Sunday, March 11, 2012

A New Bathroom Look To Come


Since we are going to put our condo on the market this spring or summer, I'm thinking in terms of 'staging' it.  Take away our eclectic collection of 23 years of decorating clutter, and update it with a more modern look, putting out just enough tasteful decor pieces to look lived in, all set on a background of fresh paint in modern tones and glowing furnishings.

We haven't gotten very far in preparation.  Much of this has to do with my mother-in-law being sickly and needing my hubby to be at her place daily. I go over and help out when I can, and between that and my usual 40-hour work week, there just doesn't seem to be much time or energy left for doing the cleaning and prep work involved with painting walls and redoing finishes on bathroom counters and the like. 

A couple weeks ago, in a self-indulgent shopping trip I was browsing through the clearance section of Anna's Linens and came across this handsome shower curtain in shades of browns and beige, with a touch of yellow accent.  Some recent tours of local model homes has convinced me that shades of coffee-colored browns were very much in vogue, so these are the colors I have in mind to put on our condo walls. This shower curtain is perfect to hang in our master bath, right after we get it resurfaced. I snagged this shower curtain for the bargain price of $2. Score!

The shopping area I was in also has one of my favorite stores, Ross, in it. In perusing through the home center there, I found this attractive large fleur-de-lis. I had in mind that this was something I could put to good use if it was at all a reasonable price, and in locating the price tag, was rewarded with another clearance price - $2.50.  Wow, two complete bargains in the same hour span, it was a good haul for me. I brought them home knowing that they would work well with our upcoming color scheme.  I even had a new picture I had found on clearance a few weeks before at I believe Marshalls, which fits nicely with the new look I'm hoping to achieve.

Putting this display together I am inspired to get going on actually making these improvements. One improvement I'm currently working on getting my hubby on board with is painting the countertop in our master bath to look like granite. Our countertop is one solid molded piece incorporating the sink bowl. Around the drain in the sink are lots of small lines, a grazing effect. Beside this, there is nothing wrong with the counter and I'd really rather put our money and efforts into more serious projects. Lately I've discovered articles about a painting kit which allows you to recreate the look of granite over your existing formica - and I'll assume whatever manmade material ours is.

Giani Granite FG-GI CH BR KIT Sicilian Granite Paint Kit For Countertops, Chocolate BrownGiani Granite FG-GI CH BR KIT Sicilian Granite Paint Kit For Countertops, Chocolate Brown


It will make such a difference to transform the look of this counter, even though we know no one will be fooled that it is the real stuff. Then all we need to do is replace the flower-embellished handles on the cabinets and exchange the ugly 1980s builder light we always meant to replace and never got around to doing.  Oh, and that wall painting thing, yeah, that too.