The most irritating project ever

So remember back in November when I last posted, and made it sound like I would be posting again ASAP with updates on art and the hooks for my bathroom?  About that...

It's done.  That's the best thing I can say about it.  I had purchased these hooks all the way back in mid-November, and the fact that they're only now up on the wall is testament to 1) my laziness, and 2) what a miserable project this was for some reason.

They're pretty little hooks, and I got them pretty cheaply (although part of the initial delay was that I bought them online and they shipped the wrong item).  My first shot at trying to install them was perusing the massive screw selection at the hardware store, and (cleverly, I thought) picking up some items called drywall screws.  I drilled some pilot holes for them, and the measuring I did worked out correctly, so I thought everything was going swimmingly.  False.  When I tried to put them in, the threads of the screws didn't "catch."  Turns out drywall screws are actually for hanging drywall to studs, not for hanging items into drywall.  Womp womp.

At this point it was looking like I was going to have to break down and buy anchors in order to install these things, which I was hoping to avoid since they were such a pain in the ass to get out of the wall when I was un-installing all the old bathroom hardware.  But oh well.  I sucked it up and got the anchors (after many weeks of procrastination).  Then today when I started to install them, a number of other things went wrong, the details of which I won't bore you with.  Suffice it to say, it took several hours longer than it should have and in the end the solution came down to using a different screwdriver.

Sigh....  Seriously, I was ready to throw a few things.  But I got them up on the wall more or less sturdily. 

I'm not sure they're 100% level, but at this point I could care less!  Maybe someday I'll feel like adjusting them, but for now, in order to preserve my sanity I just need to move on to something else.  The good news is they're doing what I need them to do, which is to hold my bathrobes and drying towels.  For the last two months (since I started the whole bathroom project), the bathrobes have been living in my bedroom and taking up a lot of space so it'll be nice to get them back where they're supposed to be.

I'd like to tell you that now that this is over I'll be quickly moving on to adding some art of some sort to that long blank wall in the bathroom.  But to be honest, I'm totally stumped on what to put up there, so I might need to leave that alone for a while until something speaks to me.  The other project I have in contemplation is painting my kitchen cabinets white...but that's overwhelming to think about too, so who knows what I'll do next?

Hmmmmmmmm....

A tale of two etageres

(Sorry in advance for the copious usage of the word "etagere" in this post - I just can't enough of using it now that I know what it is...)

After spending almost a month pondering what kind of storage I wanted in the bathroom, then shopping for it, then waiting to spend money on it until I had a little saved up, I'm happy to report the search is over!  As of Wednesday night, here's what the new and improved bathroom with storage looks like.

I feel so fancy!  The whole ensemble looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself.  So as far as explaining the title of this post, in the process of my searching for bathroom storage options I discovered 1) the word etagere, and 2) what it means.  Apparently that's what you call one of those small square-shaped shelf contraptions that's open on the sides that's used for storing decorative stuff.  I thought it would be a good option for this space because it would give me more space for my stuff, and would help eliminate the need to have multiple things on the walls, which just felt kind of messy and cramped to me.

So then I did a bunch of shopping around for etagere options, which I can tell you was quite exciting (sarcasm noted).  I found a lot of different shapes, sizes, and finishes, but it was tough to find something that was this nice dark brown color - or rather, tough to find one in that color that didn't cost several hundred dollars.  (Pottery Barn had some beautiful stuff that I totally would have bought if I didn't think I'd be racked with guilt for spending so much.)  I had already decided I didn't want to spend more than $100 on it, and hopefully less if I could get away with it.

Eventually I found one online that was fairly cheap ($97), and fit that little space between the toilet and the sink.  It was 12" x 12" and about 4 feet tall.  So kind of smallish shelves and kind of short.  Plus, it was a light-colored wood, which was not perfect, but I decided that I could paint it since it was pretty close to what I wanted in all other respects.  I ordered it up and settled in to wait for it.

Then earlier this week I made a trip to IKEA to shop for decor for my new office, and lo and behold, saw exactly the type of thing I wanted.  Swedish magic!  I got the new etagere, took it home, and immediately started trying to assemble it.

