Since this Spring, I've been working on an ongoing redecoration of
pretty much the entire first floor of my house: the front room, living
room, and office have all seen work, and I've got a few ideas rolling
around for the kitchen as well. I've shown a few bits and pieces here on
my blog but not any completed rooms because, well, I work
very slowly when it comes to redecorating and I don't feel like anything is finished yet! Someday, right?
In the middle of all of that, I realized that the powder
room that sits off of my front room needed a little makeover to match
the new colors I've been using. The main walls in my living room are
deep red and in my living room they were navy. The red walls have
stayed, but you might remember that I
painted the family room aqua. I also painted a
yard sale dresser
that sits in the front room a similar aqua, so I wanted to bring the
aqua into my powder room as well so that all of the rooms on my main
floor flow together color-wise.
Previously, I had a
red & navy thing going in the powder room. I didn't think to take
any Before pictures, but on the walls I had a delftware plate (brought
back by my mom from St. Maarten, I believe) and a navy-painted frame
containing pressed, dried sunflowers. The throw rug was a pattern of
squares in red, yellow, green, brown and blue, bordered in navy. The
previous owners of this house used a nice framed mirror and a pretty
light fixture and the paint color is a neutral, so all I needed to do
for this update was replace the rug and wall art. I looked and looked
for a rug in the colors I wanted (red, brown, aqua and maybe green) with
no luck. I finally found this rug at Ross for $10 and called it good.
I'm
not completely in love with it because I'd really hoped to find
something that brought in the red, but it was cheap enough that if I find something
I like better I don't feel bad replacing it.
For the
walls, I simply shopped my basement! This is where being a demi-Hoarder
totally works to my advantage. :) Once I had collected the items I
wanted to use, I traced them all on newspaper and used painters tape to
arrange them on the walls. My walls are orange peel textured and
therefore it's a pain in the booty to fill nail holes, so I try to keep
extras to a minimum.
I
labeled each piece so that I would remember what was going to be hung
there. I measured the hanger on the back of each item and marked it on
the newspaper, then drove the nail right through the paper and tore it
away. It worked out perfectly! No measuring, no guessing. Here's the
finished arrangement:
I
didn't originally include that square frame with the G, but once I got
everything up there it felt a little droopy to me and I wanted to
balance the piece of molding that hung down with something that stuck up
a little. I rummaged around in the basement and found the square frame,
which was originally a) a tabletop frame and b) painted pink. I ripped
the easel off the back, glued on a sawtooth hanger, and painted the wood
using a combination of Heirloom White spray paint, aqua acrylic craft
paint, and burnt umber acrylic for distressing. Here are the other
things on the wall:
and
Don't
forget that you can click on the pictures to get a larger view! The
only thing I actually purchased for this project was the aqua plate with
the brown pattern, which I LOVE! It was less than $1 and I don't think I
even bothered to wipe off the price marking on the back. It was fun to
finally find a use for all of these things that I loved, but were just
gathering dust on my shelves. One other item that is not shown is a
large aqua plate that I purchased in Target's $1 Spot several years ago;
that's on the opposite wall with the light switch.
I purchased a few new hand towels from the Better Homes & Gardens line at Wal-Mart (
this one and
this one) and they're just the perfect colors for the room! I'm happy with how the whole thing
turned out. I get to enjoy some of my fun finds and the colors of the
room flow with the rest of the house. And it's a room that is actually
done, which is more than I can say for the rest of the house!
