Bathroom Makeover

Hey Ya'll! It's been a crazy past few months. The holidays flew by, Spring is nearly here, and I found out I am pregnant with number 2! Exciting times are in store for our household. 

Because of the influx in hormones and human-growing going on in my body, the nesting has started. It's in full force, people.

Last week was my 27th birthday [yikes] and I asked my husband to be my slave for a weekend instead of a gift. Also, there was no whining allowed [can't say he came through with that promise]. 

So while he took care of a few things I wanted done in Nugget's room [nursery reveal to come when it's actually done], I was busy redecorating the upstairs bathroom. 

I had two goals when planning this revamp:

1) Get rid of the infuriating tan color

2) Make it kid friendly while still appealing to adult guests

Since it is our main guest bathroom upstairs, I wanted to make it appealing to both kids and adults. Which is more tricky than I had imagined.

First off, I started by finding a new shower curtain. I loved the current one [a subway map of London's underground], but it's see-through. Meaning anyone who walks in can see everything in the tub. It's like having glass cabinet doors in the kitchen. No thank you. 

Looking at Target online I found a lot of great options, but one in particular caught my eye:

I thought it was the perfect mashup of adult & kid! 

And then I saw the price.

$89 bucks?? 

Even with my 5% RedCard discount I couldn't justify spending that amount of money. 

So, me being me, I thought, "eh, I can DIY that." 

More on that later. 

After finding the shower curtain I wanted, I had to decide on colors. 

Going for modern, I decided on light grey and coral red. I found some beautiful combinations of dark grey and red but this bathroom is quite cozy [small], so I wanted something a little lighter. 

Here are the before pictures of the old bathroom:

After picking up the paint at Lowe's and heading back home, I took a second look at the space and realized I wanted to do something fun on the wall above the tub [it's the first wall you see when you step inside the door]. I decided to paint that wall the red, but I also wanted to do a cool design. I searched Pinterest and quickly found a geometric look that's popular these days. 

The guy at Lowe's recommended painting all walls grey first because painting walls red is a real bitch. The grey would act as a primer [brilliant tip, Lowe's man. Worked like a charm]. 

After painting and edging all of the walls [only took one coat...hooray!], I started on the design.

My only tip for a project like this: 

Get a GOOD painter's tape.

Better yet, get GREAT painter's tape. 

Don't go cheap, people. It's like buying cheap toilet paper; it just won't work out.

Personally, I'm an avid believer in the Frog Tape [seen also in my Playroom Decor post]. 

I first edged the two side walls, then started with one long piece of tape down the middle of the wall [goes from middle to bottom left]. From there you can just lead pieces of tape wherever you want them to go. You can make your shapes as big or little as you want. It's quite refreshing!

I used an edging brush to paint the entire wall first [I think it helped to get the edges clearer in the long run] and then rolled two layers. 

I also did a couple of large shapes on two of the larger walls to add some more red. I made the mistake of listening to the helpful Lowe's man when he suggested I get an entire gallon. "It's only 5 dollars more!" he says. Turns out I could have done the entire thing with a quart, but oh well. 

C'est la vie.

I did two coats on these using only the edging brush. 

I took the tape off of these while the paint was still drying [as suggested by many articles] and only had a few spots to touch up with the grey. 

The results were flawless!! The red turned out perfect [and not too red. that would have been tragic].

Now onto the shower curtain. 

Let's recap the awesomeness:

Let's also recap the price:

$89.99

I'm not living on Bono's budget, friends. 90 bucks for a shower curtain was just not going to happen.

Instead, I went ahead and bought a plain white fabric curtain from Target at the [much, much] cool[er] price of $15. I also bought some black acrylic paint from Walmart for $2. The brushes I already had on hand.

Total investment: $17 bucks.

I covered our dining room table [which luckily happens to be black] with wax paper and laid the freshly washed/dried curtain as straight as I could. I also taped it on either side to the table so it was tight and wouldn't bunch. 

I started off on a bad note [pun intended] by making the "we" a hair too small. Problem solved by adding a music note on the other side. 

I didn't take many pictures because I was also cooking dinner for a crowd of people at the same time, so I was rushing to get this done. You know, so my guests could marvel at all the hard work I put into decorating a bathroom.

Here's the finished product:

I edged each of the letters for a cleaner look. The splatters were messy but fun. I put some black paint in a container with a little bit of water and then just...well, splattered it.
All over.
Including the floors and a bit on the walls. [It wiped off easily, thank God]

Okay, so it's not perfect, but it's close enough and I didn't have to spend 90 bucks to get it!

As I said in my Facebook post, I'm really happy with how this turned out.
I think it's fun and contemporary; all good things!