Sometimes You Just Have To...

...Work with what you got!

This was the case when we first toured our home and saw the bathroom that would be for our children. Let me just say,

thank goodness that we had little ones because if we didn't, this room would have been getting a MAJOR overhaul right away!

WARNING! Busy striped wallpaper and fish tile ahead!!!

Here is the bathroom Before

Can you say "A lot going on in one little room"???

Those 2 sinks really helped me overlook what I knew would be a lot of work in store for us.
The wallpaper had to come down, the lights and faucets were all broken and needed to be replaced and the tile? Well, the tile I was just going to have to live with for awhile and decorate around.

After we began removing the wallpaper we discovered that it had been put right up on the drywall! ARGGHHH!!!

My fingernails have never fully recovered.

Here is what the room looks like now in the Daytime Hours...

Wallpaper...GONE! And with new light fixtures and faucets and cabinet knobs we brought it into this decade. I decided that even though the tile on the backsplash was "beachy" that I would go more in the direction of playing up the fun color pallette it provided, especially since it is a kid's bathroom!

Here is what the room looks like in the evening which will give you an idea of how drastically the paint color changes from day to night.

The 2 sinks are wonderful now but I know that they will be even more wonderful when we have teenagers in this house!

 This little red stool was a great find for only $12. The rag rug was $3 at Tar-jay and the colors really warm up the white tile.

I found these fun curtain panels at Lowes for $6 each and love how they add more great color and using Traditional Curtain panels versus a true Shower Curtain gives it so much more fullness. These little wooden letters representing the kids names were really fun to do and were such an inexpensive way to add some wall decor.

Just this weekend we finally got around to framing out the mirrors and it has added so much character to the room and really help to modernize the space. Even though they meet in the corner, we decided to accentuate the fact that they are 2 separate mirrors by adding the trim down the seam on either side.

How weird does my hand and the camera look sticking up in the mirror?
Do you find yourself contorting your body in all different ways to get just the "right angle"?
My one concession to the "Beachy" theme was to add these favorite family photos of our visits there.

Another inexpensive decorative element was to frame my kiddos' handprints and showcase them in their bathroom. Lauren's was obviously smudged so we helped it out by outlining it a bit!

I had to add a little bit of fall in here too of course!

I love this little red frame but love the photo in it even more!

And this is the little potty that is patiently waiting for my stubborn daughter to use regularly.

We are currently locked in the battle of the wills with a 3 year old over potty-training. So far she is winning!
And don't even THINK about leaving me comments telling me all about your tips and tricks and your success stories.
I promise you I have tried them all! Literally ALL OF THEM! She actually will hold it in until we get home and then soak through diapers/Pull-Ups which is even more frustrating because I know she has the ability to do it! Going potty and eating are 2 of the things you just can't MAKE your children do. I figure she won't go off to college still in a diaper so there is hope yet!

There is much more we want to do someday to this bathroom, but for now, the fishy tile delights my kiddos which, of course, delights me too!

Hope you have a great Monday!
From this Southern Girl at Heart,
Vanessa

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