Powder Room Highs + Lows

I recently shared the story of our powder room’s paneled walls,

which involved a lot of masking tape + a lot of poly molding from Home Depot.

Soon enough, everything was given a coat of medium gray paint:

Flagstone by Pittsburgh Paints.

Check out the awesome before + after!

I know!  How great!

 All that molding gave the newly created room instant age!

Here it is, before — that space was once a short hallway:

I love how the carrera marble hexagon floor tiles

coordinate with the Flagstone paint!

The carrera marble is repeated in the vanity top from Pottery Barn,

which I think has been discontinued:

I chose the New York widespread faucet

from Signature Hardware, $259.95:

Who remembers the wonderful Martha Stewart Everyday at K-Mart?

I loved everything — from home decor items, like this enamel soap dish,

to garden goods + holiday collections!

The striped mug is an oldie Ralph Lauren pattern, Farmstead Ticking,

found online at Replacements, Ltd.

It’s not currently available, but I love this adorable candlestick, $11.95:

Hurry!  There are only 4 left!

Back to the powder room!

Our mirror started its life paired with a beautiful dresser,

which we refurbished + sold.

I briefly considered painting it

but couldn’t bear to cover that pretty wood grain!

Our pretty porcelain light fixture

was discontinued from Pottery Barn, + I found it on eBay.

Don’t you love the vintage-style cloth-covered cord?

Speaking of vintage, I hung these blue transfer ware plates

above the sweetest blue shelf that I found in an etsy shop:

But wait.  We need to talk.

I am on the fence about those plates.

I love them, but they just don’t look that great here.

But look at the plates I hung in our main bath!

I couldn’t love them more!

I can’t believe I did this,

but I guess I assumed that if I loved plates in the main bath,

I’d love them in my powder room, too!

I don’t.

I don’t know what, if anything, to hang there.

If only Joanna Gaines made house calls!

I mean, how in the world am I going to find a designer

who speaks my design language,

way out here in the middle of nowhere?

Well, check this out.

My friend, Claudia, told me about this thing called Havenly.

It’s an online source of interior designers + decorators.

You can read about how it works on their website.

I think I am going to take their design style quiz, later today.

How much fun will that be?

As always, stay tuned!

We even painted some unfinished wood switch + outlet plate covers from Menards:

See you next time!

 

Sink Skirt Search

So.  This morning I spied this photo on Facebook,

from this fab biz in Franklin, TN.

I think I gasped a bit.  Really.

Tell me you do the same thing.

City Farmhouse in Nashville, TN

I thought to myself, “That fabric!  How perfect!  How timely!” 

You see, for months, I’ve been searching for fabric,

as our powder room vanity desperately needs a skirt.

See for yourselves:

Naturally, as one does when one needs inspiration for one’s project,

I headed straight to Pinterest.

Most of the bathroom skirts I saw involved wall-hung sinks or pedestals;

I think this one was particularly epic:

Since I needed a skirt for my vanity cabinet,

I soon switched my search to kitchen sink skirts:

OOH:

LA:

LA:

I really want to make a red check skirt in our kitchen!  Stay tuned!

+ + + + +

So.

Even though I’d given my powder room skirt the green light,

I couldn’t decide what fabric to use!

So many mind-boggling choices!!

Then, luckily, this happened:

Recently, I bought 6 of these pretty blue + white transferware plates,

from this antiques shop, in my southern Illinois girlhood homeland:

The Loose Caboose

IL  Rt. 127 in Donnelson, Illinois.

1.217.537.3735

+ + + +

Once I arrived home with said plates,

it only took a day or two to decide to hang them in our powder room,

on the panel to the mirror’s right, above the toilet:

(I’d already been toying with that idea for a while.)

“But Kay!”  you are no doubt saying.

“Didn’t you already hang some vintage plates in your main bathroom?”

Yes, I did, + here they are:

Naturally, self doubt ensued.

Would it be wrong to hang plates in both our bathrooms???

No, it is not, + here’s why:

I am creating a “theme” for our bathrooms,  + “themes” are good!

Thank you.

+ + + + +

Meanwhile, back to my sink skirt dilemma!

Which pattern fabric to choose?!?

I had a light bulb moment earlier this morning!

Remember the beautiful chairs that I spied?

That’s it!  BLUE AND WHITE FLORAL, please!

 So.  In my world, when one needs to buy just the right fabric,

I head over to my favorite online fabric store,

Fabric.com!!

Anyway, here are my finalists.

Tell me what you think!

First, the florals:

Floral fabric

More pretty blue floral

If I can’t commit to floral (slightly out of my comfort zone),

another contender is my all-time favorite, the check:

Fun check fabric

Another fave, the stripes:

Magnolia Home stripe

Or, if I really want to have FUN, this:

FUN, campy fabric

I KNOW!!!???  Insanely FUN!  Right?

The proverbial jury is still out, + I’ve not yet made up my mind.

I might persuade G.O. to help me hang the plates, later today.

Stay tuned!

Powder Room Finishing Touches, The Sequel

The other day, I blogged about our powder room’s finishing touches.

Turned out there were so many, I had to divide them into 2 posts!

I bought this vintage towel bar several years (really!) ago,

saving it for the front of our vanity cabinet.

It’s clear glass + has a pair of chippy white metal brackets.

Part of me wanted to sand + re-paint said-same brackets,

but my desire for a less “new” re-do won out.

Meanwhile, a vintage-style scale that we had made the move:

As did my beloved NYC skyscrapers night light (from etsy):

L – R:  (my personal favorite) the Chrysler Building,

the Empire State Building + 30 Rock.

Next up — our large IKEA floor mirror,

which had been in our bedroom, back in the brick bungalow:

At first, we put it in the bedroom at the Dutch colonial.

However, one afternoon I had a yen to move it to the powder room,

where it brightens + enlarges the space very nicely!

Full disclosure:

the door was supposed to be Flagstone, the same gray as the walls.

Some sort of mix up occurred, however,

+ I just didn’t have the heart to share with G.O.

I think the door is going to remain Black Magic, + I think it looks great.

Winning!

But back to my powder room “groovies”, as I like to call them.

Check this out!

When I spied this vintage map waste can online, I knew I had to have it!

I bought it from my friend, Mary’s, booth — called hello vintage.

I mean, come ON.  How darling, am I right?

Who doesn’t love white ironstone?

Fiesta Ware (+ lots of it!)

Follow hello vintage on Facebook, here:

https://www.facebook.com/hello.vintage.il?fref=ts

Or, if you live in the Chicago area, visit her antiques booth(s) in person.

Hello vintage is in both the True North Downtown, here:

+ the new True North Warehouse, both in Morris, Illinois.

While you’re there, be sure to see my own space,

RedBird Vintage Home.

Disclaimer:  I no longer have my retail space.

Stay tuned for my next “big move”.

I’m inside the downtown True North, too!

501 N. Liberty St. in Morris.

RedBird is right across the aisle from hello vintage!

Powder Room Finishing Touches — Part 1

.On Friday I multitasked by filling my old sorter with books + things,

 while supervising the finishing touches in our powder room:

That curvy mirror once belonged to a dresser that we sold.

I love its beveled edges + pretty natural wood frame.

That pendant light is from Pottery Barn:

I bought it a long time ago for over the kitchen sink in our brick bungalow.

I love its brown cloth-covered cord + fluted white glass shade.

I found the sweet vintage shelf on etsy.

It has the prettiest shade of chippy, pale blue paint!

That’s on old photo of me, at age 3 or 4, with our beloved pet Beagle, Scamp.

.Fast forward several years, + here’s my current beloved pet,

Chloe the Dachshund!

Disclaimer: there will soon be a threshold at the intersection of the 2 tile floors.

Thanks for reading — I’ll post yet more powder room photos soon.

Stay tuned!

That Old Black Magic Has Me In Its Spell

We Greg are is painting all our interior doors black,

at my request, of course.

Here he is, intently looking for every perceived “flaw”

on our bedroom closet doors:

Oh, dear.

My mad painting skills aren’t up to his high standards,

so I just let him do it.

But first, imagine the 2 of us at the paint store,

with me insisting that yes, I want black,

+ yes, I want semi-gloss.

Please.  Are we not all on board here?

Just go to Pinterest + search “black interior doors”

if you need to be persuaded.

Or just look at this before + after of our front door:

We’re using yet more Pittsburgh Paint.

It’s Black Magic, which is actually the darkest of dark grays,

here, at the bottom of this strip o’ grays:

Not so coincidentally,

those living room walls are Flagstone,

which is the lightest, top shade on the same strip.

Hint: that’s how I make sure my colors complement each other,

repeating shades of paint from the same strip.

We all do that, right?

But back to Black Magic.

When I say gray, even though it looks black, here’s proof:

There is our Black Magic on the left,

with an generic, inky black on the right.

See the (viva la!) difference?

And please!  Notice how nicely it “plays along”

with our “black” (but really dark gray) kitchen floor tile:

WINNING!

Meanwhile, let’s see some more black doors.

Here is the pocket door

 between our bedroom + the main bath:

Disclaimer: that bathroom’s been tricked out since this photo,

+ it now looks like this (below) + my blog post about it.

Our vintage-style medicine cabinet is from Home Depot,

the Zenith Early American @ only $119!

Now for just 1 more quickie look-see

at our beautiful bathroom’s really naughty BEFORE!

I KNOW!!??

 

 

 

Towel Bar Musings

While G.O. is currently busy as a bee in our kitchen . . .

. . . I’d personally like to go back a room or 2.

To our powder room:

It’s nearly finished — only a few minor tweaks remain,

including this vintage shelf:

for here:

this mirror for over the vanity:

+ this vintage milk glass towel bar for where?

The side of the vanity?

Not so much.

On the wall?

Not really.

Frankly, I couldn’t decide,

so, instead of fretting or — worse yet — making a mistake,

 I waited for inspiration to strike.

And, in my little world, inspiration = Pinterest!

Let’s have a look-see at what I spied, towel bar-wise:

Is this a thing?  Towel bars on the fronts of sinks?

I hoped it would work for our situation,

so I dashed over for a trial spin on our vanity front.

I love it!

What do you think?

And isn’t it great when a design,

no matter how small,

comes together?

Vintage Accesories For The Powder Room

So.  Today we re-measured the kitchen for cabs.

Yay.

This means that I shall spend the rest of the day sketching.

But first, let’s go back to our powder room.

My goal for it is that the room looks old,

as if it was original to our Dutch colonial.

I think my design looks old enough,

but I need to be choosy about the remaining accessories.

First up, the mirror.

Here’s one from Pottery Barn that I like.

It’s the Kensington Pivot Rectangular mirror @ $179.

It does look somewhat vintage,

but we’re opting for this, instead:

It came with a garage sale dresser for which we paid a mere $75.

Look at the beautiful natural wood grain:

So.  It not only looks more vintage than the PB one,

it’s a lot less expensive.

I like that.

Now let’s move to the shelf portion of my powder room design.

Once again, from Pottery Barn — their Sussex shelf.

$47 – $55 on sale, with free shipping.

While it would  look perfectly lovely,

I preferred something genuinely old.

Off to etsy, where I always have good luck!

Here’s what I chose:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LititzCarriageHouse?ref=l2-about-shopname

With shipping, I paid a mere $33.

G.O. kindly held it in place for me this a.m.

Does he like it?  Well, no, but I have faith that he will, eventually,

once the room is all tricked out + finished.

* * *

Let’s have a look-see at yet another vintage bathroom necessity

that I found (on etsy, again!) months ago.

It’s a darling, old porcelain towel bar.

Here ’tis, held in place on the side of our vanity:

OR, we might opt for hanging it on the wall, to the left of the vanity.

The only accessory that remains is the over-the-sink light fixture.

You  probably won’t be surprised

that I’ve got something vintage planned there, as well.

Stay tuned!

Yet More Powder Room ‘During’ Photos

Silly me!

