Updating a Bathroom

Shortly after building our house in 2001, the use of wallpaper in new construction, at least in Birmingham, became passé. Unfortunately, I had wallpaper in every bathroom; however, I had bought most of it at a wallpaper outlet, so it didn’t cost a fortune.

I lived with it for about five years before I decided that wallpaper wasn’t making a comeback any time soon and I needed to get rid of what was in my two second floor bathrooms. The master bathroom and powder room papers were okay. In fact, I really like my master bathroom paper. It’s tone on tone and looks like French handwriting.

I wish I had saved some pieces of the wallpaper that I stripped from Ben’s bathroom. Do you remember how popular animal skin prints were a few years ago? Well, the walls of the wet area of that bathroom were covered in something that resembled leopard or cheetah or jaguar. It looked something like this.

Ben has always been one to take really long showers, and every time I went into his bathroom after he had showered I could see the water running down the walls. I secretly hoped that the wallpaper would just fall off one day.

After removing the paper, I had the walls painted in Benjamin Moore HC-88, Jamesboro Gold. It’s a rich color and really looks good with the Linen White trim.

I’ve always liked the look of black and white photographs matted in white and framed in black. These photographs are from LBeau’s rodeo days. I scanned the original 8x10’s and used PhotoShop Elements to get rid of the wrinkles. Then I had 5x7 prints made and bought these frames and mats from Pottery Barn. Here’s one of the originals.

I bought this framed photograph by Cindy McIntyre in Bar Harbor, Maine. It caught my eye because of the Grapette sign hanging on the wall. Grapette was invented in my home town. I once had a pest control man compliment my sense of humor for hanging a picture of gas pumps beside the toilet. Frankly, I had never thought of it that way.

The sink area was papered in a striped companion paper to the animal print. It is now painted in Benjamin Moore HC-82, Bennington Gray, which matches the adjacent bedroom. The colors in the accessories compliment the bedroom colors as well. I found the stacking boxes at Hobby Lobby. The red transferware plate that I’m using as a soap dish is an eBay purchase, and the plates hanging on the wall were a gift from my Aunt Mary. She gave me four of these Castle on the Lake plates by Johnson Brothers. The other two hang on the wall at the opposite end of the countertop.

Now that you’ve seen my bathroom makeover, be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to see what other transformations are taking place.