Boys' Bathroom Redo (Phase 1)

I know I mentioned a few posts ago that our next home improvement project was going to be board and batten in the dining room.  I lied.  Well, I didn't mean to lie, but one thing led to another and I ended up redoing the boys' bathroom. It all started when the night light burned out in Carson and Jonas' room. Carson woke up terrified of the dark, and did what any resourceful little boy would do: went into the bathroom, grabbed the Scentsy plug-in warmer (which was turned on and full of hot wax) and took it to his room and plugged it in.  I had no idea what he'd done until the next morning when Jonas came running out of the bathroom yelling, "Mom!  Carson got blood all over the bathroom!"  I ran in to see red wax all over (and was very thankful that it wasn't really blood!). The wax came off of everything easily, except for the paint.  It just kept peeling it up no matter what I did, even running a blow dryer on it to re-melt it didn't work.

I didn't have any brown paint left over to touch it up.   When I first painted the bathroom, I had used the left over paint from an accent wall that I had done in my kitchen. It was one of those, "Hey I have some extra paint so I'm gonna stay up late one night and paint the bathroom" kind of things. I know that a little bit of peeling paint probably wouldn't bug some of you, but I couldn't let it rest. And to be honest, the brown paint made the bathroom look waaaaay too dark. So, because I am a "ready, shoot, aim" kind of person (as my husband so kindly tells me) I went down stairs, grabbed some aqua paint samples (that I had left over from the nursery), and painted streaks all over the bathroom.

Then I went to Home Depot (with all four kids in tow) and broke one of my own painting rules: I grabbed a paint sample card and went with it. I didn't like any of the shades of aqua I had tried and just wanted to get the painting done (because, you know, it had already been three days and I have the patience of a two year old when it comes to projects like this).  Well, this time around, it was a success and I picked a color that I love, love, love (Almost Aqua by Glidden)! These pictures do NOT do it justice.  It is gorgeous. You need to see it in person.

As you can tell, new paint meant a new shower curtain and a new shelf for the towels.  And new towels. Jeff laughs at my sign above the toilet...he says it has a double meaning for little boys who don't aim the greatest when using the potty...I think it encourages creativity :). If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have seen that I pinned a picture of a shelf like this a few weeks ago. Since Jeff was home for a week, he made me one, mostly out of wood we already had. We were able to paint it with left over trim paint our builder had left in our basement. It ended up being a pretty cheap alternative to the nasty towel bar that was there before.

A few years ago, I read in a parenting magazine about assigning each child a certain color of bath towel.  That way you would always know who had left a towel out and who was in charge of putting it away.  I'd been wanting to do this ever since, and was telling my mom about it.  She surprised me and sent some new towels the other day.  I was so excited! Thanks Mom! Now I just need to invest in a second set so we can rotate them while the dirty ones are in the laundry.

So the bathroom is almost done.  Phase 2 will include framing out the mirror and making a t-shirt rug  (both Pinterest ideas)...and crown molding to cover my nasty paint lines at the ceiling. Phase 3 will include taking out the vinyl flooring, installing tile, and getting new baseboards. Maybe if we get really ambitious we'll get a new light fixture. I have no idea when this will get done, because at our house we like to start projects and only finish them about 90% :). I have no idea why this is.  It may be that I am a bit too over zealous in home imporvement projects...I still have some things to finish up in the nursery, and Jeff needs to finish the closet shelving in the big boys' room. One thing at a time...