Primary Bathroom Makeover - The Reveal!

I spent this past summer tackling our primary (master is apparently out) bathroom, which was in desperate need of something...anything.  This is what it looked like the day we moved in:

It wasn't the worst but upon closer inspection the paint job on the cabinets was almost literally slapped on, leaving drips, drops, and brush marks everywhere, the ceiling light was old and corroded, the floors were stained, the paint on the trim was worn and stained, and the color palette wasn't A+.  We scraped and painted the ceilings but that's the extent of what we did in here for at least a year.  But then things just got worse because I noticed marks on the walls that looked like someone had started ripping off wallpaper, not finished, but just painted over their attempts to cover it up and move along.  And when I say 'looked like', I mean that's exactly what they did.  Yay.  So, instead of just leaving it as is until we could take the time to rectify the wrongs, I started peeling in a few places...and then it stayed like that for years.  (Eek...that was embarrassing to write.)  Our kids treated our bathroom as if it were a part of a dungeon and stayed away (which wasn't the worst thing in the world).  I just turned a blind eye but I know it bothered Anthony because "we need to do something about our bathroom...I wish you hadn't started peeling stuff off the walls" was a regular stream of words that slipped out of his mouth.  Yep sweets, me too.

I jumped into this mini-reno without taking a before picture showcasing where I had ripped off paint/wallpaper (it was probably subconscious embarrassment that made it slip my mind to document) but I did take a picture after I put one coat of drywall mud over those ripped wall areas and it doesn't look much better than where I had started so you can kind of get a picture of how bad this room looked.  

But this summer I was in the mood for a "little" project and decided to zone in on this bathroom.  Originally I figured we'd reno it big time and that's when we'd see the end of the peeled walls but we don't have time for that kind of big project right now.  So this is a mini/phase one/temporary renovation but one that turned out so good that phase two might be kicked down the road for awhile longer.  The goal was to use what we've got (I'm talking about you 50 year old countertops) but make it look 2026.  The other goal was to not spend more than $150 to get from A to B.  I'll let you know how I did on that in a minute.  Right now, scroll down a smidge and see if you agree with me that it looks a whole lot better...

Reed 'Em & Weep...

...tears of joy.

Because...

Several months ago I got click-baited into reading one of those "Ten Ways to Make Your Home Look More Expensive" articles the online arm of a decorators' magazine threw onto the internet.  Maybe it's just how the algorithm gets me but I see those kinds of articles from blogs, magazine, home websites, etc, all the time.  Everyone thinks they know which I why I don't usually give two snippets about what they say because much of the time they're all fluffy opinion based on trends or based on zilch but one of the points in this particular article was to "add reeding".  At the time I was reading said article, we had already solidified our plans to add reeded panels to our kid's bathroom cabinets in an effort to update them and now that they're done, I'm 100% here to say that yes, one way to make your house look more expensive is to add reeding.

In twenty years, they'll be spouting the one thing that's dating your house is reeding, won't they?

I'll add some photos for proof but first, here are the cabinets I'm talking about.  

I started working on these two years ago and just finished a few weeks ago.  I know.  I'm a great starter, not a great finisher.  Blame the kids.  These cabinets were custom made in 1983, well made (albeit laden with chipping paint), and knowing how much that would cost today and not wanting to throw out quality cabinets, we gave them a whole new life with gel stain and reeded panels.

Framed Calendar Prints | DIY

This post is dedicated to and made possible by JoAnn Fabrics...may that lovely store rest in peace.  I was sad to see it go because it was my go-to store for random fabrics I needed for lampshades or costumes or anything like that, not to mention ribbon, trim, foam...so many, many crafting things that I could just run into a physical store and grab quick.

It's also a post about something I want to start doing more often - taking an old post I wrote way back when and bringing it to 2026.  This old post hearkens from way back in 2010 and is all about framed art - read it in its entirety here.  Long story short, I needed to fill some frames with something and so I filled them with pages from a calendar.  The photos in that old post need to stay in the past but the idea is still a goodie and so oops, I did it again - this time with pages from a 2025 calendar I snagged at JoAnn's during their last week open, when everything was super duper clearanced.  

It wasn't my intention to buy a calendar for $2 but when I spotted it, I knew the perfect place for some of the pretty prints inside - our newly dotted powder room.

Hand-Painted, Scattered Dot Walls | DIY

Our little half bath..it's come a long, long way.  

It's a tiny little thing so getting pictures isn't the easiest of things but all you need is a small slice of perspective to see how it's changed.

This is a blurry shot taken right after we moved in:

This room was low on the priority list but we did manage to get a few things done like rip the outdated wallpaper down and prime the walls quick.  I also painted the countertop to look like marble on a whim (see how here...it stayed looking like the day it was painted until the day it was replaced years later!)  Here's an old post with more deets.

One Year Later

I'm just going to slide right on in here like it hasn't been a whole year since I typed out some words in a post and hit publish...

Aaand so, I'll just cut to the chase.

We had another baby this past March.  Theo Francis - swallowing the family weight record by a whole pound and a half at 9 lbs. 3 oz.