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.

Built-Ins Outta Built-Ins | DIY

Remember our twins?  I don't write too much about how our kids are aging but let me tell you, these twins of ours are aging.  They're TWEENS!  I know, right?!  Nuts.  Anyway, with growing up comes the accumulation of stuff - and I would argue that that is even more so the case with girls.  More clothes, crafts galore, collectibles, books, bags, jewelry, and most recently, make up (just mascara and blush on limited occasions but good grief time, slow down).  All of that is to say, these tween twins were running out of places to put their stuff.  Their room isn't huge though and their closet nothing to write home about but they did have an empty wall that had potential written all over it (and a mess all around it too).

(Painted arches tutorial here.)

So... 

We did NOT need another project this past summer but for several weeks, I kept a side eye out on Facebook Marketplace for a shelving unit/cabinets/whatever I could find that would hold all of their accumulating stuff.  

Then one day, this popped up:

It certainly looked like it fit the bill and it was listed by a good friend who only lived five minutes away.  Bingo.  

Kid Art That Doesn't Look Like Kid Art

I'm back with another painted glass project the kids tackled so long ago that I'm not even going to tell you how long ago because it involves years.  If you've been reading for long, you might've seen me paint glass a time or six.  Let's see, there's...

this coffee table

the "choose happy",

Our Kitchen - Before & After

I almost called this a "Reveal" but we're waiting to get some cabinet doors made to fit over where the old wall oven used to go and there a couple of other tweaks that we want to happen so revealing our finished kitchen I am not, but I am here to show you how far we've come in five years.

Spoiler alert:  Things have CHANGED.  Big time. 

This was move-in day:

And this was last week:

A Little Closet Makeover

Last I checked in with kids' bathroom progress we were talking about the newly smoothed ceilings and cruisin' (maybe more like inching) onto the vanity.  Well so far, we've bought sinks, new faucets should be here Monday, and I'm going to try and hunt down a countertop next week.  I sanded down the cabinet frame sanded down the cabinet frame and need to start working on the doors but I've got an idea I've got to iron out before I keep going there.  Soooo...

I took a quick detour over to the closet.  I'm pretty sure it hasn't seen a fresh coat of paint maybe since the house was built 50 years ago much less a deep, deep clean.  Throw a bunch of stuff inside from a family of seven and...it was time.  Makeover!

First I emptied the whole thing out and scrubbed down every inch.  Then I painted the trim (Pure White by Sherwin-Williams color-matched to Valspar).

Bean Refashioning: Spaghetti Straps to Ruffled Cap Sleeves

Look who's back with a refashioning of her very own (I used to do lots of these, check out the Snips & Tucks section here)!  I found this dress, originally sold at Target, for $6 at Dirt Cheap last year.  I know, steal of a deal.  I love how different it is, with the pleats on one side and color-blocking all over - u to the n to the i to the q to the u to the e.

But as much as I loved it, it never once left our house on me because the spaghetti straps held me back.  It's probably the mom in me or my old age but if I'm wearing a dress like this, I'm usually going to a wedding or church or something like that and I like to cover up my shoulders.  This dress is a hard one to pair with a cardigan and it would have to have the right color scarf.  So, never worn...   

...until this past weekend.  

I spent maybe an hour last week adding ruffle cap sleeves!  I don't know about where you live, but here in the south big ruffled or puffed up sleeves are somewhat of a thing right now (along with Lululemon and pleated tennis skirts...I can see it but I hear it most from my very astute sixth grade girls.)  I don't usually gravite to some"thing" that's trending but this just seemed like a match made in fashion heaven.

Here's how I did it:

When In Rome...

do as the Romans do.  But since I'm not anywhere close to Rome, I'll just hang a (fake) roman shade and call it good.

Have you ever been bothered by something so much that you absolutely had to do something about it real quick like?  That's what happened to me with those cafe curtains I hung in the storage room (see the reveal here...I almost called this post the re-reveal but thought that might be a bit too far).  The curtain fabric was cute (and free!) and it paired nicely with the wall color...but that's it.  They were just wrong in here; not my favorite; best placed somewhere else.

In all reality, they didn't look too too bad but I had couldn't let go of the roman shade look and once you see those up, I think you'll agree that the cafe curtains had to go. 

Skim Coating the Bathroom Ceiling

I'm probably too happy to say that we finally have smooth ceilings in the kids bathroom!!!!!!!  It was a daunting project that we stared down the past month but finally tackled.  It only took us almost five years to get from painted popcorn that wouldn't budge to the leveled plane they are now.  Well, that and a good amount of joint compound and elbow grease.

When we first found out that we wouldn't be able to get the popcorn texture on this ceiling off like we did the others in our house, we talked about maybe covering them with something like tongue and groove planks or some sort of paneling but after researching how to skim coat (putting a thin coat of joint compound on top of the texture to make it look smooth), we decided to go that direction so they'd match all of the other ceilings in the house.  Not that all ceilings have to match because I definitely would not agree with that, but more importantly, putting on a skim coat was the cheapest option coming in (for us, because we had half the tools we needed) at just around $30.

While we should have done this ages ago, what really kick-started it was the fact that the popcorn above the shower was starting to crack and come off thanks to the super hot, super long showers our kids like to take.  At first, we got excited thinking that maybe the added humidity had, over time, dug into the texture making it removable now.  But, as we started chipping away at the stuff coming off above the shower, we realized we could only get so far until we were stuck once again with popcorn that wouldn't budge.

This is as far as we got:

With our hopes of an easy removal dashed, we planned out our first experience putting on a skim coat.

Skirtin' the Issue

The issue is that we have had two skirts in our to-sew pile for ages.  But last weekend after a rousing round of "I have nothing to wear to church!!!" 100% not true of course, we finally made time to take them in so they could be put in rotation.

