Saturday with Southern Living at HOME: Bathroom project

Happy Saturday y'all! Are you ready for our SLAH Saturday? I bet you were beginning to think that I had forgotten about our little home improvement project. In reality, I had ordered some things to complete the project and I was waiting for them to get here before doing the big reveal!

Remember this?

We hired someone to tear all those little fishies off the wall, scrape the popcorn off of the ceiling and paint our laundry room/bathroom a lovely shade of Sherwin-Williams "Yarrow".

SO much better! I have some ideas for this side of the room - the design wheels are turning...

We were more than a little concerned about this color when it first went on the walls. There was a LOT more orange in it than the paint chip told. I was hoping that once I started adding the accessories I had collected for this room that it would tone it down a bit. I think it has! I wanted chocolate brown for the towels and rugs - it's a mud room for heavens sake! But it also needs to be cheery enough to keep me motivated on laundry, AND the dogs call this "their" room. LOTS going on in here - it is the first room we enter and it is visible from the kitchen and dining room.

I have used the Estate bathroom collection in here. In this picture above I have used the following Southern Living at HOME products:

• Estate Towel bar Item #40798
• Galveston tray Item #41083
• Estate Wall organizer Item #40797
• Estate Canister Item #41069
• Ornate Iron two-tiered stand Item #41145
• Covington Accent tray Item #41150
• Villa stoneware Salad Plates Item #41176

I made the cross stitched picture of the deer for my Handsome Prince.

The shower curtain was our inspiration piece and I really love it. It is a reproduction of a Terry Redlin painting called "The Birch Line". In this photo you also can see the Estate hand towel stand (item #40799). I created a little cell phone charging center using the Estate Vanity tray (item 41161).

Doesn't that ceiling look CLEAN! I love it! Found both of these light fixtures on clearance at Lowe's.

The mirror that was above the sink was very loose and almost fell off of the wall when they were tearing off the wallpaper. Since they had to take it down anyway, I asked them to just leave it down and paint the wall above the sink. I had a plan!

This Medallion mirror (item #41003) looks PERFECT in here! This is what I have been waiting on before showing reveal pictures. LOVE IT!!

We are VERY pleased with how this room turned out! I will update you on the second part of this project, the dining room, as soon as I have made up my mind what I want for a window covering in there...

Home Improvement Update Part Two: Bathroom

It all started because I was really tired of this look:

I loved it when we first decorated it this way, but that was 8 years ago. It was time for a change! So while we were in Branson for our Anniversary weekend I found this shower curtain and some other accessories:

The Handsome Prince is an avid outdoorsman. He loves to get all camo'd up and sit out in the woods for hours. He has several trophies on the wall to show for his patience. This is the room you come in to from our garage. When we remodeled our house we added the shower in here because it works so great when you have been out in the yard working, or in his case covered in "Scent" so that the deer won't smell him.

Down came the wallpaper and all those little fish I painstakingly cut out and pasted all over the walls. (I am pretty sure Joe and Terry were mumbling about those by the time they peeled the last one off!) It took way longer than I thought it would, and the color isn't exactly how I envisioned it would look, but I am very pleased with the new look.

I really like how the color looks with our oak woodwork. It has a bit more orange than I saw in the paint chip, but I really like how warm this room feels now. "Yarrow" was the right choice!
It looks different depending on the light and shadows.

I still have so much work to do to get everything looking like I want! I have a wrought iron mirror I am going to hang above the sink instead of the big mirror that was (barely) there. I think it will look nice with the towel bars and other rustic accessories I have found to go in here. Lucy and Gatsby are thinking I am going to a LOT of trouble making their room pretty:)

I hope to be able to share completed room pictures with you soon!

Day Three

Well they didn't get done today, but it will be done tomorrow!

I walked in the house to see this:

The light fixtures are out, so it is too dark to take good pictures. Sorry.

The dining room is taped off and ready to paint.

The ceiling got painted, but as it dried Joe saw some spots that he didn't like. So he repaired it and the mud needed to dry overnight. It will get another coat of paint and then they will do the walls!

So by noon on Saturday, we will have two new rooms! I can't wait:)

Day Two Update

Thursday's progress reminded me how I feel when I spend all day cleaning out closets and organizing cupboards, only to have the Handsome Prince come home and ask "what did you do all day?" Joe got a LOT done, but they are the sort of tasks that are not as noticeable. They got the ceiling in the Dining Room sprayed with the "Knock Down" so it and the walls are ready to paint.

The ceiling looks so much better already! I can not wait to see it completed. I think we will go tonight to pick out the new light fixture. I have one in mind, I just want to re-visit it to make sure it is the one I want.

They got the rest of the nasty wallpaper down in the bathroom. The adhesive that was supposed to be holding the mirror in place had come loose so when Joe was working on the wallpaper around it, the mirror started to fall forward! He got it down with no breaking - YAY! Now I am not sure I will put it back either...

