I am so excited to show you guys this because I am so flipping proud of myself!
When we bought this house, we both knew that it was a bit older but we didn’t care. It has a sense of charm and character that we weren’t able to find in newer homes and the extra space was a huge perk. However, we also realized that those benefits came with tradeoffs, and while some were more pricey {like the hardwood floors that replaced the atrocious carpet}, others just took a little elbow grease. Everything in our house functions just fine; it just needs a little cosmetic updating!
Since I have winters off from work, it seemed logical that I use that free time to start DIY’ing the daylights out of the house. Sadly, I knew absolutely nothing about any of this home repair stuff, so my learning curve has been huge. Seriously y’all: I even made the Home Depot lady explain all the different types of caulk!
I chose our downstairs bathroom because it was a small room that we used frequently. I decided to pick a small area to start so that I could feel a sense of accomplishment upon completion instead of overwhelming myself by taking on too huge of a project. Plus, I hated the old school baseboards!
Since I’m new to this whole DIY world, it never occurred to me to take “before” photos until after I started. Sigh. I eventually realized I would likely write about this project, so I snapped a couple of early-stages photos.
Not too pretty, right? The bathroom was an odd white with dark wooden trim on both the floorboards and the under-the-sink cabinets. I wasn’t sure where to start, but I figured the baseboards were a great place! We thought about replacing them but they are still in great shape, so I decided to try priming and painting them first. If that worked, we would save a lot of money! So, I taped them off, bought some primer and paint, and turned myself into Picasso:
Guys, even this step was a massive learning process for me! I originally left the tape on after the first coat of paint, knowing I was going back for a second coat. Little did I know that you can’t do that: the paint dries and the tape gets stuck in it, leaving a huge mess to clean up. I had to use an exacto knife to cut the tape off the wall, but you better believe I won’t make that mistake again!
After the baseboards, I decided that I couldn’t handle the walls anymore. I really wasn’t sure what my overall plan was for the room, but I knew I hated the paint color! I headed to Home Depot {for the 87th time in three months} and brought home some paint swatches. Side note: definitely bring the swatches home before purchasing the paint. The colors look so different in your house than they do in the store! I finally picked a color that both Will and I liked, and set to work painting the walls.
Next up? The grout in the tiles! As you can kind of see in the above photos, the grout was a dark gray color that just looked dingy. I didn’t know you could color {and reseal} grout until I read about it on Virginia’s blog. Once I read that, I was a happy camper. What an easy way to improve the look of the room! I bought a bottle of Polyblend Grout Renew Colorant, found an old toothbrush, and set to work.
After that, I turned my attention to the cabinets under the sink. I had purposely avoided them because I was slightly nervous. Painting wood is something that seems so dramatic and I had no idea if I was going to screw it up! Finally, I sucked it up and rationalized that I could always fix it if I ruined it….right?! I was debating paint colors when Cindy told me about the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit that I mentioned in this post. She assured me it was easier than the standard primer and paint route, so I purchased the kit in white.
Finally, I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for a new mirror. The massive industrial mirror {shown above} was hideous and I hated it. Honestly, I could barely wait for Will to get home from work to remove it; he came home one day to find me prying it off the wall by myself. The thing needed to go! However, after I removed it and hid it in our sunroom, I arrived at a standstill. We couldn’t find a new mirror that we liked!
I searched favorite stores like World Market and Pier 1 to no avail. I even dug through dozens of thrift stores, hoping I would find a pretty silver mirror. Still no luck! In the meantime, I propped up this ancient gold mirror that my mom bought for me years ago. I hated the color, but figured we could at least use it until we found another that we liked.
As the search continued, it occurred to me that I didn’t mind Mom’s old mirror; I just didn’t like the color! What if I painted it?! Again, I referenced Virginia’s blog and read through all of her spray paint posts. She spray paints everything and makes it look awesome, so why couldn’t I do the same with the mirror? Worst case scenario, I would ruin a mirror that I already disliked. There is no harm in that!
As it turns out, I love the new mirror and it was so easy to do! I hauled it into the backyard where it took my approximately five minutes to paint. Winning!
Once the mirror was hung, I used a drill for the first time {ever} and put the cabinet doors back on. I was finally done!
Seriously guys, I’m proud of this one. It makes the bathroom seem so much less dark!
Now onto the next project: chairs for our kitchen table!
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How do you feel about DIY projects? Love them or are they your worst nightmare?
Sometimes this got a little stressful and it’s definitely not perfect, but I kinda had fun!