Here are the skirts in their former state on two of the girls:

Too big.

 

And too big.

The top one is a J. Crew hand-me-down from a friend and the other I found at a thrift store and bought because I liked the pattern.

Our Next Project - the Kids Bathroom

A few years ago we tackled a Phase I makeover in the kids bathroom...and then we didn't touch the bathroom again. Not to mention the fact that we didn't actually get everything done that we wanted to in that phase.  Those plans are here.  We knew at the time that adding another sink to the vanity would happen someday but didn't have concrete plans (that would be an excellent pun if we were planning on concrete countertops in the bathroom like the ones we did in the kitchen...except we're not).  Fast forward to the now and our kids are bigger and double sinks would really, really help the morning routine go a little smoother so we've decided that there's no time like the present to get that ball rolling.

Here's basically what the bathroom looked like last week:

I stole this picture from a post I wrote three years ago and it hasn't changed one bit - except maybe adjust the shower curtain so it's less hanging correctly and toss countless hair accessories on the counter for good measure.

But things are really changing now, not quite yet for the better but changing nonetheless because it looks like this today: 

Storage Room Reveal!

Before we pop into the storage room to see how it all checked out, I'll just say quick that it definitely isn't one of our more glorious reveals (I think this one still takes the cake), but there is still a pretty big leap from before to after.  It's another one of those budget-friendly makeovers that we hold firm to, coming in at just under $180.  It really helped that the large cabinet was a free hand-me-down, the shelves were already here, and the upper wall cabinet we moved in from the kitchen.  It was on the wall we took down.

So, let's just start from the very beginning - the day we got the keys - the blank slate.  If I told you I pulled this photo from a 1980s archive, you'd have no reason to doubt me.

We moved in in 2019 and this is what this functioning corner looked like for many moons:

Hardware + A Fun Cabinet Upgrade

There's lots of new hardware in the storage room (still thinking I need to come up with a much more charming name...ideas?).  Some, like these double hooks*, have been hanging out for awhile, waiting for a fresh coat of paint on the wall to make them shine.

Adding Faux Legs to Cabinets | DIY

Sounds exciting, right?  Well, maybe not but over here, I get excited about adding legs where there aren't any.  Dressers, nightstands, and now cabinets.  It just seems to take things up a notch...get it, get it?  Up a notch?  ;)

Last year around this time I found three of these cabinets* at Dirt Cheap for 15 bucks a pop.  They're technically "upper" cabinets but with a little reinforcement, I figured I could use them as base cabinets since they were the perfect size for the kids' little drop zone in our storage room.  They were priced as such because each has damaged backing, nothing major and who will notice that damage anyway?

Not a single human being.  For $45, I'm banking on it.

My then-pregnant self got them from the car to the house with some very careful dragging on a blanket and set them up so I could see what we were dealing with. 

It was a start...one that stayed put for a whole year.  #storyofmylife

Hey There 2024

Are you like me, wondering where 2023 went?!  It seem like we were just stepping off the 2022 Christmas season and experiencing some spring weather when all of a sudden, boom, Happy 2024!  Or maybe it was the longest year ever for you and you're just happy to have made it.  Either way, 2023 is out and 2024 is the new in.

2023 wasn't a great year for the blog.  Our biggest project was birthed (quite literally) in February and it seems we took the rest of the year to recover and savor.  While we did tackle a few small things around our home, only one made it into writing.  We're ok with it though because it lets us start the new year with a healthy (low) standard that we can surely build on...

in between food storage clean up, of course. 

rug* (<---These types of Loloi rugs are my favorites for bathrooms and kitchens.)

We have a few "we can definitely get this done" projects on our docket this year.

A Dress Fit For a Tween

My twins have a little bin in their room that's stuffed to the brim of clothes that need to be altered to fit them (and so does their mom).  *eye roll*  We find something at a thrift store or somewhere that's super cute but too big and we toss it in, again, again, and again.  But time eludes us, giving priority to school and sports...you probably know how it goes.

This weekend though, Phia and I found a minute (or 15) to grab something out of that bin to refashion.  It's a dress my sister sent me during a closet purge that the girls love but that is obviously too big for them right now.

Obviously...

How to "Hide" an Electrical Outlet | DIY

Hey!  Hello!  Guten Tag!  

It's been a minute.

We are getting nicely settled into the new normal that having a baby brings about and, while I can't say each day is highly organized and all of the gears shift together, I can say that...well, organization is for the birds at this point and I'm not even sure all the gears are here.  Hahahaha...hahaha...ha...like I said, new normal. 

This new normal has allowed for some quick and easy projects (emphasis on quick and easy) and one of those involves painting baseboards. You might remember that we laid new floors last Thanksgiving.  They're still awesome and we still love them but we don't love the baseboards above them that we just haven't gotten around to painting...until last week, when I started the process in the dining room. 

 

I'm slightly ashamed of how long they've been the yellowy-beige color (we bought the house with them this color) but really only slightly.  Baseboards aren't one of those things you first notice when walking into a home and so I guess I've really relied on that fact...or at least lied to myself and gotten away with it.  ;)

Either way, the dining room baseboards finally look fresh in Pure White by Sherwin-Williams and match the ceilings and crown moulding.  Side note:  If I could go back in time, I would have planned to paint them to match the wall color.  I've felt myself drifting towards painting all trim to match the wall color lately but I pre-painted the base shoe moulding before we installed it after the flooring went in and I really don't like spending time painting trim (it's the worst) so I'm not going to go back and repaint everything.  Maybe some other day in the far future.  What do you think?  Are you team moulding is all the same color, different from the wall color or paint them both to match?  Maybe it depends on the room...

While I was painting the baseboards though, my eyes crash-slammed into the electrical outlets in the room.