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!