Well... it's been a long while since I told you I was going to begin remodeling my bathroom.  It all started with a can of paint that promised I could paint my bathroom cabinets without having to prime or sand.  I decided to put it to the test! 

The paints that I used are part of a furniture, cabinet & trim paint line that has no VOCs (smells and pollutants that fill your home's air after painting), levels to a very smooth finish and has a diamond hard finish. They are called "Canvas Naturals" and are available at Joanne's.  I found them advertised in Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine and decided that if they worked in my bathroom I would tackle painting my kitchen cabinets as well. In the end I was very happy with their paints.  You can see their website AT THIS LINK.  They have wonderful brushes in some great shapes for painting cabinet doors, I loved their triangular shaped brush I used it more than any of the others I had.  There are lots of very fun goodies in their shop. 

In their painting instructions they tell you to test the surface for adhesion before painting -- I didn't on either project and should have.  I painted a table top (not shown) and later it bubbled up because the paint wasn't compatible with the surface.  Now I'm having to resand and repaint -- good lesson here, don't rush ahead, and READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!!!   Here's the link to my original post:  LINK TO POST HERE

I can't believe it's been 4 months since I first got the remodeling bug.  My bathroom has an unredeemably ackward arrangement that will have to do until college loans are paid off.  I had to minimize the flaws while spending as little as possible doing it, since we eventually plan to tear it apart and start from scratch.

Here are my bathroom before pictures.

The oak cabinet and doors really closed in on the space, making it seem smaller.  The hideous green carpet -- well it's HIDEOUS and it's carpet in a bathroom so it had to go!  The cream tile is okay, but dated.  My goal was to make it look like it was there on purpose and wasn't something I had to work around.  The shower is in the same tile.  I had to come up with a color scheme that actually worked with said carpet until I can replace it but be a color scheme I wanted to live with in the long run.  Later I'll show the bedroom portion and the bedding that helped me pull that task off.

Here's the after pictures.  I feel like I'm living in a Pottery Barn bathroom, we really love it.  I still have to finish laying the tile in the shower/toilet section of the bathroom, after we replace the toilet.  We discovered it was on its last legs from our hard water so we're ordering the replacement and it isn't here yet. 

The entire budget spent for this so far is probably no more than $300, by the time the toilet comes in and the finishing touches are added it will be over $500-600.  Not bad for a country girl!  The mirrors were clearance at Lowe's $53 each.  The light fixture was only $15.99 at Costco, but I didn't like the globes so I replaced them at Lowe's for $5.98 each.  The faucets will be replaced but hubby and I can't agree yet on the model.  The floor is a porcelain tile (extremely durable)  that looks quite similar to travertine marble.  It was a steal at $0.78 a square foot clearance at Lowe's!!!  I bought enough to do all three of my bathrooms for just over $100.

We recycled the medicine chest by painting it with the same paint and the open shelving unit was purchased for $12.95 at Ross's and painted to match as well.  The cabinet hardware was about $2 per pull at Home Depot and selected to match an existing beautiful medicine cabinet and display unit that is mounted over our toilet (not shown). 

I've laid a lot of ceramic tile in the past, so that was an easy area to economize in, saving the average cost of $3 a square foot for installation.  But even if you have to pay for installation bathrooms can be pretty inexpensive to tile.  I did all the molding work and that was the first time I have ever tried it on my own.  My husband is hmmm... how can I put this kindly... rather "fussy."  I tend to be rather slap-dash, so I took my time, measured 3 times and cut once and he was quite impressed in the end -- though of course he can spot my minor flaws from 100 paces!

Normally, my husband and I would have done this together, but his job takes him away during the week so this is my therapy to keep from going crazy while he's gone. 

One last goody.  Here's a no-sew window topper.  I bought a table runner that was made out of embroidered silk and cut slits on the back side at each top side edge.  I threaded it onto a standard window curtain rod and that was it.  $12.99 at Marshall's.

A hint on working with wall color.  Spend the money to buy a sample size of 2 or 3 colors that you think you might like.  Do a patch on the wall and live with it for a while.  Also, color is much deeper when you see it on a wall than on a little chip.  If you're sure you like a color you might want to go two shades lighter on the color strip!  Paint is very cheap, so if you buy a quart or two until you find the exact color you want you'll do better in the end than being unhappy.

I'll show more later.  I'm also working on laying a mexican saltillo paver floor in the rest of the house and will tackle refinishing the kitchen soon.  As soon as I catch up on the rest of getting my kits up here at Aimee Asher, LOL! 

Thanks for peeking, AJ

Tags: Audrey Jeanne Roberts Remodel Home Decor Decorating Crafting Around The

Bookmark: