Powder Room: The Almost Afters

Time for another powder room update!

In my wee little powder room, I decided to do a very basic makeover with paint and accessories. I of course had grander visions of stunning wallpaper and beefy wainscoting and a new solid wood door with new hardware, but because of how many projects I have planned around our new  house to make this into our home, I decided to forgo anything fancier or more complicated (and costly) and go with PAINT as my decorating tool of choice. Cheap and easy. I like it.

I already showed you the cabinet, but I really wanted to WAIT to reveal the entire powder room, once I finished a few more fun things. You know, a real BEFORE & AFTER budget makeover. But who am I kidding? The last two projects could take years and blogging may be passe by then.

So let’s just peek at what I have so far, shall we?

I’m a BEFORE and IN PROCESS kind of decorator anyway.

BEFORE: PRIOR TO MOVING IN

Note: above is the bathroom BEFORE I EVEN OWNED IT. The walls used to be that dreadful excuse for a color we’ve all come to know as SWINE. Under belly of a pig. A mauve flesh tone. The color the has almost driven me to the brink.

Now, I can breathe a sigh of relief because this bathroom features a warm and cozy shade of Snail Shell by Martha Stewart.  All is now right with the world. I’m usually a Benjamin Moore girl but Martha is doing the job just fine! No problems. Great coverage. Very forgiving (I was able to touch up spots days later without them showing at all!). I did two coats on the bathroom walls since it was dark paint. You can see the paint color better in the upcoming images.

Then, to balance out the warm cozy feel of a small dark room, I wanted to add the contrast of WHITE to brighten it up. So, as you have already seen, I painted the cabinet white and added the quirky knob I already had from Anthropologie — you can also find a similar style knob now from Hobby Lobby.

I added some white accessories and a white shelf ledge for a nice pop of WHITE.

It pains me to show TOILET PAPER smack dab in the middle of the wall like it is an integral part of the artistic display (and the plunger!), GAH, but we all have issues like this sometimes so let’s just be real. We have toilet paper. Someday, that holder will get removed and we’ll put in a nice chunky white wainscoting.

I added various mirrors to the wall to expand the room visually as well as to reflect light, which is important in a dark room with no windows!

I added a pale blue oar for fun and to give the room a touch of coastal ambience. The black and white print on the wall that I picked up at HomeGoods awhile back has boats on the water so it also brings a subtle sea flair to the space.

And I added a natural woven basket from Marshalls for texture in a shade that works well with the floor tones.

For warmth under foot (and to prevent any unfortunate echo which is most unpleasant in a main floor powder room), I put in a rag rug from HomeGoods with shades of gray, green, blue and white.

Looking out into the hall, you can see there is quite a bit of light in the main area of the house, so it is a nice change of pace to have a more “moody” contrast to that with the darker walls in the powder room. On the door is a Vintage Key Plate from my OpenSky shop! You can find them for sale here.

I like having the black and white art in the hallway to bring continuity and connection between spaces, even when the rooms themselves are unique. Carrying a few themes through the home can really bring things together.

The wall color in the hall is very hard to see, but it is Tobacco Leaf by Martha Stewart. A very pleasant shade of a brownish green. Soft and mellow! The walls in the entry and living room are still OINK!!! Swine.

It is so hard to capture a tiny room like this in a photo. The lighting is not right and you cannot see everything at once! In my opinion, all elements of a space are important to the balance of a room — so just seeing a close up vignette doesn’t really tell the whole story of the space.

This room has wide white crown molding around the ceiling which is a nice frame of white above the dark walls, ahhh, you can’t even see that. Oh well.

Cost of this project?

Cheap. I only bought two new things specifically for this room, one was the woven waste basket for about $3.99 and the other is the frameless mirror (from Home Depot, around $30 I think). Most of the accessories were all stuff I had just sitting around waiting to be used or hanging out in some other room!

Someday I envision having more mirrors going all the way up the wall, but for now it was great to be able to use mostly things I already had so I could keep this a truly inexpensive makeover. I can always add to it over time. Or I might decide I am ready for something more dramatic like the wallpaper and wainscoting.

Next step, a vanity mirror project and an artistic surprise. Someday.

For now, I’m happy to have a calm, peaceful and inviting guest bathroom! Finally!

Onward to other rooms! And more slaughtering of the swine walls!