Powder room Re-do

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!