Like all IKEA projects, inevitably there were a few things that I did wrong that I had to go back and fix, but all in all it wasn't too bad and it all came together pretty quickly.

After setting it up, I put it in the bathroom to see about size.  I'll be the first to admit, it's not perfect.  The new etagere fits in that nook, but is a little tighter than I'd want, and actually feels a little too tall somehow. 

But - it's exactly the right color and style, has more storage space than the other one, and only cost $50!  So, I think it's a good tradeoff...at least for now.  When I added all the towels onto it, along with a cute little fake plant I also picked up at IKEA, I really kind of fell in love with it.

So while I'm not 100% sure that this lovely etagere will be the solution for all time, it's by far the best thing I can think of for that weird space right now.  And since I didn't spend that much on it, I feel good about considering it kind of an experiment.  I think the colors are perfect, so it's just a question of what is the right way to use that space.

It's such a HUGE improvement over the way it looked before!  Sorry to keep doing this, I just get such a kick out of seeing the difference. 

Doesn't the light look different in there somehow?  I swear I didn't change it, I think the whole thing just looks so much lighter now that there's not that oppressive yellow and the sad-looking shower curtain.  It's weird that those things didn't seem that bad when I had them, I just thought they could be improved upon.  But now I'm looking at that picture and I can't believe I had it like that for 6 1/2 years!

Next up: installing a couple of hooks I ordered for my bathrobes and towels.  And someday, art!

Adding some weight

Nothing too dramatic to report today, just some small progress on the color scheme in the bathroom.  I had temporarily put a cheap IKEA shower curtain in there as a placeholder a few weeks ago so that I could start using the shower again and spare myself the oh-so-strenuous hike up the stairs to the spare bathroom.

It wasn't bad, but after a while, having all that white between the floor, the fixtures, and the curtain, started to make the room feel super washed-out.  But I'm glad I got this "practice" curtain, because it helped to point me in the right direction, I think.  Having this washed-out feeling made me feel more sure that I needed to get a curtain that had a little more weight to it, color-wise.  At the same time, I didn't want it to get too dark, so I thought a good solution would be to get something with a bright, somewhat intense color. 

Here are a couple of the options I considered that had the green and brown color scheme I was initially interested in:

And I also briefly experimented with thinking about some other color schemes that I thought might be fun, like this crazy tropical orange print that sort of reminded me of Nepal.

But the one I settled on was this Ikat print that I saw at Target.  It had a cool modern print (what is the definition of Ikat, anyway?), and I liked the brightness of the colors.  Plus, in this picture, it was up against a wall that's basically the same color as mine, so it was easy to see how well they fit together.  Sold!

So here it is all hung up and ready for action in my bathroom!  Woot!

I like brightness of the green in there - it kind of reminds me of the crazy green I have on the kitchen walls, so that's nice.  The blue is also a nice accent because it's not really a color I have anywhere else in the house, so it's a pretty little surprise when you go in.  While I was buying the shower curtain, I also picked up a little rug and some towels - because obviously you can't ever go to Target without walking out having spent way more money than you intended to when you went in.

 And what happened to the old shower curtain, you may ask?  Since the new one is a cloth curtain, I decided to re-purpose the old one to be a liner and go inside the tub.

It's kind of the same color, so it doesn't look toooootally crazy...right?  I don't think anyone will really see it, anyway, except for the person actually inside the shower, so I'm not too worried about it.

I'm sad to report that I've temporarily stalled in my purchasing of the etagere for the moment, due to budgetary constraints, but hope to be able to show that to you soon, as well as some bathrobe hooks for the wall.  Yay storage!

Mirror, mirror - now on the wall!

It's here, guys!

The mirror that I ordered online last week has arrived!  It showed up on my doorstep today and like a 5-year-old on Christmas Day, I immediately hauled it inside and started unwrapping it without even taking off my coat.

