Powder Room: Done!

Can I tell you how hard it is to take pictures of a powder room? Holy frijoles! Anyway, here's our new room! Ahhhh, so much better than the before. Shall we?

  

Oh dear no!

Okay now... oh dear no!

Unfortunately I didn't take more pictures of the tiny red room, but that's probably because I couldn't stand to be in it any longer. It felt so claustrophobic and so '90s being in there. And the house was built in 2004.

::face palm::

But enough of that, let's look at more of the new...

I also drew on the wall with a Sharpie. It's been floating around Pinterest for a while now, thanks to this post on Vintage Revivals. I loved the idea, but wasn't a huge fan of her pattern. So I spent an afternoon sketching patterns and emailing/texting friends for opinions and moral support. And above was the winner. And I am in looooooove. So far everyone who's seen it loves it too. Including all the mothers in my life, which is wild because it's none of their styles!

Here's the shelves I built thanks to this tutorial. Unfortunately I didn't have any wood around to be reclaimed, so I had to buy a piece and stain it. PS- Did you know that stain + polyurethane exists now?! I was shocked and so happy to be hanging these shelves even faster. Throw up some essentials and bric-a-brac and boom: done!

Also, I'm dying over this owl. We've spent the past month clearing out my mother-in-law's house in preparation of a yard sale we had last weekend. And boy did we find some treasures. And some trash. And some things none of us knew why she had. But this guy, I just love. I don't think I'll even get him fixed!

And here's my mediocre photography skills + tiny bathroom =

The worst view of the whole shebang. I started to not add this, but I am also in love with the light fixture. I got it on sale at Lowe's... I think $42? I can't remember now it's been so long. And boy was it a pain to install (thanks builders!). Also, I wish I could have found a bigger mirror, but it was not meant to be. And it needs to be re-hung. Ben put it up and we miscommunicated about where it should go, so it's an inch too far to the left and it drives me crazy. Every time I mentioned it, he would say it doesn't bother him. Um, yes, that's because you don't sit down in there every day. I do, that's why I notice it. I admit, I giggled when the light bulb came on for him about that. 

So there's the latest done room in our house! <3

Powder Room Progress! Sort of!

After a little bit of "life lesson learning", and some help from a friend, the new light fixture is up and on! I wish I could put into words how frustrating it was to hang this damn thing. First, there's no junction box (thanks builder!), then I can't get a junction box in (thanks pipe), and I can't get it in the other way (thanks freakishly strong staple in a stupid location!), and then I couldn't get it to hang straight (WTF manufacturer?!). So I had kinda of MacGyver'd the thing up there and asked a friend, who's an electrician, to come over and make sure the house isn't going to burn to the ground. Success! It wiggles a little when you touch it, so we will not be touching it. Ever. Thank you 10-year light bulbs!

Pretty, no? And I got it on sale, huzzah! And now to the really hard part: paint color. If you've read about previous paint endeavors, you know it takes me quite a bit of samples to decide. But I only have three this time... because I'm agonizing about what to do after I paint. So paint first...

Gravity / Bay Waves / Polar Star / (Just ignore that last guy)

So here's the agonizing parts to deal with: One, what do I do with the ceiling? The previous owners had painted the entire room red, including the ceiling. So do I paint it white like the rest of the house, or paint the whole room one color? I'm leaning towards painting it all one color since the ceiling is so low over the toilet (this is under the stairs). 

Two, what to do after I've painted? Here's some ideas I'm kicking around:

Contact paper polka dots
(via Apartment Therapy)

Sharpie triangles
(via Design*Sponge)

Washi tape to add a pattern
(via Everything Emily)

This is wallpaper, but drawing a similar pattern with Sharpie
(via NamaRococo.com)

Sooo, you can see my dilemma. What color, then what to do, then what color to do that in?! Thoughts?