I love home decor. I love design. I like mixing colors and filling spaces. I wish I had studied it more in college. When we bought our last home, it was less than a year old. Everything was new and fresh and it wasn't smart for me to change things just because they weren't my style at the time. So, I hadn't embarked on a home renovation before.
This time around, the house was about 20 years old and I could personalize it. So, we set a budget and I started pinning, meeting with contractors, and visiting Home Depot, Lowe's, granite yards, and other stores to develop my game plan.
Let's start with our work in the bathrooms!
I've always loved vintage white hexagon tile. After shopping around, it was half price at Floor & Decor than it was many other places. It fits my style and with dark grout makes upkeep easier. So, within 24 hours of owning the home, Vinny was laying tile and removing the linoleum. We went with a medium grey/dark blue grout color.
We put it in both bathrooms and our laundry room. This tile is just what I wanted, but I will give warning. It isn't perfect and with tiny little tiles and contrasting grout, it can't be.
If you ever replace tile in the bathroom, know they have to remove the toilet and then reset it. Because the cost of resetting the toilet was already built into the tile cost we were paying, we went ahead and bought new toilets. It just made sense.
The next simple thing we did to update the bathrooms was changing out the light bulb covers. I had done this in my old home and love the impact it makes. I prefer clear glass seeded covers to the frosted ones most light fixtures come with. I actually hate frosted glass anywhere! At $4 per cover, these are super reasonable. We changed out the glass in both bathrooms and kept the brushed silver fixtures.
We had the entire house painted- all walls, trim and doors. The entire home, minus Abby's rooms, are Agreeable Grey by Sherwin Williams. I love the color- very soft grey that works well with browns and beige also. I was torn between two colors and in the end picked it because it is the #1 SW color. I knew it had to be good if everyone else loved it, too.
Another thing I don't like in most homes is the basic screwed in mirror. It is so easy to remove and replace with a framed mirror and makes such a custom statement. I replaced all three mirrors in our bathrooms for under $150. Abby's mirror is Moen and was on Amazon for less than Home Depot and Lowe's.
Her bathroom is soft and simple with grey walls, peach towels, and this white ruffled shower curtain from Amazon. I love that is works now and isn't childish so she can grow with it.
In our master bathroom, I decided to play with a little color. Everything else is really neutral. I think neutral colors help a small space feel less crowded. But, in our bathroom I wanted something special, so we used Annie Sloan Aubusson Blue chalk paint on the cabinets. I sealed them with a water based poly and they look great!
We kept the silver faucets in here and added matching knobs on the new blue cabinets. Our master isn't big, but it is pretty!
I knew I wanted a frame less mirror and the prices on Pottery Barn and other sites were killing me. So, I was patient and found just what I wanted at Kirklands. I never go in there but it was next to Home Goods so I walked in after striking out there. These were just what I wanted and only $40 each.
Down the road, I'd love to replace this cabinet top with new sinks, but for now, it is working.
Finally, we added grey towels and a dark blue ticking stripe shower curtain. We didn't have a shower curtain in the old house, so it was fun to shop around!
We lost a lot of square footage in our bathrooms. We gave up a powder room and our master bath is now smaller than our guest bath was, however, we have made the space we have functional and pretty so it works for us. It isn't fancy, but it is farmhouse!