The frame is made out of these cool, unevenly layered wood pieces.  It's just the right amount of texture that I was hoping for.  Not super-rustic, but just enough to make it an interesting piece.  In order to hang it up, I had to do some fancy math because it had these two hooks on the back, so I had to measure in order to center it over the vanity, and then measure where the nails would match up with the two hooks.  And I kind of failed.

This was my first try, where I somehow ended up about half an inch too far to the right.  (I mean, hey, I'm the girl who took Calculus twice, so what did I expect?)  See how it's inching much closer to the right edge of the vanity?  Argh.  So I pulled it out, moved everything back to the left, and tried again.  Second time was better as far as centering, but I'm a little worried it's hanging a little low - hmmmm....

I mean, it's a perfect height for me, but I know plenty of folks who have several inches on me, so it might be a little off.  I'll leave it alone for now, and continue to assess.  In all other aspects, I'm really happy with the mirror. 

It definitely makes the room feel bigger to have it up on the wall finally, and having that darker color in there helps to make all the lighter colors pop more.  So now that I have this big step taken care of, I'm starting to scheme about what comes next.  For this, I (natch) need to bring back the ol' order of operations, so here's where we're at.

1. Take down hardware

2. Buy tool to remove coat hook screws and spackle over holes

3. Remove anchors for mirror and spackle over holes

4. Spackle over nail holes

5. Clean baseboards and walls

6. Paint!

7. Replace shower curtain rod

8. Buy new shower curtain, towels, and rug

9. Replace shower head

9. Buy and install new mirror

10. Buy and install new towel rod, toilet paper dispenser, and coat hook(s)

11. Think about shelving and how to create additional space

12. Buy and install new shelving

13. Figure out how to cover enormous holes where hand towel holder was

14. Buy and install new hand towel holder

15. Buy and install new lighting

Those of you keeping score at home will have noticed I crossed off "think about shelving and how to create additional space."  I've spent a few hours today perusing the interwebs to try to help solve this conundrum.  First, it might help to see a picture of what used to be in there.  There was a single towel rack...

...and then a shelf for various toiletries, and the hand towel holder.

One of the things that I want to try to avoid going forward is having storage stuff on both the wall over the toilet, and also the wall facing the toilet.  I think it just makes it feel cramped.  So in my internet exploration, I discovered a piece of furniture I didn't even really know existed, but which seems kind of awesome to me: the over-the-toilet etagere (Francophiles, please excuse my lack of accents, I don't know how to type them in!).

How cool is this?  What a smart idea.  I feel like this could solve a lot of my problems - use the space above the toilet for storage (and get extra storage to boot!), and avoid needing to add anything to the wall facing the toilet.  Not to worry, I haven't forgotten that I need to store drying towels somewhere - I'm thinking that I will add a couple of wall hooks that I could use rather than the rack.  So I'm going to keep looking for etagere options along these lines, and will hopefully have something to show for it soon!

In search of The Perfect Mirror

I apologize, readers, because once again I don't have a whole lot of updates...but I will soon.  Believe it or not, I actually have been busy working on the bathroom, but just don't have a lot to show for it yet, so it still looks like this.

So what have I been doing?  I've been to at least 6 stores over the past couple weeks and have been visiting websites daily looking for mirrors.  I still feel like it's important to get the mirror figured out first and let that set the tone for the rest of the room.  But finding one that's the right size, right shape, right color, and right "feel" has been really difficult.  Plus, a couple different times I've picked one out and hesitated on buying it only to have it snatched out from under me (virtually, that is).  While I don't have a specific description of what I'm looking for, I do have some general guidelines:

• Something that is oval or rectangular, and is fairly large-scale to expand the amount of reflected space in the room and hopefully make the room feel bigger
• Something that is a dark brown finish (preferably wooden but not necessarily)
• Something that has some texture - again, I picture something wooden, but it doesn't have to be that.  I think I'd like it to feel "natural" but not rustic.  It has to have a certain amount of polish. 

