Quick Update: Guest Bath

It has been busy here at The Martin House.  With school back in session it's harder finding time to keep crossing off the honey-do-list things, but I wanted to give you a little update on the few projects that are happenin' around here.

 Our guest bath definitely had a bad case of the "blahs" before I gave it a little pop of color.  I decided to cover up the sliding shower doors with a colorful shower curtain and add some art to the walls.  One day we will probably renovate the entire bathroom, but for now I just gave it a quick, easy, and inexpensive makeover.

The entire bathroom is tan, even the tile.  I knew it needed some color to liven it up a bit.

I found a funky, colorful paisley shower curtain at TJ Maxx for just $12.99.  It has my two favorite colors (blue and green, in case you couldn't tell), and looks much better than the boring sliding doors.  There is also beige/tan in the paisley pattern, so that helps tie it in to the walls and tile.

 We still had some picture frames we received as wedding gifts laying around, so I finally put them to good use.  My grandma gave me some vintage postcards with tropical scenes from Florida.  I thought they would be perfect in the guest bath, but they were too small for the frame and mat.  I rigged it by adding aqua blue colored paper behind the postcard.  It actually worked out great and makes the postcards pop even more.

On this wall I added another postcard picture, but instead of a plain mat I used the backs of several postcards.  I may have formed somewhat of an obsession with vintage/antique postcards now (at least it is a fairly cheap obsession, contrary to my other obsession with anything Pottery Barn).

Adding the aqua blue paper behind the postcards was super easy and goes great with the shower curtain.

Quick and cheap.  Those are my some of my favorite kinds of house projects.  Within the next week, Drew Babe and I are celebrating Valentine's Day and our one year (I really can't believe it has been a year!) wedding anniversary.  I will try hard to remember to take pictures (charging my camera, right now!) and eventually share with you how we celebrated.  

Bringing in the New Year

 with a bang bathroom!  Since it's the beginning of 2012, I thought I'd introduce you to the beginning of our Martin house projects.  Mind you, this is only the beginning of our continual transformation of the bachelor pad into our home.  Before we were pronounced Mr. and Mrs., and I moved in to the bachelor pad, Drew Babe began this first project of redesigning the Pepto-Bismol pink master bathroom.  Just the color of the wall (and ceiling....and door....and trim, everything was painted the thick, dull pink color), should give you a clear image of what the rest of the bathroom looked like.

Sorry for the lack of "before" pictures.  We will try to get better at that, but hopefully you can still get a glimpse of the very first Martin House project.

This is where the simple wood vanity once stood.  After being ripped out (I think Drew Babe enjoyed the demo part), the vanity was tossed to the street.  You can see the old dark green wallpaper and border, and the even older flowery wallpaper that was hidden behind the vanity. 

Drew Babe did an awesome job doing the majority of the bathroom work by himself (I'm so happy to be married to a handsome do-it-yourself-er :).  Thankfully we were able to get a new sparkly white toilet to replace this cream colored, mismatched-top throne.

Here is another shot of where the sink vanity once stood and you can see the two different kinds of linoleum on the floor.  Also notice the pink trim. There must have been a sale on Pepto-Bismol pink which made someone decided to drench the entire bathroom in this lovely color.

The floor was the first part of Drew Babe's bathroom overhaul.  To save money, we decided to go with the peel-n-stick vinyl tiles.  Personally, I think they still give the authentic tile look without the cost and installation effort of real tile.

I found this striped shower curtain at TJ Maxx (a Martin favorite), which inspired the master bathroom wall color, a light gray-blue color.  We went with a gloss paint for the wall which helps with preventing mildew and makes cleaning easy.

The hand towels were also found at TJ Maxx and match the shower curtain almost perfectly.

This vanity was found at Home Depot.  The white counter top, dark finish, and brushed nickel hardware gives the bathroom a modern and crisp look.  This was quite an upgrade from the old oak vanity with yellowy laminate counters.

While the vanity did come with a matching mirror (yay!), it did not come with any kind of backsplash (boo).  I believe it's a necessity to have a backsplash behind a bathroom sink to prevent having drips of toothpaste and soapy water all down the wall behind the vanity.  To solve this problem, my ingenious Drew Babe found a piece of marble door threshold at Lowe's (or maybe Home Depot...can't remember which) that would go with the counter top color, and then had it cut to fit perfectly around the sink as our backsplash.  Who would have thought that a threshold could double as a backsplash.

We continued the brushed nickel hardware for the towel racks as well.  Instead of spending hours tediously working to remove the hunter green wallpaper, Drew Babe and his godfather installed beadboard (or wainscoting) and a simple trim around the bottom part of the room.  We painted this white to keep the bathroom looking fresh and clean.