Mermaid Bathroom

I think every girl would want a mermaid bathroom. I found a sign that became the inspiration and went from there. 

The sign was adorable in a " I have to have it kind of way". It lead me to painting the cabinet, a nice gingerbread brown I have used in other places in my house.

 

Painting the cabinet lead me to painting the medicine cabinet and outlet plates silver. Hammered silver spray paint which covered the outlet and switch covers like a dream. Again, just leftover paint I had. This left the walls wanting a fresh bright color. 

     It's hard to tell, but it's a very light aqua color, like ocean water. The sun and moon were on my now gone back patio. They were gold. You can see where this is going. I taped up the mirror and spray painted it. I found the tray at Salvation Army, more spray paint, and the wicker unit we had. That was purchased as a damaged item from Pier 1 many years ago. One drawer was smashed. We removed 2 drawers , added a shelf and have bathroom storage.

  The photos were taken in Cape Cod. My husband and I went on a kid free getaway and did this.

 

  We finally added a curved shower curtain bar and a hookless curtain. I love this curtain so much! Mildew resistant, and putting it up is a cinch. I'll never use hooks again! 

   My shell collection from everywhere we have traveled to. 

 

More details!!

     Refinishing the tub was the hardest part, but we love how it came out. Overall I repurposed a lot of what we already had and spent very little money to freshen up this space for 3 mermaids. 

Oh We Chopped Down the Old Pine Tree, Timber!

I was walking the dog today looking at how different the house is starting to look with the addition and I remembered how different it looked with the pine tree. The pine tree was about 100 years old and 100 feet tall. It was a landmark on the street for sure.

 

  Where the old pine tree went wrong though was that it was growing right next to our house. It's roots were making the sidewalk buckle and it was growing into the foundation. Since I love my house, disrupting the foundation is bad, very bad, so it had to go. I called some crazy brave tree cutters who scaled it and took it down.

 

    I was left with an impressive pile of pine bark mulch, and some roots to grind out. I was also left with peace of mind. Whenever it stormed I lived in fear of that tree getting struck and coming down. It was easily the tallest tree on my street, if not in the entire village.

  Taking the tree down opened up a garden bed space as well as let light into my little sun room. My neighbor came over to thank me as we'll cause now his dining room gets morning light the tree was blocking out. Who knew? 

    I know we're covered in snow, but I can't wait to see this bed in the spring, I added tulips. Let's see if they come back!

When One Door Closes....

   I trash picked my own construction debris dumpster and found our old back room door. 

It's real wood, with a glass knob and deserves to live again. I've begun stripping it. I found 3 layers of paint and a layer of varnish. This will be my project for the next couple of weeks. It's going to be the door to my new bathroom. Brian's going to replace the glass with frosted glass, the hardware with beautiful restoration hardware, and I'm sanding and staining it to match the new woodwork. It's going to be gorgous. Saved from the landfill, and character added to my new space. Brilliant!

Progress

It's starting to resemble something! 

   You can see the French doors that open to the future patio ( work with me on this...) and my upstairs side by side not one but three windows!

Here's the side driveway view. Entry door into vestibule and coat closet. We have the best contractor around. Great quality work!

Claw foot Tub Lust

 

 

I had this sweet little claw foot tub in our full bathroom. Since we are adding a master bedroom and bathroom, I'm doing a mini renovation of the bathroom for my daughters. The claw foot was lovely, but blah. 

 

My husband bought the tub and tile kit at lowes and resurfaced it to pristine glossy perfection. The kit was very smelly, but 2 coats and you have gorgous! 

He also added new Victorian fixtures from Kingston Brass, complete with a very powerful hand shower.

The tub was looking better, but still blah. I had some color mixed up at Lowes a couple shades darker than my walls, on the same color chip and painted the exterior. 

Looking better, but still waiting it's final details. Last night, I completed the process by hand stenciling it. Voila!

I can't stop looking at it. I don't think it's original to the house since my house was built in 1864 and the date on the tub is 4-12-35, but it sure does look good in our bathroom.  Going to go look at it again. 

Keeping Cozy

   Today checked in at -17 this AM in the village and we got a snow day! To me a snow day is an extra day, a gift. I usually cook, or craft, or clean and organize, using every moment up wisely. 

    Since we are in the middle of a major renovation and the side of my house is ripped up and exposed, protected only by the inside wall and home wrap, it's both chilly and frosty in parts of my house. I know it's going to be worth it for 800 square feet of space, but today it's cold. I'm in the middle of sewing draft dodgers out of the bottom of an insulated pair of curtains I cut and hemmed and a pair of jeans that had a blow out. Free material, and  2 bags of rice from ALDI make my project total 3.00. Not bad. I made this one just by cutting it out with pinking shears, stitch the long side, stitch the bottom, use a funnel to fill with rice, then stitch the opening closed. If you have old windows and find the plastic ugly or window putty messy, thus is a great idea. Stopped my draft completely. The rice makes the draft dodger heavy and the air doesn't leak. 

It was an easy quick 20 min project and now I can sit next to this window and not feel the breeze. Stay warm today. 

Sew Cute!

    My style is a combination of styles. I love old, I love antiques, but I'm not looking to restore to period, I'm looking to blend old and new. To honor the time period, but to remodel my house and update things as well. 

    I'm working on a bathroom now, one that will be my daughter's when we finish the 800 square foot addition. The bathroom was a powder blue with things like a pitcher and basin, and Ivory Soap ads from 1900 ( authentic). That's my style, not theirs, so I'm doing a mini makeover. I'm making it fun, with spa colors and a tin mermaid sign as the focal point.

     I had this lace that I found in an old trunk in the attic when I was a kid. It looks like it was being handmade in the early 1900s to be part of a dress or petticoats. I saved it all these years because I knew it was special. 

I had a few yards of it and used it for a vintage stocking for my sister, a holiday apron pocket, and now a curtain for my girl's  bathroom. I bought a yard of material for $4.00, hemmed it into a swag, used part of the flat part for tie ups, and buttons from my button jar. For 4.00 and a couple hours, it came out exactly as I pictured it.

    I'm off to finish painting, and next weekend I'll be restoring the claw foot tub. More to come on  this mini makeover.