After all this difficulty, today I decided that waiting for The Perfect Mirror might take a million years, and I should pull the trigger on something inexpensive just to get things moving along.  So I actually bought two!  One I got for $30 from Home Goods (and am planning to return it), and the second one I found later on Overstock.com for $100.  It's rectangular, pretty good-sized, and has the right combination of texture and polish, so I thought it was worth taking a chance on.  Here's a picture of the detail:

I think it's pretty good, but having not seen it in person, I guess I could be wrong.  It'll arrive this week, so once I put it up, I'll give an update!

Baby steps in the bathroom

It took me a little while, but I did finally make some more progress - admittedly small - on the bathroom this week.  The first thing I did was give the tub a total scrubbing while I had everything taken down.  I thought about taking before and after pictures to show you the dramatic difference, but in the end decided the potential for embarrassment outweighed the usefulness of posting such pictures.  It's not that I haven't ever cleaned it, but I don't think the periodic cleanings I have done were as intense as this one.  So long story short, it's super-clean, and I burned a few calories while cleaning!

After doing this, I made a trip to IKEA to scout out new furnishings for the bathroom.  I specifically wanted to leave with a shower curtain rod, a cheap shower curtain, and some rings, and this I pulled off.  I also wanted to go to just see what other hardware or bathroom storage options they had, in case there was something cute and cheap, and this part was a little less successful.  There was cute stuff, but it just felt a little too...Scandinavian...for this room.  Kind of cold, when I'm looking for something with a little more personality.  [Racial.]

So I ended up spending around $20 to get the curtain rod, curtain and rings.

I see this as kind of a temporary solution.  While it's not the most amazing thing I've ever seen, it actually does look better than this picture shows.  The shower curtain is white, but somehow in this picture it looks like ecru or something.  At any rate, I just needed to get something cheap up so I could start using the shower again, but this could be a step in the right direction.  Much improved from this, right?

If nothing else, see how the shower curtain in the old room used to be way too long?  It was because the shower curtain rod was set up too low, so the curtain brushed the ground and got all gunked up on the bottom.  So I've fixed that in the new set-up.

I've also been thinking about what I want the room to eventually look like, and have been shopping for mirrors.  I see the mirror as the starting place, because I'd like it to be a big piece of art in the room, not just a utilitarian hotel-style mirror like the old one.  Depending on the mirror I choose, I think it could have a big effect on what the rest of the hardware in the room looks like.  Generally, though, I'm still thinking I'd like it to be kind of "nature-y" and green.  Because there's no windows in there, I can't actually put plants in the room, but I'm trying to figure out a way to imitate that feeling.  I have these dark brown rattan cup and toothbrush holders, so you can kind of see what a dark brown and green color scheme would look like in there.

Along those lines, here's a mirror I especially liked from Pottery Barn.

I found it yesterday, and was THIS CLOSE to buying it because it was on sale and I thought it fit the vibe of the room that I was trying to create, but decided it was prudent to give it a day to think about it.  False!  Apparently waiting 24 hours was too long, because today I went to look at it again and it's sold out.  Boooooooooooooo.  So now I'm back to square one.

Besides shopping for a mirror, the other thing I will be focusing on is replacing the coat hook that was on the far wall behind the door.  I finally got my hands on a tool to get the old hardware screws out, so I started repairing the holes in the wall, and will need to figure out what to do in that space next.  Stay tuned!

Neutrality

It's been a busy week!  Since I took down all the hardware in my bathroom, including the shower curtain and mirror, I haven't really been able to use it at all, so I've been motivated to get moving on my big makeover project.  Before I could get started with the painting, I had to do a lot of prep work to get everything ready. 

My first challenge was to try to figure out whether or not I could remove these anchors that had been securing the screws holding in all of the hardware.

I talked to the guy at the hardware store, and he told me that you could just unscrew them if they were Phillips head types (some of them were), and if they weren't, then you're supposed to just push them back into the wall.  I expressed my shock at this - how can the most elegant solution be to just hammer the hell out of it?  Well, I checked the internet and sure enough it confirmed that that is the preferred solution.  At least it provided an answer to one nagging question, which was what on earth happened to create these holes?

