Kids' Bathroom Renovation

Renovating the Kids' Bathroom

Renovating the kids' bathroom was a time consuming process.  When we first moved in, the walls were white, the trim was orange, and there was no charm or personality in the bedrooms or bathrooms.  The kids' bath was the first room I painted, and I decorated it in an "under the sea" theme.  I painted the walls and ceiling an aqua blue, painted fish throughout -- copying many of the sea creatures from Disney's The Little Mermaid, and then accented with stuffed animals.  We had an octopus, a seahorse, floating jellyfish (you can sort of see that hanging from the ceiling), and two "stuffed animal" scuba divers that I picked up on a trip to SeaWorld.  I even painted the bottom of a boat inside the shower area, and mounted a fishing line from the ceiling which dropped down and connected to a stuffed animal fish.  So cute!

As darling as the sea theme was, the children have since grown up.  The bathroom was in desperate need of updating, and we were now ready for a more sophisticated teen/tween his and her bathroom.  

My daughter picked out the Kate Spade shower curtain from Bed Bath & Beyond, and I got creative from there.  I painted the ceiling white.  Then I sanded, stained and sealed the orange cabinets, turning them into a beautiful mahogany.  I then sanded and painted the baseboard trim and the trim around the window frame white.  Then I painted the walls an ivory color.  

And then it got fun!

First, I painted the stripes around the middle of the room.  I fiddled with designs on paper until I got the right proportions and the right color pattern.

   

Then I painted the picture frames in my three main colors.  Painting the frames turned out to be a bit of a taping challenge.  But after having taped up the entire downstairs bathroom, I feared nothing!  I used tape to exactly represent the size and shape of the frame I wanted.  After measuring for level-ness and plumb lines, and measuring out to make sure the corresponding picture frame was identical in size and shape, I then placed a piece of tape adjacent to each piece of tape of the original taped frame. So at first, it rather looked like a blue taped frame, with a second blue taped frame taped up around the outside of the original frame.  Then, without removing the tape, I taped along the inside of the original frame. So now I had an inside frame, the original frame, and the outside frame all in blue tape.  Then I pulled off the middle pieces of tape (the original frame), and I was left with a cream colored frame from which I could begin my masterpiece.  

In order to get my crisp, clean lines, I painted along the outer edges of the blue tape and the inner edges of the blue tape with my cream colored paint.  This way I was sealing in the cream color, so that my navy (or pink or orange) frame would not bleed out onto the cream colored wall beneath the tape.  Then I painted two or three coats of my desired color frame, allowed to dry, and removed the tape.  Voilà!  A perfect picture frame!  Well, mostly perfect.  Sometimes even my best intentions didn't quite work out, and I had to go back and do a few touch ups.  But I'm a perfectionist.  :)

Next, it was time to paint in the words.  I decided to choose a variety of inspirational quotes to encourage my kiddos, and inspire them to become great people.  I figured that if they forgot their novels, they could read the walls while sitting on the potty or when brushing their teeth.

I chose quotes from their favorite books, favorite television shows, and from other quotes I've found inspiring.  From Doctor Who, I chose "Allons-y."  From Harry Potter, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."  Zsa Zsa Gabor even made the cut with, "Don't be like the rest of them, darling."

I found a great technique suggestion from Pinterest on  how to get the words up on the wall while having different fonts for each quote.  

First, I printed up the quote exactly in the size and shape and font that I wanted up on the wall.  Then I took chalk, flipped the paper over, and rubbed the chalk across the words on the side of the paper that was going to be next to the wall.  Then I carefully taped the paper, chalk side to the wall.  Then, using a ball point pen that was out of ink, I carefully traced each and every letter from the quote onto the wall.  This part took forever and a day.  And it made my arms tired.  Poor me.  Don't fret.  I stopped often and ate chocolate to recuperate.  I followed Lupin's advice to, "eat this, you'll feel better."  And I did! :)  Then I carefully removed the paper, and the letters in their perfect fonts were chalked directly onto my wall!!

Then with the utmost care, I painted over each letter.  I am rather precise and a perfectionist, so this stage also took a very long time.  I then let the whole thing dry.  When I was absolutely sure it was dry, I carefully brushed off the chalk.  Sometimes I used an *ever so very lightly* damp paper towel to remove the chalk.  Then I painted over the letters for a second coat.  And after all that, I was absolutely thrilled!

I had thoughts and wishes and dreams of perhaps changing out the quotes every year or so until they graduate from college, spicing things up.  But since it took so darned long to get the desired results, I decided, wisely I think, just to leave well enough alone.

I found the hot pink and orange apothecary bottles on the bathroom windowsill at Michael's on super sale for less than a dollar a piece.  I bought the loofahs and the hot pink and orange towels at Target.  The light fixture I bought at Lowe's.  The mirror I picked up for cheap at TJ Maxx.  

The last little bit of change had to do with the door.  At first I stripped, sanded, and painted the door white to match the rest of the trim.  But I felt profoundly disappointed.  The door looked like a cheap, plastic door.  Ugh.  So I took it off its hinges, stripped it, sanded it, stained it, and then sealed it with varnish.  The results were much better, and I was happy.  Bummed about how much extra time it took me, but pleased with the results.

Here are the two pictures of the door so you can compare.

I am so much happier with the stained door!  So happy, in fact, that I refinished all the doors upstairs to match.

My hubby changed all the electrical outlet innards to white ones, and we added new brushed nickel accessories around the room (and a brushed nickel doorknob which didn't make it into the picture).  I took down the old shower curtain rod and added in a curved one, and bought new curtain holders to go with it.  I found a liner that felt good without feeling like plastic, to line the inside of the cloth shower curtain.  Then I changed the faucet to a pretty brushed nickel faucet.  We'll be getting new granite countertops with an under mounted sink and back splashes at some point in the future, but for now, I'm just thrilled with the results. :)