Today the ceiling in the bathroom gets done, and hopefully painting in both rooms. Joe and Terry want to finish today but will come in the morning if they can't get done. I hope they finish today too, because I am so EXCITED! It is going to looks so much better.

These are the colors I went with. I tend to choose colors that I like the name - dumb I know, but I do! On the left is the bathroom color, Yarrow. (the one with the "B" on it) The paint chip in the middle is the "Autumn Surprise" that I had thought I wanted in there. I'm so glad I didn't go with that dark of a color! It would have been a cave in there. For the dining room I chose "Notable Hue" (the one with the smudged "D") It is just a little darker shade than what is in there now, but I think it will look SO pretty. I can't wait to get home tonight!!

Day One Progress

I am so very pleased with the progress made on Wednesday! The dining room ceiling looks so good! Joe said he thought one more round of mud and then paint on Thursday. And yes, there will be painting on the walls too:)

Progress in the bathroom is going a little slower than they had hoped. The wallpaper is being stubborn. Have I mentioned how glad I am that we HIRED someone to do this? I know we would have given up and I would have had to deal with a half done room.

The wallpaper is off, but there is still the sticky paper left to steam and scrape.

It looks so much better already!

I am so impressed with Joe and Terry. I really expected to come home to all that nasty white dust every where. Instead I came home to find the floors swept and no signs that workers had been here (other than the progress made) I can't wait to see what gets done on Day two!

More Change...

Is it just us, or does everyone have home improvement projects that just seem to snow ball?

Remember when I told y'all about the Bathroom re-do? Well, I had finally decided on a color (Valspar Autumn Surprise) and had convinced the Handsome Prince that we really needed to get busy tearing that wallpaper down. Somehow that motivation never happened.

Then my parents had some ceilings repaired at their house. The painters are a couple that go to church with them and they did a fantastic job for a very reasonable fee. So I decided I would have them come by and give me an estimate on repairing this ugly water damage in my Dining room.

We have been growing really tired of the "cottage cheese" ceilings in our house. So we thought as long as we were going to fix it, maybe we should change it. Something else that will be changed is this ugly chandelier. I am SO over it.

Joe the painter came this morning to start scraping that ugly ceiling. Which means that I spent last night clearing everything out of the china cabinet and putting it back in the spare bedroom. Hopefully I can get everything put back where it belongs, and not break anything!

What does this have to do with the bathroom re-do? That is where the snow ball thing comes in. The fish bathroom is right beside the Dining Room. As long as you are doing the ceiling in the Dining Room, you may as well do the bathroom too - Right? And, since Joe is a Painter, he could probably tear that old wallpaper down for you since he has the tools. Not that the lack of the proper tools has been your excuse to put this project off or anything...

Joe wasn't too sure about my color choice for in here. He thought it was a bit dark, and too orange. Since there isn't much light in this room, I think I have to agree with him. So now I will have to make up my mind shortly, but I am leaning towards SW Yarrow. It has more of a yellow/brown hue.

This is the view standing in the Dining room, so you see why the two rooms really had to be done at once. I just think it is funny that we started out wanting to fix a nasty stain on the ceiling and now we are scraping two ceilings, removing wallpaper, repairing and re-texturing the walls and painting, probably two rooms. (as long as everything is out of the Dining room you may as well paint it too - right?)

Progress pictures to come...

A fish outta water = A Bathroom Re-do!

I hinted at this when I posted some of our Christmas decoration pictures. If you enter our house through the garage (like we always do) you come in to our Laundry room/third bathroom. I have had it painted blue with this fish wall paper and border for about 8 years. It's been fun while it lasted, but it is time for something new!

The shower curtain and other "fishy" accessories were fun to collect. We have souvenirs from some of the cruises we have been on setting about here and there. When I bought the wall paper, I didn't calculate correctly how much we would need (I SO should have paid attention in math class!) so I had to improvise. We cut all the fish we could out of the scraps we had left, and glued them to the two walls that didn't get paper. You kind of get the feeling you are in a fish bowl in here...

Anyway, for Christmas I found some really COOL deer hunting bathroom accessories. I found a new theme for Larry's bathroom! WOO HOO! So I purchased the Shower curtain, soap dish and Tissue box cover and wrapped them up. I so wish that I had taken pictures when he opened this gift. You could just SEE the (lack of) joy on his face!

I remembered that I had purchased this border awhile back when I wanted to make over his "man room". That still isn't done because we can't agree on a color, mostly because he doesn't like to paint. This could explain his lack of enthusiasm with the bath stuff. I think the border may work in here tho! I know this room will get fresh paint, because it is small enough I can do it myself!!

I'm going to get some paint chips this weekend, so I can decide on the new color. I actually don't mind the blue with this, but I'm thinking a shade of brown. I think I'd like Chocolate brown rugs and towels. What do you think? I'd LOVE your opinions/suggestions!!

I'll be sure to post pictures when I finish this project!