Earlier, I said I’d wait to blog more about our powder room,

once it was finally finished.

HA!  Please!  That’s not how we roll, here.

At any given moment, we’ve got dozens** of projects awaiting their completion!

**But, really, who’s counting?

* * *

Anyway, here ’tis, in its ‘during’ phase:

Pittsburgh Paint Flagstone in satin finish

Any doubts about the gray walls’ being too dark went away,

with the help of the light marble floor + white fixtures..

 

Our vanity started its life as an espresso $70 cheapie from the HOBO store . . .

. . . sort of like this:

My goal —  give it a high/low makeover

+ knock off this $599 Pottery Barn vanity:

For the ‘low’ portion of our project, G.O. gave it a few coats of white paint . .

. . . and yes, I know he’s totally giving me the stink eye!

But back to the paint we chose:

This paint self-levels (no brush strokes!) + dries to an enamel finish.

The manufacturer, Insl-x, is a subsidiary of Benjamin Moore.

We had to call around a bit

before we found a Benjamin Moore paint store that stocked it.

* * *

Next up, G.O. attached these $8 Home Depot furniture feet:

I love them!

SO.  This concludes the ‘low’ portion of our vanity makeover.

* * *

Now onto the ‘highs’ — or splurges, if you will — starting with:

 1. This beautiful marble top from Pottery Barn:

I KNOW!  Isn’t it great?

I love its looks-so-vintage ogee edge, don’t you?

* * *

Next Kay splurge:

 2. This scrumptious New York model faucet from Signature Hardware, online.

Cross handles, check.  Porcelain HOT + COLD, check!

* * *

SO.  That’s about it, for now.

I shall share the finishing touches I’ve planned, soon!

Stay tuned!

Master Bathroom, Almost Finished!

SO.  Work continues on our Dutch colonial!

Here is some picture-frame molding in the master bath:

This molding treatment is similar to but not exactly the same

as what we did in the powder room:

The master bath has the lower panels only,

with another line of molding about 14″ from the ceiling:

That molding runs across the lowered ceiling above the tub/shower . . .

. . . + visually ties everything together.

All the molding, upper walls + ceiling

are painted Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White,

with a very pale blue ‘middle’.

(Disclaimer: it’s not this pale in real life —

my camera had a bad day.)

Our new vanity was installed earlier in the day.

The backsplash was glued, + while that dries,

it’s being held in place by a couple pieces of scrap wood.

I bought that Kingston Brass cross-handle faucet online,

from efaucets.com:

Actually, I order a lot of stuff online.

It’s just so difficult (impossible, really) to find what I like.

Speaking of which, let’s have a look-see

at the 2 finalists of my online shower curtain hunt.

Both are from an etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mapology.

* * * *

I’m thinking that the pale blue oceans of this one

would play nicely with the pale blue of our walls . . .

. . . while this one’s darker color would pop nicely

against all the pale we’ve got going on in that room:

We’ll have lots of navy blue in the rest of the house,

including the adjacent master bedroom.

There will soon be a pocket door here:

Please pardon the squalor + the bad photo quality.

My little camera is on its last legs,

but I couldn’t wait to share our progress!

Definitely, stay tuned!

Quickie Powder Room Update

Powder room update!

But first, a quickie recap.

We’re turning this BEFORE, our “boxy silo” powder room . . .

. . . into this expensive-looking AFTER . . .

. . . using this poly-but-looks-just-like-wood awesome-ness

 from Home Depot:

It only looks expensive — a whopping 8′ piece is a mere $2.97!

* * *

So.  Here are a few DURING snapshots.

First, marking out the design with masking tape:

Having a look-see at the molding, in place:

Nailing said-same molding:

We also used Liquid Nails (glue),

+ as it dries, we used tape to keep the molding in place.

SO.  All the molding is up + running,

including some only-looks-expensive Home Depot poly chair rail:

The trip to the finish line

involves some Home Depot poly crown molding at the ceiling

+ some paint (Glidden from Home Depot) for everything.

One of these grays for the walls . . .

. . . + one of these blues for the ceiling:

Stay tuned!