Remember, these are the ones where in unscrewing the hardware, I ended up pushing something back behind the wall?  Well, apparently that's what's supposed to happen.  Then you're supposed to just patch up these holes and move on.  So there were some easy Phillips head anchors that I easily pulled out, and then there were a bunch of other ones that were the less-helpful kind.  These I did try to hammer a bit, but just felt like if I did any more I was going to do some serious structural damage to the wall.  So I stopped when they were pretty flush, and decided to try to fix the rest of it by spackling it up real good.

After doing all the remaining holes like this, I let it dry and then sanded it down to get it flat.  I actually did it a couple of times if I felt like it wasn't totally flat.  Here's what it looked like at that stage in the process:

After getting all of that done, I gave the walls, baseboards, shower, and countertop a wipedown so that I could start painting.  (You'll have to forgive the dirtiness of the tub - it will also get a wipedown once everything is a little more organized)  So without further ado, here's the new look!

Isn't it funny how close the new color of the walls is to the color of the tub?  That was totally unintentional, but I think it's a happy accident.  If you look up at the picture of the tub with the yellow walls, it really emphasizes the difference in the color of the tube from the white floor and trim and just ends up looking dingy.  With this new color, it kind of blends into the walls and looks better, I think.  I mean, don't get me wrong, that tub has to go eventually, but this helps me live with it a while longer.

The color is a nice change of pace.  It's definitely a more relaxing, but more refined color.  Here's a picture I found for inspiration of where I'd like to go with this eventually.

I think this coloring will tie in nicely with the other colors in the house - I'm really into the "natural" colors of the brown and the green, apparently.  I think it'll also just be a calmer room, in comparison to the yellow, which was not a bad color, but very intense.

While it was nice that this painting took me a relatively short amount of time because of the small size of the room, it was also one of my biggest challenges.  I kept backing up or bumping into walls every time I turned around, which resulted in a lot of awesome smudging.

So, to review what needs to happen next, here's the list:

1. Take down hardware

2. Buy tool to remove coat hook screws and spackle over holes

3. Remove anchors for mirror and spackle over holes

4. Spackle over nail holes

5. Clean baseboards and walls

6. Paint!

7. Replace shower curtain rod

8. Buy new shower curtain, towels, and rug

9. Replace shower head

9. Buy and install new mirror

10. Buy and install new towel rod, toilet paper dispenser, and coat hook(s)

11. Think about shelving and how to create additional space

12. Buy and install new shelving

13. Figure out how to cover enormous holes where hand towel holder was

14. Buy and install new hand towel holder

15. Buy and install new lighting

The coat hook was the only one of the hardware thingies that I couldn't remove yet, because it has completely different square-shaped screws, which I couldn't find a tool to fit.  The next thing I'm trying is borrowing one of those little IKEA wrenches to see if that works.  If not, then it's back to the hardware store.  Once those screws come out, I will still have to spackle and paint the holes.

But that might tie in just fine with some other spackling and painting that I think I need to go back and do.  Once I got all the paint up, it was easier to see where my spackling had been less successful, and where you could still see a little bit of the anchors poking through.  

I'm not tooooooo worried about it, because I think in most cases the new hardware will just cover up where these spots are, but I want to give it one more shot with the spackle to see if I can flatten it out a bit more.  

With those wee projects, and shopping for a new mirror and shower curtain, I'll be busy again this week.  Till next time!

My blank yellow canvas

Well hey there, readers, sorry it's been a while since I've posted.  I've been "pausing and reflecting" (shout out to my SPCO homies) to more or less figure out what to do next.  When I last left you, I had been looking at the overall to-do list in the house, and narrowed it down to painting the bathroom.  It seemed like a fairly cheap and easy thing to do that would have a big impact.  Remember this place?

