our home's half bathroom/laundry room has been a source of design stress for me since we moved in. It is an awkward layout because of the washer and dryer hookup locations and more importantly because THERE IS A BATHROOM IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM! It's a little strange. 

Here's a look at what it looked like when we bought the house:

As you can tell, this is the room that sold us on this home. Isn't she beautiful? (That square thing on the left isn't a washer or dryer...it's the hot water heater.)

OK. Let's be serious, it's scary and that green wall color isn't helping anything. So the first thing we did was paint the entire room a neutral color. We also removed the black baskets to help de-clutter the laundry room side. The layout really couldn't be helped so we've kept it as is, but a few cute baskets for organizations and some artwork helped give the laundry side of the room some design help. We also finally hung up our ironing board which gets it off the ground and gives a little more room to move. 

Here's what that side of the room looks like now:

Now the bathroom side of the room needed some serious help as well. Basically the goal was to figure out a way to make it feel like a bathroom that isn't in a laundry room. 

Here's what we've done to help make this bathroom nice enough for our friends to pee in:

• We took down the swirly mirror with the built in lights since it wasn't really our style. (I tried painting it a bright color to make it work since the lights being attached is super handy, but I still didn't dig it so it got trashed.)
• The mirror was replaced with a simple oval mirror with a dark brown wood frame. 
• We also replaced the cabinet pulls. The silver and white combo that was originally there was upgraded to a simple bronze pull. 
• The light was a pain to figure out how to replace since the electrical box was in the wall and NOT centered. It made life a challenge, but luckily we found a solution with a $15 target pendant light. 
• I added a rug which perfectly fills the area in front of the sink and toilet and brings your eye to that space instead of the laundry area. 
• The window got a lovely bamboo shade to add privacy. (Kinda important in a bathroom.)
• I also put up two inexpensive pieces of artwork, one on each side of the window to tie both sides of the room together. 

Check out the pictures of our newly updated space:

So it's still a little awkward considering the first thing you see when you open the door is a dryer, but it is leaps and bounds from where it started. I'm digging it and I'm super excited that I can now call this room "pee worthy". What a victory, right?

Until next time...

Green With Envy

This bathroom makes me green with envy. 

This bathroom is from Sarah's House on HGTV

This is just my green bathroom.

We've added the grey and chocolate tones which have really helped us to tone down the green tile. Although we haven't finished adding all of the decorative accents, it has come leaps and bounds from where we started. 

Yes, I would like to ultimately rip it to the ground and start with a fresh white bathroom like Sarah's up there, but for now it will due.

Do you have a dream bathroom you'd like to recreate someday in your home? (No need to be realistic here.)

Until next time...

"That's So Wrong" Wednesday Vol. 5

Are you ready for your Wrong Wednesday, kids? (You might be able to find a "That's so Right" Wednesday over at Simple Thoughts if you need it or at least a few design tips.)

Just when I think our new bathroom is a challenge, I see something like this that makes me so stinking thankful for our green tiled bathroom. 

This one I found on HGTV.com. It is obviously the "before" of one of their bathroom makeovers. Can you imagine living with this one? I think I'd have to take a sledge hammer to it.

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I can't even imagine walking barefoot in there. Eww.

If you were house hunting, do you think you could look past this bathroom? How awesome would the rest of the house have to be for you to buy this guy?

Until next time...

Bathroom Confusion

When family visits, blogging stops. I apologize.

I did, however, get to show the fam the house-to-be. It was pretty interesting since the seller was there setting up for an estate sale. I always think it's awkward running into her. I mean, we've argued back and forth over money before. Doesn't that make everything more uncomfortable? The plus side (hopefully) is that there were actually a couple pieces of furniture I'd like to buy from her. We'll have to wait and see how those negotiations go. She's a little stubborn.

I of course wanted to let everyone see our new home, but I also had another, more selfish  reason for stopping in again. I previously posted a picture of the totally green tiled bathroom that we are about to own and as you can imagine, it's a design challenge. I had purchased a possible shower curtain that I was DYING to try out. So I excitedly entered our future bathroom on Saturday, pulled that perfect shower curtain out of my bag, laid it down on the counter and instantly...

realized it sucked. It wasn't even close. Regrettably, I was back to square one. 

I've been wanting to find a shower curtain that would incorporate at least a tad bit of green so it would appear that I'm embracing the tile rather than trying to hide it, but I've really had no such luck. We've got about 4 different shades of green to deal with between the walls and floor and the main tile is very, very pastel in color. There just isn't much out there that can rock it out with that tile. As a result, I gave in to the neutral shower curtain option. 

Today, I purchased (with the approval and support of my mom and little sister) a shower curtain from Target along with a couple accent towels. Check it out.

Simple. Neutral, but at least a bit of pattern. We are going to add a brown fabric panel to the bottom of the shower curtain so that I can mount it higher up on the wall. It also helps by combining our color scheme of the grey and brown on one specific item in the room.

So the general game plan to "modernize" the bathroom is this:

• Grey Walls
• Brown Roman Shade in the window
• Brown frame added around the existing mirror
• Floating shelves above toilet
• Grey or Brown Bath Mat
• Modern art work - TBC ( "To Be Created")

I can't wait to get started! Hopefully the hubby and I will be tackling this room the last weekend of February. I'll be sure to post all the amazingly fantastic photos later.

Until next time...