I think three days might be the record for hanging out in my bathroom. It’s getting a little claustrophobic with all of you in such a small space!
In appreciation of your perseverance, I’m pulling together a “before and after” post of the re-model… After all, nothing says “thanks for reading along” like pictures of a really ugly tub.
Okay, you’ve seen my William-Sonoma Conspiracy and read my Cat Friendly Foliage Confession… Now I can reveal my final Simple Bathroom Hack featuring one of my most trusted and favorite solutions – PAINT.
It’s the bomb.
Here is a picture of the medicine cabinet that we bought at Home Depot for $89.00 (I really preferred the one at Restoration Hardware, but if you’ve ever seen their price tags, you’ll understand why we didn’t get that one! Cha Ching!?!).
(Sorry, this isn’t quite exactly the same mirror… I guess they aren’t selling mine anymore, but this one is close except for the hardware.)
Here is a picture of the medicine cabinet now….
The mirror was originally white, constructed of formica-covered-particle-board with silver hardware. We liked the style, but wanted to have bronze hardware and a yellow casing to match the trim…
Fortunately, they were easy fixes.
We lightly sanded the frame to create a more porous surface, and then applied a thick coat of tinted primer*. We painted over the primer with latex semi-gloss, and tada, a customized yellow medicine cabinet!
(In this case we means Nature Boy.)
We had a similarly simple fix for the cabinet’s hardware — it was silver, but we wanted bronze to match the faucet. Nature Boy removed the hardware from the cabinet and then spray painted everything a few times with Rust-oleum Universal All Surface Paint (in “Brown Hammered” in case you were curious)**
Pretty snazzy, huh? You would never know it wasn’t bronze through and through!***
We also did a simple hack to make the cabinet recessed (it was intended to be wall mounted but we didn’t have the space under our light fixture). Our contractor traced the outline of the cabinet onto the sheet rock and then cut out the hole to slide it in. After some plastering, it was seamless. Hack for my hack!
Our total cost was about $100 which probably doesn’t qualify for “frugal of the year,” but since the one I was imitating was well over $500, I was pleased with myself. I celebrated over a bowl of chocolate ice cream.
Gotta love paint!
* My mom introduced me to the idea of tinted primer – it doesn’t cost a penny, but it makes painting so much easier! Just ask your Paint Dude to “tint the primer” to match the final paint color. That way the primer is reinforcing the wall color (instead of just being white!)
** Spray paint is a great solution for lots of little fixes — switch plates, nuts, bolts, and eye hooks have all received the bronze spray paint treatment around our house. Much cheaper than buying the real thing. We spent about $9.00 and have barely used any… Should last a while.
*** We did a similar upgrade with the bathroom vanity using spray paint, milk paint, furniture wax and sand paper. I really love milk paint – it’s very forgiving.
Here was the before (right out of the box, pretending to be a vanity since we were so excited that we might have plumbing in our future)….
Here was the during….
And here is the after!
Yes, those are Silsby’s feet in this picture.
Her brother wanted in on the action too….
And the dog…..
I
told you it was crowded in here!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Well first of all it's beautiful! You make me feel good about being too broke to afford the expensive stuff! I may have to put my own "Nature Boy" to work on a few home projects! Our entire home needs a few upgrades. Thanks for the inspiration!
ROFL!! When I go to the bathroom, I have at least one animal in there with me and sometimes I have the dog and both cats in there with me.
One day a yelled for my husband and when he came to see what I wanted, I told him he was the only one not in the bathroom with me and now my bathroom visit was complete!
KristinBrianne: Oh yeah, if we can do it, you can! We're not the most creative types, but where there's a will, there's a way!
Sharon: my "entourage" normally includes the little guy too, but since he was napping I got off easy. Isn't it nice to know that we have such magnetic personalities? People and Pets just flock to our sides!
Ok, both your cats are simply stunning! I need to find cats like that locally so I can do a "photoshoot". I'm sure my kitties would love to have pictures of other people's cats on the walls.
What kind of cats are they? I refuse to believe they are simply everyday domestic medium/long haired cats.
And I love how even the most stunning of cats is still a cat in behaviour, trying to interrupt bathroom time and bother the pup.
Thanks! I would tell our feline friends about your nice words but their egos would explode. You know how cats are!
They are both Somalis (which is the long haired version of an abyssinian). My whole family is addicted to them. Between my parents and sisters we have eight!!
They are known as the cat for dog lovers 'cause they are so outgoing. Lots of fun.
thanks for the comment!