The Dungeon, Transformed

During the last year we have had several guests stay at our home. While we managed to throw together a somewhat decent guest room during that time, our downstairs/guest bathroom left a lot to be desired.

The vanity was in rough shape... a tiny old oak mess with peeling varnish. The countertop was a formica nightmare full of gouges and stains complete with a super helpful 4" wide piece that spanned the bathroom and made access to the toilet tank virtually impossible. While the tile in the bathroom was a sound choice design-wise, it had been installed incorrectly and grout was crumbling at an ever increasing rate, exposing the tile spacers the installer had decided to leave in. This is not to mention the hideous sky blue color on the walls which assaulted your eyes upon entry and the dim cheap light that half-heartedly allowed the entire monstrocity to be seen by all. Oh and we can't forget the crappy mirror which had been "dressed up" by etching the profoundly motivational saying, "Be Your Own Beautiful" at the top. In other words, this bathroom was by far the ugliest room in the house. I liked to call it the "dungeon" as it served as a perfect den of sadness and doom to any soul who had the misfortune of using it.

This picture doesn't do the ugly enough justice.

But the time finally came where we had both the time, money, and motivation to get this project done. We spent a couple weekends bouncing between Lowe's and Home Depot finding all the right elements and I'm happy to say our dungeon has been transformed into a lovely oasis. Here's what we did:

First, Seth ripped out the crumbling tile and painted the walls this light aqua color, Pensive Sky by Behr (also used in our main bathroom upstairs). Then he installed my favorite element, cork floors! They are so beautiful and feel warm under your feet even on top of a concrete floor. Not to mention they are softer than hardwood and tile so they're nice and cushy to walk on. We chose Natural Floors cork planks from Lowe's. I believe the color was called 'Sage' but I'm not 100% sure about that. Anyway, following the cork floors Seth put in new baseboards because the old ones were warped and gross.

Close-up of the cork floor

The hardest part about this bathroom was the tight size constraints we had. There just wasn't room for a medicine cabinet or a standard size cabinet above the toilet or even a towel rack long enough to fit more than one towel. It was tough to find pieces we liked that fit the tight spaces but also maximized the space we had. The 25" wide vanity, 24" wide mirror, and 20" wide toilet cabinet are all from the Estate Java collection at Lowe's. The light is from Lowe's as well, but I can't remember what brand it is and the shower curtain is from Bed Bath and Beyond.

In order to save space and maximize the number of towels available, we used wall hooks instead of a towel bar. I also found this great magazine rack from Home Depot to use as storage for extra towels! This was a great space-saving option to keep towels on hand for guests instead of having to remember to bring towels downstairs from the linen closet. We only had a width of about 20" to work with for all towel storage so the hooks & magazine rack worked out really well. Plus I think the towel rack doubles as an art piece!

So there you have it. I have to give Seth a lot of credit for this project. I may have helped pick out stuff, but that's about where my contributions ended. He did all the work himself and it turned out so beautiful. Nice job sweetie!

My Bathroom is Organized!

For the longest time my bathroom cabinets have been a huge jumbled mess of a disaster. Every morning when I get ready I get more and more pissed off at the avalanche of beauty products that inevitably tumbles out of the cabinets. Not to mention the rats nest of cords from the blow dryer and curling irons and such. This weekend I finally reached my breaking point and decided to do something about it.

Now I really didn't spend much... I bought a few magnets to stick on the back of my eyeshadows and some of those pantry organizer wall thingies used for tin foil and such, but that's it! Everything else I found around the house.

So here's my make-up cabinet. I have a few larger items that I use on a daily basis, so I cut the top off a box and put them all inside. That way I can just put the little box out on the counter, use all the stuff and then put it back. I grabbed a mason jar from the cabinet to keep all my makeup brushes and tools in, and another box was used for refill type things like new bottles of lotion, toothpaste, and razors (close to the shower so I can reach it when I realize I'm out of shampoo!). I already had the metal bucket with dividers in it and used it for all my brushes and combs (more frequently used items towards the front). Good news was, I could stick all my eyeshadow to the front so I find them easily and don't have to clutter up my makeup bag with things that aren't used every day. I used an empty baby wipe container to hold all my little barretts and clips and such.

Moving on to the cabinet under the bathroom sink. This was the real disaster area. Everything was just shoved in and it was a giant mess. First I mounted one of the organizers onto the inside of the door. The fit was pretty tight... it's barely small enough for the door to close and is just wide enough that I could screw it into the fat parts of the cabinet and not have the screws bust through the other side. Whew. This thing works great for my blow dryer and heat tools. Then, if you look inside the cabinet, I've got a shelf: top for tp and bottom for a basket full of awesome "girl stuff" HA! (notice I never painted the inside of my vanity...)

On the other side of the cabinet, I mounted another organizer shelf. This one I filled with all the hair products and lotion that I use frequently. No need to shuffle bottles around to find the one I want or have 50 bottles fall out on my foot! Yeah!

Inside this cabinet I put another shelf. On the top I used a long tin container to hold all the bottles of less frequently used products... shampoos, more lotion, etc., in front of which I put a couple items that get used on a regular basis but didn't have any other spot to go (gotta make sure the spider spray is in easy reach!). On the bottom I put a cutlery tray and used it to hold headbands, travel size shampoo & such, teeth related products, soap, & lesser used make-up.

So there you have it! My newly organized, highly efficient bathroom!