Bathroom makeover

Sigh. Isn't it pretty? I am completely in love with our new bathroom. This room has always been full of fun old house potential, but so mucked up and full of gross that things were pretty discouraging for a while (Before photos). Look:

The elements are there, but the room was always way too dark, especially with the (#$%@ swirly!!) ceiling painted the same color as the textured walls. With the dampness and dust, crud would settle in the ridges in the wall texture, too, which was supergross.

So when I came home from a business trip and Ben had skim-coated and primed the walls as a surprise? OH MAN. Best ever. Even just having them an unfinished white for a few weeks was like heaven. But then he went and finished up the job right before we had some family visit last month, and the results are fantastic.

The walls got a double skim-coat and are painted Bamboo Mat, from Martha Stewart's Valspar line (lesson learned). The trim and newly-smooth ceiling are our favorite Chef White, also Valspar. We moved the green cabinet out, which freed up a lot of space, and Ben got rid of the weird medicine cabinet that was lurking behind the door. We replaced it with this nice one from Lowe's.


He also took out the small, shabby mirror that was hanging over the sink and, for now, we've just hung a plain ol' one that we found at Construction Junction. Someday we'll have a custom one made for the space, but for now it's just really nice to be able to see yourself.


You know what else helps with being able to see yourself? The lovely overhead light that replaced the utterly useless and painfully hideous Satan's Tungsten Butthole that hung there previously.

Before:


After:

There are still some details we'd like to work on someday, but for now it's so so SO great to have such a bright, clean space.