Vintage Bathroom Makeover {Part 4}

 

 

Happy hump day everyone! I hope that you are having a fantastic day so far. Things are fab here! I survived the "Great Disaster Room Cleanout of 2014" and will show you the updates this week. It is amazing what 14 hours of hard labor can do for a massive mess! So that is one step closer to being really moved into the house...and I am so excited! I wanted to stop by today to show you where we are with the guest bathroom. Last time we checked-in, I showed you the floors, wainscoting and subway tile shower surround. So today, I wanted to show you the latest version since all of the "hardscape" is in and we are now just left with accessorizing. Happy days!!! As a reminder, here is the upstairs floor plan before we started the renovation and the guest bathroom is highlighted in yellow: 

 

As I have previously mentioned, one of the main reasons for our renovation was to update and enlarge our tiny bathrooms. Although the bathrooms had a fun vintage look, it was not the look we were going for. Here is what the vanity area looked like before the renovation:

 

 

And here is what the shower/toilet area looked like:

 

 

So as you can see, super dark and super tiny!!! In order to make it so that two people could get ready at the same time, we decided to make a separate vanity area and a separate shower/toilette area. Here is the floor plan for the remodeled second floor and the new bathroom is highlighted in yellow:

 

As I previously mentioned, we were going for a 1920's vintage feel with carrara marble, white subway tiles, and dark cabinets. This is the original mood board that I made for the bathroom:

 

 

And here is how she turned out! This is a view looking into the vanity area from the shower/toilet room:

 

 

We have a double vanity on the right side of the room. And on the left side, we have two floor to ceiling linen cabinets. This is a fairly tight space, but between the vanity and the two linen cabinets, we have a TON of storage!!! We also added the white wainscoting to give the room a tailored look and chose a cool grey to play off of the carrara marble counter tops.  One of my favorite features of the bathroom though is the basket weave tile "floor mat" that we added in the vanity area:

I absolutely LOVE the way that it turned out!!! To me, the floor gives a super retro vibe and is a fun surprise. And please excuse the quality of the following picture, but here is what the bathroom looks like when you enter from the hallway.

You can't tell from that picture (because I was using my IPone), but there is about an 8" space between each side of the vanity and the wall...so the vanity actually looks like a piece of furniture as opposed to a built-in cabinet. Now moving onto the shower/toilet room.  In the shower I chose white subway tile for the shower surround, a large goose neck shower head (because there are many 6'4"+ men in my family that will visit), and a hand shower that I can use to more easily bath children (once they join the picture):

In the middle of the shower, to break up some of monotony of the subway tiles, I added a framed herringbone feature. 

 I am so excited with the way it turned out! I think it is super elegant with a splash of fun. And on the back side of the shower we added a train rack to hang robes and store towels for our guests:

 

 

The train rack is so pretty!!! It makes me not want to hang a shower curtain so that I can see it all the time.  And as you can see from the picture above, I also added a little bench at the end of the tub. I thought this would be a great place to sit when bathing kiddos and also will be a nice place for them to store their bath toys. So there you have it folks! I still have a ton to do with all the accessorizing, but have made huge progress! And speaking of progress, lets check out a couple before and afters shall we?!?!?!

And one more of the shower area! So much better!!!!

 



 

 Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!!!

 

Now That We Are Moved In, It's Time To Organize!!!

 

I still cannot believe that we are finally moved into the house!!! I keep pinching myself to make sure that it is not a dream. However, when I realize that it is in fact true and that all those millions hundreds of boxes stacked around our house are really there, I start to feel like I am in a bit of nightmare.  EEK!!!

 

 

But hey, let's keep it real, I would WAY rather be dealing with "Revenge of the Boxes" than still waiting to get into the house. So whose complaining...NOT THIS GAL! We basically spent all day Saturday moving the remainder of our belongings from the apartment to the casa so that we could have everything in one place (and because Sunday was our last day) and started the long unpacking process on Sunday. We decided to adopt the "snowball method" (thanks to my brother's advise) and get one room unpacked at a time, starting with the most important - the master bathroom and closet.  Matt tackled his clothes in the closet while I started unpacking and organizing all the stuff that was "supposed" to fit in the master vanity. I say "supposed to fit" because we I have WAY more bathroom stuff than any one human could possibly ever need in a lifetime would fit in our vanity.  As evidence, here are all the "Master Bath" boxes that we had in storage (you can't tell from this picture, but the poor tub is full of boxes too):

 

 

 And here is all the stuff that came over from the apartment:

 

Seriously, it is a bit ridiculous! Oh well, onward and upward.  So first things first, I had to come up with a plan of attack. Here is a diagram of our master vanity and the drawer layout:

 

 

As you can see, Matt and I each have six 3" deep drawers, two 8" deep drawers and under-sink storage.  I also have a 1.25" deep drawer over the knee space.  So we have lots of drawer storage and a good amount of storage space under the sink:

However, we do not have a linen closet in our master bathroom. Back in January, I showed you how I organized the bathroom in the apartment and the linen closet played a staring roll in my organization plan. Basically, I stored all of my bathroom products (divided into seven categories) in separate bins inside the closet:

 



Although this plan works flawlessly if you have a handy linen closet near by, it is an epic fail when you try to fit everything under your sink!

