House a Home: Powder Room Before

Since moving into our new home in October it's been a slow process getting settled in. Although we can attribute some of it to the craziness of taking care of a baby and a little bit of shear laziness, most of it is due to not knowing where to start. We have lists and lists of what needs to be done and what we would like to do to all the rooms. It just seems like a very daunting task to tackle.

This is our second home and all our decor and furniture was specific for our first home. So now what to do with it all! Little by little I'm weeding through everything and getting things placed where I think I want them, then two days later they get moved or taken down all together. I'm pretty sure it's starting to drive Chris nuts. Then throw Christmas decorations in there and I'm back at square one.

None the less we have to move forward if we are going to make this house our home. Why not start with a room that we use every day, the first floor powder room. These are all pictures of the before.

Problems
1. RED, RED, RED - I'm sooooo over red walls! The powder room is also a very small little room with no access to natural light. I equate it to a giant black hole sucking the life out of my family room. Maybe that's a bit dramatic. I'm over red.

2. Towel Placement - The original towel holder was to the right of the sink hanging over the outlet. Hello fire hazard. It needs to be moved.

3. Where's the toilet paper? - No wall-mounted TP holder. Nothing I hate more than a flimsy freestanding holder that topples every time you go for the paper. No storage for extra TP either.

Here is a picture of the bathroom we took during the inspection. Still decorated in the previous owners style. It's looks nice but just not our style.

And here is what it looks like now...

Solution
2. Towel Placement - After all the owners artwork was taken out we were left with a towel bar and holes everywhere. As you can see we changed the towel ring from the right side over to the left so it was no longer laying over the outlet. During that process we did a little game of musical chairs with all the towel bars. This silver ring came from the Master Bath and the ring from here went upstairs in the Master Bath where our decor went with bronze better than the silver. We removed the towel bar over the toilet (because who doesn't want more holes) because we wanted to simplify the room.

3. Toilet Paper - I bought a concealed silver TP holder for the corner behind the toilet. Never fear....your TP's there! We also installed a silver wall-mounted toilet paper holder.  Much happier now.

1. RED, RED, RED - Out with the OLD and in the BLUE, BLUE, Gray BLUE! This is the photo I found on Pinterest that inspired me.

We obviously do not have a black sink, nor do we plan on getting a new one at this time. So I'm going to play up the black in accents and artwork to try and create a similar clean and simple aesthetic.

Lastly, I have a few DIY projects for this room. I had glorious plans on two toned or two finish paint patterns on the wall, way too much for me too tackle right now. I also, would love love love to have a great tile back splash and I may add it in the future but it means tiling floor to ceiling so it doesn't look unfinished. $$$$ So for now I plan on keeping the existing mirror behind the sink but giving it a new matte/semi-gloss black paint job. 

I also have this plant stand that we picked from the garage of the previous owners when we came for the final walk through. I had no idea where or what I was going to use it for (Chris loves when I find/buy/bring home crap like this) and figured it could work out great as a little corner stand for hand lotion and bath spray to add a little feeling of hospitality in the powder room. 

I flipped decisions about 10 times on whether to paint this one white or black. I ultimately decided on black. All the architectural features are white and I need more black accents to achieve a balanced look.

So that's the Powder Room project. I have patched all the holes and played around with artwork ideas, just need to paint, paint and paint some more now.  Stay tuned for an AFTER post. Can't wait!