Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Bathroom Makeover: Before & After

I am finally ready to show you the upstairs bathroom again! The goal was to make this room look better.  I think we managed that.  Changing the fixtures (sink/toilet) was pretty much out of the question.  We are considering a major gut/demo and do-over in the future (not the near future), so this before & after became a decorating challenge.

Here is the after:
and here is the before (when we bought the house):
and what I started with a few months ago:

Goodbye dark grout lines! Goodbye white shower curtain! Hello little baskets! Hello ceiling light!  Hello cabana stripe hand towels and navy carpet!







At first I couldn't handle the bold shower curtain...it overwhelmed me.  Then, as I was going through my closets, emptying out everything for the garage sale, I realized that I just couldn't bare to give it up.  So I tried the curtain again and it stuck!

I had planned on putting up a faux roman blind.  It was really cute but it blocked too much light.  So the blind came down.

Other stuff: We hung a metal hanging fruit basket over the shower curtain rod to hold all of my son's toys.  The basket was from goodwill.  The light fixture, new wicker garbage pail, toilet paper basket and step stool were also thrifted.  The shower curtain I picked up from ebay.  The hand towels were on sale at Bed Bath and Beyond.  The bath mat was from The Bay (on sale).

I hope you like it!!!

Update: Since 2011 we got rid of dark bath carpet (gets too wet with the kids) and only use the small bath mat towel thingies. We went back to a white shower curtain because pattern makes my head explode. The shower doesn't work, the toilet requires plunging and animated language to function fully.  The grout renew on the grout lines has held up perfectly!  

28 comments:

  1. When we bought our living room rug I was so excited, laid it out and then boldly told my husband that I hated it. But after moving one throw blanket the whole room came together and I loved it. So funny how those things work! : )

    I love that fruit basket idea...I hate the foam toy holder we have now. I feel like I have to wash it as much as I wash my kid!

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  2. Lovely. Just the change in the grout and that seriously cool shower curtain make all the difference in the world.

    Seems like bathroom renos are in the air. I posted our new bathroom a couple of posts back.

    Lil

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  3. Oh, and the fruit basket? Brilliant! Even without kids I might steal that idea for general bathroom clutter...

    Lil

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  4. The basket idea was Martha's ...I can't find a source for it now, but I remember seeing it ages ago!

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  5. The bathroom looks great- many of us are green with envy! My faves: shower curtain and toilet paper basket.

    Just posted our bathroom reveal- I'd love to know your thought on it:)

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  6. You did a great job Shannon! :) You've done a great job working with what you've got!

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  7. give away that gorgeous shower curtain?? no no no. so glad you chose to keep it. It definitely makes a larger impact than a roman shade would have.

    PS. you DO have a great knack for taking lovely pictures, don't be so hard on yourself :)

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  8. Love the punch of colour the shower curtain gives.

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  9. Love your changes. You made it crisper, fresher and so much cheerier. I don't know - seems like you have a LOT of stylist blood in your veins!!!

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  10. Looks great Shannon! Cool toy basket idea. So resourceful.
    J

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  11. Great job! it is gorgeous! The grout makes a huge difference and I love the shower curtain, lighting and the medicine cabinet.

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  12. looks great! i love the original tile. way better than the pink/maroon/sky blue combo that was in our old place. :) well played!

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  13. Looks great! How did you change up the grout? Did you remove the old and re-grout or just apply over top? We've got green grout in our bathroom so I'd like to do something similar.

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  14. Hi GingerP! I used grout renew from home depot! BEST PRODUCT EVER!!!

    http://8foot6.blogspot.com/2010/11/sneak-peek.html

    I don't think Holmes on Holmes approves of sealing grout in high water areas, because the grout lets the floor breathe...but I didn't know this before I started....I wanted to do all the tile in the shower too (cause its yellow) but stopped short

    (I worked in sections and covered it with paper towels for 3 days to avoid splashes, then tackled another small section) I used a toothbrush and a TON of paper towels to immediately wipe the over spill...it took 3 'washes' of the grout renew to make it white...I did all three at once...so I swiped once with toothbrush, wiped up the spill, moved to next line over, swiped once, cleaned spill over...then went back to the still wet area I started with , and gave it second coat...)

    Good luck! YOU WILL LOVE IT!

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  15. Hi GingerP! I used grout renew from home depot! BEST PRODUCT EVER!!!

    http://8foot6.blogspot.com/2010/11/sneak-peek.html

    I don't think Holmes on Holmes approves of sealing grout in high water areas, because the grout lets the floor breathe...but I didn't know this before I started....I wanted to do all the tile in the shower too (cause its yellow) but stopped short

    (I worked in sections and covered it with paper towels for 3 days to avoid splashes, then tackled another small section) I used a toothbrush and a TON of paper towels to immediately wipe the over spill...it took 3 'washes' of the grout renew to make it white...I did all three at once...so I swiped once with toothbrush, wiped up the spill, moved to next line over, swiped once, cleaned spill over...then went back to the still wet area I started with , and gave it second coat...)

    Good luck! YOU WILL LOVE IT!

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  16. Looks great! How did you change up the grout? Did you remove the old and re-grout or just apply over top? We've got green grout in our bathroom so I'd like to do something similar.

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  17. Great job! it is gorgeous! The grout makes a huge difference and I love the shower curtain, lighting and the medicine cabinet.

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  18. Looks great Shannon! Cool toy basket idea. So resourceful.
    J

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  19. give away that gorgeous shower curtain?? no no no. so glad you chose to keep it. It definitely makes a larger impact than a roman shade would have.

    PS. you DO have a great knack for taking lovely pictures, don't be so hard on yourself :)

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  20. The bathroom looks great- many of us are green with envy! My faves: shower curtain and toilet paper basket.

    Just posted our bathroom reveal- I'd love to know your thought on it:)

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  21. Funny! I used Grout Renew to whiten the grungy grout of the tile in my condo before I sold it. I had a bottle that was at least 5 years old and was concerned it wouldn't be good anymore (it ended up working great) but I couldn't find it at any of the Home Depots, Ronas or Canadian Tires I visited. I figured maybe it had been discontinued. I guess I'll have to look again!

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  22. Hmm, even more maddening is that I see that have it at one of the Home Depots I visited where I asked and they told me they carried no such product. :P Not sure why I didn't think to check the website...

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  23. Would you mind saying who makes your shower curtain?

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    Replies
    1. I bought it from eBay ... But I think it's from target? There is a circle with a dot in the middle and the world HOme on the label

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  24. There is a huge difference with the after results.

    AZ Homes for 4u.com

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  25. Can you tell me WHERE you purchased your shower curtain??? Better yet, who it's made by? It's exactly what I've been looking for!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it as I was getting ready to have one made with almost the exact same fabric! Thanks!

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  26. Hi there! I bought it used on Ebay - but It was originally target!!! Good luck!

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  27. Thanks again! I work by the Target in my area...maybe it's a good omen! ;-)

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