So, that meant I needed to head back to the drawing board to come up with a new organization plan for our master vanity. It was a bit cramped in the bathroom with all the boxes, so for Phase #1, I created a staging area in the master bedroom to give me room to see everything:

I first moved all the organized bins from the apartment to the staging area. Then I unpacked all the boxes from storage and added the new products to their respective category:

Now that I could see what I had, Matt and I ran over to Container Store to pick-up some much needed supplies and came back with quite the haul! 

 

Now that I had my supplies and my bathroom products separated into more easily manageable categories, it was time for Phase 2: Go through each pile and figure out what will be kept and what would be trashed /recycled (because nothing is worth donating).  I decided to start with my makeup, because who doesn't love playing with makeup???

As I have mentioned before, I have a serious hording problem with throwing things away, and makeup is no exception!  I had a Caboodle (the same one that I have had since 5th grade...no hoarding problems here I promise!!!), a travel bag (the same one that I took to summer camp for the first time in 3rd grade...okay, so maybe a little problem), a 12"x12"x12" metal basket, a ziplock bag, and two makeup bags full of makeup, as well as my airbrush kit. 



That my friends is a serious amount of makeup!!! As I went through everything, I again separated the makeup into categories: (1) eye shadow, (2) blush/bronzer, (3) foundation/powder; (4) eye liner; (5) lips; and (6) brows:

I also made a trash pile of products that I don't use anymore, that were super old, or that were basically empty (all those mascara tubes that I kept because they had a tiny bit left at the time and now are a dried up mess, yummy)...which turned out to be the biggest pile by far:

Evidently I have kept some of this make-up for over a decade and found some serious gems:

Can I get a "What! What!" for blue glitter eyeliner, blue eyeshadow and hot pink lipstick! They are so money and take me back to the sorority days!  Holla!!!  I planned to store all of my makeup in the center 1.25" drawer because it was the largest drawer (approximately 19" deep by 17" wide):

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the drawer is only 1.25" deep...and all the super cool containers at the Container Store that could work for drawer storage were too deep (the smallest ones that we found were 2" deep).  As I was wandering the aisles looking for inspiration, I came across the drawer liner section of the store and found this soft, thick, white liner that was a bit tacky on each side (not tacky in the sence that residue would get on you, but tacky in the sence that it would stick to the drawer without tape): 

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Since I was planning on storing my makeup brushes in the drawer, I knew I needed a liner to protect the inside of the drawer.  And that is when the lightbulb went off!  Instead of trying to use baskets and dividers to store my makeup in the drawer, why not just lay it all out??? Once we got home, I measured the drawer space and cut the liner to size.  Then I started laying out my makeup and brushes in the drawer, starting with the makeup that I use most often (my daily work makeup kit):

I then continued sorting through my "keep" makeup pile and pulled out the other products that I use fairly regularly when I want to mix things up or am going out.  I kept the products organized by category (e.g., eye shadow and color pots, eye liner, blushes/bronzers, lipstick, etc.), fit everything together like a puzzle, and ended up with this:

And I absolutely LOVE it!!!  I have all of my "go to" makeup displayed in an easy to identify manner and because the liner is a bit tacky, everything stays in place when I open and shut the drawer.  This is also good, because it will force me to adopt the "one-in-one-out" method and only buy the makeup that I really need.  I then put all the duplicate makeup I have in a travel case and stored it, along with my airbrush makeup kit (which I use daily, but which didn't fit in the shallow drawer) in one of my 8" deep drawers. 

 

I am so excited that I have jumped my first organization hurdle and love how my makeup drawer turned out!  No digging and unloading when I need to find the products I need, I just simply have to open the drawer and TADAH, everything is at my fingertips!  This little project gives me confidence that I just might be able to accomplish my goal of an organized house with a-place-for-everything-and-everything-in-its-place!  As the late great Neil Armstrong said:

 

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Now it's time to keep this ball rolling and to tackle the rest of my bathroom products! But in the meantime, let's take one more look at the "Before and After" shall we?

 

 

 Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope that you enjoyed it and have a wonderful week!!!