Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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. 

Sunday, February 16, 2014

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!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

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!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

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.