Given the color palette I came up with before, I decided that I wanted the bathroom to be a nice neutral, relaxing place in a house that is otherwise filled with a lot of intense color.  So I started doing probably the MOST exciting thing I can think of (sarcasm noted): sorting through various shades of beige.  It really was shocking how different they looked when I really started digging through them, so I'm glad I did it.  At one point I had about nine of them hanging up on the wall in the bathroom.  I won't bore you with pictures of those because they would honestly all look the same.  I finally narrowed it down to one called Durango Dust that I thought was a nice complement to the Boothill Brown that's in the hallway just outside the bathroom.  So western of me, eh?  (I painted a swatch on the wall, but I'm not going to give you a picture of that either because with the crazy yellow walls and the crazy yellow light in there you wouldn't have even been able to see it.  Guess you'll just have to contain your excitement and wait for the big reveal!)

In preparation for the painting, I started taking down all the hardware that's in the bathroom.  I did it partly because I thought it would be easier to paint around, but also because I just don't really like it that much and am thinking I'd like to swap it out for something else...maybe something in a darker finish.  Now that I had my fun with the door hinges, I've become totally obsessed with having everything in that oil-rubbed bronze finish.

So the list of hardware removed includes the toilet paper holder, two towel rods, the shelf, the mirror, the shower rod, and a hook that I use for my bathrobe.  Oh, and my picture of the Abbey Road album cover that was hanging on the wall.  Here's what it looked like when everything was cleaned out.  Well, almost everything - while I mostly moved out of this bathroom into the upstairs one while this project is going on, I left a few essentials down there so I can keep using it occasionally.  

Love that orangey-beige shower, right?  Ugh - it's on the list for someday.  Someday.

CRAZY!!!  It's very echo-y in there right now...kind of creepy.  You may be wondering what those black hole-shaped things are all over the walls.  They're actually the remnants of the anchors that held up all the hardware.  Close up, they look like this:

There were these big chunky ring-shaped things that were screwed in with these big screws, which appear to also have been held in place with these anchors.  So for each of these, I'm going to need take out the anchors and paint over it.  I'm not quite ready to spackle over the holes quite yet, just because I don't know yet what my replacement hardware will be, and who knows, it just might fit?

Of course, this couldn't be completely simple.  There are two of these ring things that are causing me problems.  Here's one of them.  This first picture was taken when I kept unscrewing and unscrewing and unscrewing and it just wasn't ending.  I peered in there a little bit, and it looked like there was some kind of brace actually inside the wall that the screws were being screwed into - like, it was BEHIND the holes.

So I kept plugging away at the unscrewing, and the did indeed come out, several inches later, and sure enough, the brace thing just dropped off the back...INTO THE WALL.  Weird.  How on earth did it even get in there?  I may never know.

So now there's some metal thing inside my wall and I have no idea how to cover over these holes.  They're about 3/4" wide, so simple spackling is not going to work.  And I don't know enough about construction to know what my options are, so I'll have to look into that a bit more.  Hmmmm.  There's also a weird thing happening with the ring thing for the hook.  It's got some oddly-shaped square screws that will require me finding some other tool to get them out, so I'll work out that in the next few days.

As I was spending all this time removing and unscrewing things, it got me thinking about everything I was going to have to do to put the room back together.  And thinking about all that stuff started feeling overwhelming, because there's a lot of choices that have to be made in a certain order to avoid re-doing things and to get myself back living in the bathroom as soon as possible.  So - of course - what did I do?  I made a list.  Yeah, no one's surprised.  I'm calling this my "order of operations."

1. Take down hardware

2. Buy tool to remove hook screws and spackle over holes

3. Remove anchors for mirror and spackle over holes

4. Spackle over nail holes

5. Clean baseboards and walls

6. Paint!

7. Replace shower rod

8. Buy new shower curtain, towels, and rug

9. Replace shower head

9. Buy and install new mirror

10. Buy and install new towel rod, toilet paper dispenser, and hook(s)

11. Think about shelving and how to create additional space

12. Buy and install new shelving

13. Figure out how to cover enormous holes where hand towel holder was

14. Buy and install new hand towel holder

15. Buy and install new lighting

Yeesh.  Isn't making a list supposed to make you feel better?  The plan is to get through items 1 through 6 this weekend, and then as quickly as I can after that move on to 7 and 8 so I can start using the shower again.  As much as I love getting a little bit of exercise climbing the stairs to use the other shower every day, it will be nice to have this one back.