When The Husbands Away, The Wife Will Play

With the house, of course!

A few weeks ago, My home - My life asked if any of her followers had accomplished any major changes while their husbands were away. And - alas - I have. I did this a while back (yet it is still unfinished) but I thought I would share since it is new to you.

Before my husband started his fairly new job, he took a trip to Colombia to visit with his family. I took this time to completely re-decorate our guest bathroom.

Here is the before:

(photo taken on our first tour of the home - previous owner's decor)

This is bad. But I'm not sure you grasp the hurt that this room is in. Can you see the awful floral wallpaper and wallpaper border around the tile? And that wooden shutter? Don't get me wrong - I love shutters. But why half the window? This totally reminds me of the 80s because I think I had these on my bedroom windows when I was like 5. So - all of this had to go.

Does anyone know what happens when you take down wallpaper in an old house? You NEVER know what you might find! We (my partner in crime, mom, and I) found really rough walls - as if some large cabinets or fixtures had been hanging there before but were taken down and it was disguised with wallpaper. How did I fix this? I took some sand and threw it in the paint! I had always heard about this treatment on HGTV and the likes but had never tried it. It actually turned out really well!

Let me know what you think!

(the room is long and skinny so hard to get the entire room in one shot with my lack of photography skills)


Here is how we pulled it off. I really wanted this brown zebra print pattern somewhere in the room but didn't want to go overboard. I thought towels might be a nice way to include this but didn't want to have to stock it full of $15 towels. So we bought one, then took the brown towels I already had and added a brown ribbon edge to the detailing to bring in the brown in the zebra print.The piece on the wall above the towels was my mom's. She put it in the yard sale for $3 so I had to 'buy' it! :)Mom bought me this cute urn when she saw the wall color I picked out. And you can really see the texture of the paint in this one. I love it!The bamboo shade was on sale at Home Depot for $12!
Things I'd still like to do in here:

• Need reeds / sticks for the urn on the counter
• Would like to frame out the mirror with molding
• Need a new rug - still using just a plain white one I had. I'd love a brown zebra print runner but may go with one of those plain rattan rugs with a dark brown border.
  
• Yea - and the cabinets probably need to be painted but that is a long way from now. Kitchen first. But I'll probably do the laundry room first to experiment.
  

I didn't really care for the white tile before but I think it kind of pops now with the green. I wouldn't chose it - but I'll learn to love it.

I went the entire week without telling him what I was doing! I'm so proud of myself for keeping it from him. I usually just get so excited about it I'll spill the beans - but not this time. So Lucas was totally surprised when he came back. I think he was glad I had done it and he didn't even have to help.

Thanks for your help, Mom!

Of course, I love your feedback :)