Before & After: In With the New (and Repurposed)

September 10, 2011 | by Ethan (email) |

This week we are happy to present a bathroom makeover from Carrie at Dream Green DIY. For her hard work, Carrie wins a $50 gift card and the chance to win the grand prize- an additional $150 gift card to the home improvement store of her choice. With this weeks winner, we only have one more before and after story to feature before we open up the voting. Stay tuned for details.

A Swanky Bathroom

As you may know, we have a half bathroom on the main floor of the house that was in need of some love and some updating. Before, it had plain tan walls and country accents that just weren’t doing it for our style.

 

 

So it was “out with the old and in with the new” as they say!
First, the original mirror got kicked to the curb taken down and put in the basement, to be replaced by our newly thrifted one.

We wanted to try to get the rest of the room flipped and completed by Saturday night since we were having some people over for a double birthday party (I share my birthday and age with one of my best friends!). So we hit the ground running Friday night by getting one coat up on the wall of the light grey satin-finish paint we had picked up last week.

It was already MUCH airier and modern!!! It’s amazing what paint can do…

We put on a second coat Saturday morning and took care of some trim issues from when the half bath used to serve as Rocky’s dog crate of sorts (he’s an excitable dog…)

Before:

And now after:

Thank goodness the last owners left behind some trim paint! Admittedly, we tried one can only to have the color turn out a bit “off” (it read more “cream” than “crisp white”)…But John did a second search and came up the with right can – Crisis averted!

Once the second coat of the grey on the walls had dried, it was time to put the room back together!

While I was doing wall-painting-duty the night before, John had taken care of some spray painting – We DID decide to paint the thrifted mirror a bright white afterall (along with the square shelves that are in the original “before” pictures of the bathroom).

Here they are dried and ready to be put back up on the wall!

We also needed some art, accessories and new silver fixtures (toilet paper holder and towel ring – Since we got rid of the country-fied, swirly ones).

The art ended up coming from Target – We randomly found the perfect set of three in our color scheme for $10 a piece! I think we can consider this our first “Big Box Store SCORE!”

And the accessories were pulled from throughout the house – A couple of owls, a hand carved box John had and a candle. We also gave the thrifted clock I bought a few weeks back a facelift – I know I said that I wasn’t going to touch it, but I couldn’t help it…I actually repainted it TWICE!

Here it is in its original green color:

And then its second life – dark grey:

And now (hopefully) its final life in yellow:

Here are a couple of details once everything made it back into the finished room:

And the final reveal of the room as a whole!!!

It feels slightly hotel-like to us, which makes us feel all swanky…

Thanks Carrie!

I really like the yellow clock and how the bright color draws your eye. Very nice!

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

Habitat does more than just rehabilitate old houses. For instance, they also provide services to ensure families live in a safe, and well-maintained home. The A Brush With Kindness program is just one more way Habitat works to revitalize the appearance of neighborhoods. Here’s more information:

Habitat for Humanity’s A Brush with Kindness is an exterior home preservation service that offers painting, landscaping, weather stripping and minor repair services for homeowners in need. ABWK helps low-income homeowners impacted by age, disability and family circumstances, who struggle to maintain the exterior of their homes, reclaim their homes with pride and dignity.

ABWK serves as a companion to local affiliates’ core building services, enabling them to serve more families and increase opportunities for volunteers and sponsors.

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