Thursday, October 1, 2009

Our Vintage Bath

While the downstairs bath in our house was severely lacking when we closed on our house, the upstairs bath was considerably cuter with nice black and ivory vintage tiles and a good size window.  The drawbacks included a very worn white laminate counter that extended over the toilet (??), another 'sea shell' light, and a dinosaur of a toilet that ran unless you jiggled the handle:

Not to mention the big white ceramic knobs on the drawers that were better suited to a classroom than an adult space.  We lived with this for awhile, tried to pretty it up with some red accents, but ultimately we moved the downstairs toilet up here, got a new light fixture, changed out the vanity knobs, spray painted the counter (a short term fix) and painted the walls.  Eventually we will fix up the vanity, get a granite top and I already have a new Kohler faucet chilling in a closet waiting for it's debut. Here is what we enjoy for now:

We removed that counter that extended over the toilet and made it impossible to get into the tank.  What were they thinking?  I can't wait to get rid of this counter, but it does look a lot better after I slathered on black paint as thick as Gossip Girls' eye makeup. 

I am not fond of the mirror....

But we can't remove it because this is what is underneath:

Nice, right?  I bought a glass vase to hold the TP, thanks to the Youngsters for the idea! 
                  
I bought some fabric and did a window 'mistreatment' ala the Nester.  I think it looks pretty good for a piece of fabric tacked to the wall and bound up with ribbon!  No sewing necessary. 
                         
While the built in soap and glass holders above the sink are outdated, they still make a nice place to display our stylish spectacles.  But this quirky feature of the bathroom is a little laughable:

Yeah...the crazy things you could buy back in the day.  I really can't bear to hang anything on it because it's creepy.  Since we embraced the vintage look, I chose Behr Aquatone for the walls, and found some nice prints at Hobby Lobby to decorate the wall:

And since I understand the importance of color-coordinating pets to decor:

He may or may not have started drinking out of the sink after that....cats don't have any boundaries, do they??

9 comments:

  1. lol, I actually gasped when I saw what was behind your mirror! That's a shame that you have a couple weird tile pieces, I actually like the vintage black and white (especially your floors!). And I definitely love the black cat accessory :)

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  2. Thanks, Kate! I love the floor, too. I really wish they hadn't ruined the wall tiles with that extended counter, and the poor wall behind the mirror. We also can't put in a pedestal sink like I want, because there are bunches of holes in the wall tile behind the vanity, too. Arg!

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  3. Amazing update. Just proves you don't have to spend tons. The window treatment really pulls everything together. No one would know how easy it was to make.

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  4. P.S. my cat drinks out of the toilet bowl. Got to love him!

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  5. Great job! {That weird hook was probably for a washcloth or hand towel.}

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  6. Yeah, I can't bear to hang anything on it though. It's too creepy looking! ha

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  7. I love the fabric that you used for your windows.

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  8. Love it, Sara!!! The window mistreatment is brilliant, as is the black vanity top. Renovating is expensive and messy. Let's hear it for awesome mid-measures!

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  9. Excuse me, did I say replace the vanity top? I meant slather. Slather it. Much better choice.

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Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara