Light!

Continuing my progress in the bathroom is the replacement of the ugly 60's style light above the mirror. Unfortunately I don't have a great before picture...how did that happen?? Here are the two best pictures I have of it. Hard to see because the light is on!

I found a similar light online- mine looked like this except no starburst pattern, and frankly this looks like a nicer version of what I had.I'm certain this light was original, so from the mid-70's.

I replaced it (all by myself!) with this light I found at the local re-use center. I paid $12.50 for it total, including the three glass shades. I recently went to Lowes and saw the same fixture for sale there for about $55. I felt pretty smug about that.

It's a huge improvement. In addition to it looking more of-this-century, the added light from the 3rd light bulb makes a huge difference. The bathroom has so much more light now!

Of course I wasn't happy to stop there. While the shades on this fixture are ok, I don't love them. I found these seeded glass "bells" at Home Depot, for about $7 each and put them up in place of the shades that came with the fixture. Even now, I've only spent $33 on this light fixture total, still more than $20 less than what the cost of this fixture new is, so I felt ok spending the extra money to get the look I wanted.

It looks kind of blue here, but I promise, its clear.

It was clear immediately that I need clear light bulbs in the fixture instead of white ones. I bought some recently but they are way too bright, so I need to try again. I had a hard time finding the ones I got (which are Halogen) so hopefully I can find similar ones with a smaller wattage. 

Regardless I'm psyched about how my bathroom is looking. The counter top is getting closer and closer to the top of the list!

Painting the Bathroom

So I had a week off about 3 weeks ago-- I got a new job and took a week off between. That week was pretty chocked full of projects in my apartment, and catching up on blog posts. One of those projects that I did was finally painting my bathroom. Since I have a shower curtain that I really love, I wanted whatever I did to work with that, but I also wanted to add a little interest. 

First I thought maybe I would use a stencil, since I have seen some stenciled walls that I absolutely love. But I couldn't decide on a stencil that wouldn't  compete with my shower curtain, or, I got lazy and felt unsure about the stenciling process.

My second idea was to do wide horizontal stripes. I wanted to do similar colors, perhaps a flat version and glossy version of the same color, or just slightly different colors. I've seen this done in many rooms that I absolutely love, for example, 

Source: The Lettered Cottage

traditional bathroom design

modern powder room design by boston interior designer Emily Elizabeth Interior Design

So I headed to Home Depot to pick out paint colors- planning a nice light tan color in maybe a matte and glossy finish. Well, I found something even more exciting than two different finishes-- I found Martha Stewart's Precious Metals paint! I got a quart of the precious metals color, and then I asked for it to be color matched to a regular semi-gloss color, of which I bought a gallon. The precious metals color is called bone, and I really, really love how it looks in my bathroom. It almost has a pink tint, making it look really warm and ahh I just love it!

I painted the semigloss version of bone as the base coat, and then used blue painters tape to put on the stripes. I wanted them to be big, so that if I was off an inch or so it wouldn't be obvious. I measured the height of my wall and decided to break it into 8 stripes of about 10 inches each, and obviously every other stripe would be painted with the precious metals paint. 

I first painted the base color along the tape to seal it, and then put up the precious metal color. At first I didn't think I was going to be able to tell the difference between the two finishes, but once I stepped out of the small bathroom for a minute and let my eyes rest, I could clearly see the difference.

This is where I moved the towel bar down...
and the aforementioned shower curtain that I wanted to keep
(note to self- close toilet bowl lid before taking pictures next time)

It's extremely hard to take pictures of my bathroom, as its quite small and kind of an L-shape. Also, it doesn't have any windows so regardless of the time of day, the light is poor. It was even more fun to paint it! Lots of  moving things around and strange angles. But I persevered and I'm VERY happy with the results!

Bathroom

I'm not going to lie, I'm a pretty brazen tenant. Take this example for instance- The towel rod in my bathroom. It's way too high! It was nearly half way between the top of the toilet and the ceiling, meaning I couldn't put my shelves up above it. Tres annoying. Whats a girl to do?

Well, get out her screw driver and move that sucker!

Before. Too High!

After

After: Just right!

Next step is to spackle the holes and paint over them so you can never tell they were there at all.

Bathroom edits

I've done some decorating in my bathroom. I liked this set of circular mirrors from Target, but I was having a hard time swallowing the price tag. Before I found those tiny mirrors that I used on the pillows, I stumbled upon circular mirrors at one of my favorite stores (Michaels). Not only did they have many different sizes--from less than an inch in diameter to nearly a foot in diameter. I was able to buy several more mirrors than the number included in the set at Target for less than half the price. I was extremely pleased with myself. I put them up almost immediately, and even followed by the decorate-with-odd-numbers rule. I really like their positioning in my bathroom, I put them on the largest empty wall. They also make it easier for me to see the back of my head while looking in my vanity mirror. :D
I needed more storage in the bathroom, and was interested in using the wall space next to the door for it. I found a kit for this shelving unit for a very reasonable price, and brought it home. It came unpainted and unassembled, so I primed and painted it white, and then assembled. Turns out I don't own a level, which made it hard to make the shelves straight, as you can see from the top shelf. Ahh! The glass jars hold my cotton balls and q-tips (and up there they're not at risk of being knocked off by a kitteh) and the basket has combs and brushes. The basket is the same as the one on the back of my toilet which holds my makeup. I looked at white baskets, but couldn't find one that lived up to my standards.
I chose to paint the shelf white because the cabinet in the bathroom is white, although the white shelf on white wall is a little borring. It might end up getting repainted a different color.