Ya’ll. I’m so glad this bathroom is done! Truth be told it has been done for months and months, but I didn’t want to photograph it until I had pictures in the frame. Literally, just put these nautical clip art photos (from The Graphics Fairy) in the frames last night. #procrastinatorsunite #tomorrow
Also, a half bath might just be the most awkward thing to photograph. Especially when it gets absolutely no natural light. Hooray for yellow light and weird pictures!
If you are looking to update your half bath (or any bathroom!) here are a few simple and pretty inexpensive things you can do.
1. Paint that builder-grade vanity: The first thing we did in here was to paint the vanity white using the same process and paint (Benjamin Moore Simply White) as painting our kitchen cabinets and adding new simple hardware in brushed nickel that we picked up from Walmart. Just doing this brightened up the whole space and made it feel more cohesive. Even if you just wanted to switch out the hardware, that can make a huge impact! Oh and I also spray painted the hinges on the door to match the new hardware. I used Rustoleum Universal Metallic paint.
2. Add artwork: I shopped my house for this step so it cost me nothing (John’s favorite words!). I snagged a few frames from elsewhere; one filled with family photos and another with the clip art photos that I mentioned above. It just adds a little something personal to the walls and makes it feel more like the rest of your home.
3. Switch out the builder-grade mirror: Are you seeing a trend here? Ditch the builder-grade stuff! It is so blah so we took down the mirror (ours was just clipped into the wall) and put up this black framed one I used to use for my vanity table in our old apartment (also formerly lived on my bedside table). I picked it up from Target for $40. Shop around and find a mirror you love; it can even be thrifted and made over. I love a good thrifted mirror!
4. Bye-bye Hollywood vanity light: These lights. Yuck. Take that thing down and pick up one that matches the rest of your hardware and makes you happy! We bought this one (similar) from Lowe’s. Switching out a light itself is pretty simple. But, whoever put the light in, left a big honking hole in the wall that John had to patch up. He also had to add a junction box to hang the light from, which he said was a little tricky. The previous light was just screwed into the wall, which is not the correct way. He did a great job! Seeing what the builders had done was definitely one of those “seriously?!?!” moments!
5. Change out an old faucet: A sleek new faucet can make a huge difference! We got ours from Lowe’s (similar); I can’t seem to find the same one online, but we only paid about $35 for ours! We didn’t need anything fancy in here, we just wanted to give it a fresh and modern look.
6. Paint: Probably the biggest thing you can do to give a space new life is to paint it! We didn’t change the color in our bathroom but we did need to paint above the vanity where the old mirror used to hang. If you do nothing else, I would say you should paint! It can really freshen a room and make everything else feel new!
7. Add functional/appealing-to-the-eye storage: The unit above our toilet was here when we moved in, but I think it adds a lot of good visual interest. The white is crisp and clean and it gives a spot for some artwork and a little style. The cubbies are even the perfect size to hole some fluffy toilet paper! Bonus! Please ignore my towels in here. The half bath often gets overlooked in the hand towel department.
So, there it is folks! You can probably hear John sighing a huge sigh of relief that I FINALLY posted this blog. 🙂 He has been asking me for eight a few months now. I’m nothing if not punctual.
I hope this encourages you to make some simple changes to your outdated bathroom! It seems a little scary to tackle a bathroom, but if you just take baby steps, I promise you will be happy with the results!
Thanks so much for dropping by!
xo
Sam
