Our bathroom door hangs neatly at three feet wide. Add up all the people who have ever visited our home; it’s safe to say that nearly every single guest has talked about our bathroom. Not our gourmet kitchen we spent months remodeling.
Not the obsessively designed living room we argued over for years. Nope. The powder room, smaller than most closets has become the jewel of our home.
I’ll explain how it came to be, but first lets talk about the elephant floating around the bathroom selfie pics: Why DIY the bathroom at all? Honestly, when we first moved into this house I had zero intentions of decorating it.
Beige walls.
Generic builder sinks. Flowery curtain. But that toilet paper holder….PLEASE.
You know the one. Flush toilet paper, wash your hands, avoid eye contact with everyThing else and get. The.
Hell. Out. But something about leaving it beige just couldn’t been left alone.
I couldn’t stop imagining people using my bathroom. Every guest that enters our home will eventually make their way to our little bathroom. Forced to spend an unpleasant amount of time together with their thoughts and our toilet.
Something had to change. So I decided to go all in… Let’s rewind to the start. Wallpaper.
Everyone knows I love me a good piece of wallpaper. But I was debating between choosing something safe and wild crafting ideas. My husband kept saying “How about something neutral?” (Honey, bless your soul) but I couldn’t get the image of emerald green palm leaves enveloping me on a dark wall out of my head.
When I stumbled upon that wallpaper my husband thought I was going to pee my trousers I was so excited! Bold. Funky.
Audacious! I showed the paper sample to the sales lady at World Wallcoverings and she eyed me with judgment. “Are you sure you want to use this in a powder room?” She asked while giggling like I was kindergartner making a craft. “It’s a bit of a statement.” “Perfect.” I replied. Putting up that paper was a battle of it’s own.
Matching patterns, folding slippery paper in a tight space is NOT for the faint of heart. I spent my Saturday teetering between the toilet and sink giggling like a lunatic and mumbling curses about old war soldiers beneath my breath. But I persevered and when that last wall came together I swear that bathroom did a little dance for me.
Lighting was up next on my sexy bathroom buffet and y’all guys… I went too far. Don’t get me wrong. Pretty bright fluffy lights over the sink are great!
But come on….pendant lighting! Almost three feet in diameter and more style than your average restaurant bathroom. Not practical at all.
In fact, it barely gives you enough light to function. Applying makeup has been near impossible but damn does it light up that wallpaper beautifully. Lessons learned: Great lighting should be planned ahead of time.
Whoever originally owned this house thought it would be funny to put the light switch on the opposite side of the room. When entering you literally must reach over your toilet to turn it on. Having it moved required an electrician which drove our teeny tiny budget through the roof, but hey.
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Some things you can’t skimp on. The sink was by far the biggest money drain (and best decision) I made on this bathroom. Instead of opting for a basic pedestal sink or building a mini vanity I found this cute-as-can-be vintage inspired brass vessel sink that sits on top of a floating wall shelf.
Talk about fancy! That sink is what bathrooms dream of being someday. So glam you could swear they’LL give you a complimentary tube of lotion and the towels have enough down material to stuff two pillows.
The tap is one of those “wall mounted” types which allows you to have ALL the counter space you could want AND creates such beautiful simple lines. Oh and talk about vessel sinks…. WATER EVERYWHERE.
Like literally. I cleaned that wooden shelf so much the first month it was installed I wanted to pull it out and pour cement over it. THEN my genius friend Sarah came up with a great idea to add a small backsplash.
Not full 12×12 tiles…just enough wallpaper extending from the floor up the wall behind the tap. Best. Dollar.
Ever spent. The mirror was one of those happy Craigslist finds. Searching for months for that “something quirky but not too out there” I came across this ginormous brass circle at a local estate sale.
The woman I bought it from told me it used to hang in her Grandmother’s dressing room back in the 40’s. Now I picture some quirky retro babe getting ready for a night out… Mary Tyler Moore maybe? Standing in front of it with a cigarette dangling from her mouth and a bottle of cherry red lipstick in the other.
The mirror itself has the most beautiful imperfect aging with little dark spots peppered around the edge. All for fifteen bucks and is probably my favourite detail in the whole room. Storage was a challenge.
Coveteur. Don’t build anything permanent in a rental and when your bathroom barely has room for a toilet there isn’t much space for “storage furniture”. So instead, I opted for an extra skinny wall shelf high up on the wall behind our toilet.
It’s literally only about a foot long but just wide enough to fit a small plant and some decorative hand towels. Not only does it break up all that glorious wallpaper your eyes have to take in when you first walk in, but it gives you a place to stash extra TP! PSA: The plant is fake.
I hate fake plants. With every fibre of my being I try to avoid them. But I tried THREE real plants in this bathroom and they all died.
DIED gruesome deaths. If plants could scream at me over how little sunlight that room gets and how steam filled it becomes when my husband showers I would’ve been visited by an angry plant vengeance mama. So judge me if you must for buying a micro-scene like plant that will never die.
You know those finishing touches that really tie a room together?
Lame toilet paper holder replaced with a long oil rubbed brass rod to hang fancy towels on our new wall shelf… I thought of everything. I hung the towel bar right between where your fingers and your elbow meet when washing your hands so you don’t smack it every time you turn around. (Learned that one the hard way, ya feel?) Even the soap dispenser matches!
Small things, but it really finished the whole look. Do you guys realise how many people RAVE about our bathroom? Every time we entertain someone comments on “that bathroom with the cool wallpaper.” My mother in law who swears her bathroom is the shit mask of Pinterest spend ten minutes critiquing where I got everything.
The mailman drooled over it when he saw it. I legitimately laughed out loud when he did that. Even my husband who killed this entire project with his lack of confidence from the beginning gushes every time someone compliments it.
Granted, it was probably triple what I wanted to spend {UGH reality}, but when you spend that little of square footage the bathroom really needs to POP. Shake your light off, little bathroom. You’re gorgeous.
