Bathroom Talk

Last year I resolved to simplify our home, clearing each and every room of all excess.

How do I define excess? 

Anything that we don't love or use on a regular basis.

Plain & simple, right?

 I thought so too until I began the process. Its strange how much I found myself justifying certain things...or trying to keep them, rather.

 *keep in mind the last things we need to do in here are paint the floor and add crown molding. I would also like to stain the mirror darker. It has beveled glass and was here in the house when we bought it so I'm keeping it.

One space that was a pretty easy task was our bathroom.

Yes, the "new" bathroom that I have yet to post the full remodel of.

The same bathroom that took us two years to renovate because we do all the work ourselves in order to save mucho dinero.

My husband used to build homes for a living so he is able to do almost everything on his own.

I always tease him that I come up with the projects and he makes them happen.

When we tried to replace the tub, there was mold behind the old walls thanks to the wrong type of drywall.Then the pipes for the tub had to be raised.Replaced the sink. We tore out a fake closet area above the tub and tiled the walls with subway tile. We ripped out the old closet and made it functional for storage. The walls had to be repaired and everything painted. We also put window film on the window.

(The wainscoating in the photo above is original to the house(1860). Underneath that white paint is original woodwork. In a day when everyone is using wallpaper to achieve the same look, I love the real thing!)

Simple things like clearing out the old prescriptions, shampoos that everyone hated using, etc... was all it took to clear the excess in this room.

I scored a bunch of these matching baskets at none other than the Family Dollar store!

The big baskets were around eight dollars and the small ones were five.

Its hard to tell from the photo but they're very large and conceal all the bathroom type items that you'd rather not decorate with.

See?

The only problem is that when you pull them out, the baskets tends to scratch the shelves and lose little shards...which become splinters on the floor.

My solution?

An idea I saw on good old Pinterest...

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The glue gun and I now have a date.

For Christmas I asked for new bath towels since ours were...well, old. We've been married for almost twelve years and we've hosted many different guests over the years so they needed to go.

Enter plush new towels in cohesive colors(can you hear the Hallelujah chorus?)

As for some of the decorative parts of this space, we're slowly adding in pieces in that have sentimental value to us. After all, isn't that what having a HOME is all about? Making it your own sanctuary?

 Somehow,  we ended up with a beach/travel-y theme in here.

 I can't even explain why but I fell in love with this framed piece($15) at a Re-Store we shopped at last summer. Its big and just reminds me of our trips to the beach. I've debated about replacing it with a gallery wall but we'll see.

 I got this little pennant hook($5) in a beach-side antique shop last year on our trip to Chincoteague & Assateague Islands(where the wild ponies roam around) and the skeleton key is original to the house and still locks the bathroom door!

 This is a framed photograph that I took at Old Orchard Beach(Maine) two summers ago on our trip around the New England Coast. The frame(Ikea) was thrifted for around a dollar.

 A brass humidity gauge is helpful in the bathroom. I found it at a great Salvation Army store in Ithaca for only a couple  dollars.

 The "quirkiest" part of the room so far? This brass crab thing-a-ma-jiggy from another thrifting trip.

I thought it was an old door knocker but the crab opens up and appears to be an old ash tray...or something. 

Its even engraved on the top of the shell with someone's initials and the year 1976.

Weird, I know. But it works in the space and I love it.

Our glass doorstop- one of those things from electrical poles. It was here in the house when we bought it.

So I finally got around to posting some shots of this room. 

Better late than never, I guess.

Its still a work in progress since I can't leave anything alone for long.

I'm trying to figure out something(functional) for that long wall(about 6 feet of space) under the fishermen picture. The room is very narrow as you can see so it can't be anything too large.

Hooks? But I don't want wet towels hanging near the wall.

A bench? But I don't want anything that looks country-style.

And we don't need any more storage-the closet runs floor to ceiling and is more than efficient.

Have an idea? What would you put there? 

Help me out here!

Linking up here:

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