Bathroom Bloggin

So my awesome cousin Katie (who blogs at Life with the Little R's) suggested that I do a house tour for a blog post. At first I thought- great idea! The second thing I thought was- oh my gosh no, my house is a pit!

Ok, it's not a pit, but Brett and I are constantly struggling to determine an overall aesthetic or design concept and to challenge things further, we are renters so we can never decide how much money or energy to even devote to our temporary setting. That said, we are people who need our outsides to match our insides and we try to keep our space clean, cute, and clutter free if possible.

We got lots of great decor items as wedding gifts and we've tried to make special places to showcase some of those awesome things. I've got some plans for a major switcheroo in the office nook of the kitchen and with our upstairs bedroom, and I want to do at least a little staging in each room before it's picture worthy anyway! So the easiest option was to start small.

Thinking about Katie's request for a house tour got me thinking about our upstairs bathroom. I thought to myself- I will never take pictures of this place. However, I decided to challenge myself. I decided to upgrade the bathroom using my crafty innovation, decorations on hand, and a teensy tiny budget.

Here's what it looked like to start:

A very typical rental bathroom, and one we haven't done much to improve. We've hung up a couple shelves and some hooks for my jewelry. I pulled in a nightstand that sort of floats around to different areas of our house to use for extra counter space (as you can see there is none.)

Our shower curtain is navy and cream and it's a little nautical themed. At one point, we'd picked up some strange "nautical" decor- a lighthouse figurine and this old fisherman that hung on the wall (no, really.) They were too weird and kitschy and we ditched them. Now, we've got this barely functional, hardly attractive bathroom that I'm hugely impartial to.

So, here's what I did.

Firstly, I made up a little frame for my broaches and earrings.

I had leftover fabric from the wedding and a square frame that wasn't being used that I decided was perfect. I cut out cardboard to size, used a little felt for padding, and wrapped it with the blue fabric. I didn't even end up gluing. I just used scotch tape!

I fit the cardboard into the frame, put on the frame backing (which made for a very tight fit!) and hung it up!

Simple enough. We are working with pretty much one wall to decorate, so naturally, I opted to create a small gallery with some prints (found here and here) and frames leftover and a couple other wandering decor pieces.

I'm so loosey goosey with when I hang pictures. These made for a pretty easy upgrade. (Except my printer OH MY GAWD MY PRINTER- but that's a story for another time.)

The other little project I did for the bathroom was.. wait for.. to dye my bath mat. I know, I know, but go with me for a minute here. We have this basic white bath mat. It's fine, but of course we put our grungy little feet on it every single day so it's never clean and it bugs me endlessly. The bath mat market is a TOTAL RACKET so I figured, why not spend $3 and dye the damn thing?

So I did.

I used an old wooden spoon to do the mixings. 

Here's the thing. It looked pretty stupid. I wanted it to be navy and it wound up more like cornflower. You know, cornflower. Also, a little splotchy. BUT WHATEVER OKAY. I have like a 95% success rate so I'm allowed a bomb every now and then.

I also swapped on some baskets, put out some flowers, did some "fluffing."

So, here's what it looks like now. It's a long way from my dream bathroom, but considering that the only thing I had to buy was the $5 flower arrangement- it's a pretty vast improvement!

My weird rug.

Welcome! Come inside! Fix your hair, brush your teeth, take a pee!

Well there you have it folks! My upstairs bathroom! Can't wait to show you some more!