I’m guessing most of my readers have heard of the Nester, by now, but just in case you haven’t she has a great blog featuring do-able ways that we can beautify our homes. In her recent series, 10 minutes to a room you love, she gives ideas for quick fixes that can transform a room, and issued the challenge to us to take 10 minutes and make a room more appealing. You know I love a challenge, and a linky party, and that is why I am posting this right now, instead of sleeping or finishing my packing, like I should be doing…
I was excited to try this challenge, because much of my home isn’t what I would call “decorated” yet. Heck, we still have some boxes to unpack! 🙁 That, and I had an idea for a wall hanging that would cost me nothing, and would give some big impact. So I set out to improve my powder room, spending no money and just a little time.
I don’t have a before picture, but the room was pretty bare–just khaki walls and the white towels that used to look cool against the very dark blue walls of the powder room in my old house, but are now somewhat dingy-looking–especially now, in my mostly monochromatic bathroom. I want this to be a beautiful and inviting place for guests, but truthfully, my 4-year-old son is the primary user of this room, so it is often less than clean and orderly.
I had already hung this small watercolor painting that I bought from a street artist in Salzburg, Austria. It is small, but I LOVE it (and I LOVED Salzburg!). One of the things I am working on in this bigger home with high ceilings and doorways, is getting the right scale in my decor. Most everything I have feels small and insignificant. So I thought it would be fun to play around with this large wall hanging I had inherited from a friend.
The picture is OK and the frame is OK (and matches my watercolor frame), but I didn’t love them together. What I really need is some color, since, so far, colorful paint on the walls has been on the bottom of the priority list (and may stay there since hubby is reluctant to paint over “perfectly good neutral walls”).
This project only took a couple of minutes. I removed the plastic that was covering the frame because it was scratched. I took out the picture and replaced it with a small section of this cool wallpaper. Yes, wallpaper! Why did I have cool wallpaper hanging around my house? It’s because Lowes (at least in our area) was/is (?) clearing out all of their wallpaper and was selling rolls for $3/each! And there are some gorgeous ones (no,I have not always been a fan of wallpaper, but that is a topic for a whole other post). I already had the frame, and I already had this roll of wallpaper that I was planning to use for projects, and not necessarily a wall, so the total cost of my new, punch of red wall hanging was $0!!! I even just used scotch tape to tape it down to the back of the mat.
BSB (or dh, if you prefer), thought it was too big for a powder room, but I like how it fills up that wall. I still need to find the right thing(s) to go above the toilet area.
I had to clean the bathroom, first, so I’m sure this all took me more than 10 minutes, but everything I decorated with, was something I had on-hand, and quick and simple to do.
I tried oxi-cleaning my towels, but they still looked a bit dingy, so I brought in some color and hid most of the stains, by decorating with these green accent towels. They are supposed to be in my master bath, but that room isn’t at all decorated currently, so they won’t be missed. I tied up the towels using some cording I had purchased for another project and never used. I would LOVE to find a great post on ways to fold, hang, and display towels in a bathroom. Any takers?
I cleaned off my cabinet, and removed visual clutter, by taking off the blue plastic Costco wrappers from the rolls of toilet paper stored here. They are much less distracting when all you see is white. (I also made sure the garbage can, plunger, and scrubber were less visible, behind the toilet.)
I added this silver tray (from the Dollar Store, of all places), and rolled up a decorative towel (hiding stains, again), and place it and a scented jar candle, on it. It needed something more, so I found a rock (quartz, I believe). BSB is a geologist, so there are lots of cool rocks all over our house. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get thrown at the mirror!
I have had a couple of gorgeous soap dispensers, but inevitably, they get destroyed before their life expectancy expires. So for now, we just have the Bath and Body Works bottle (whose contents, I’m afraid, are all being wasted on my son). The vase of left-over Valentine’s flowers won’t last long, but the room was screaming for some more color, so I grabbed those for a quick fix. Any ideas as to what I could put in there more long-term? Btw, that cool Restoration Hardware urn/vase was also gifted me by a friend. I love that my friends give me their cool discards, because they know I’m cheap, and will find some way to use them.
Eventually, I’d like a nicer light fixture, probably some paint (or wallpaper *gasp*) on the walls, some more wall hangings, and some fresh new towels, but for now, it is encouraging to see what a few minutes and some creative thinking can do to a room!
For tons more room makeovers, visit the Nester:
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It looks very pretty!
Look at you! Good job. I hope you slept some, though. Ü
Looks great! If you have multiple silver items going on in there, you might look for another silver tray at Goodwill to hang over the toilet? Or a shelf that you could put some of your collection on? Or some cool plates that bring in your colors? It looks terrific….
Suzanne
things are looking just great…
Great job. I scored some $3 wallpaper at Lowe’s too! Haven’t figured out what to do with it yet…
Wow! Loving that wallpaper in the frame. You could always put some more of the wallpaper in the little cabinet door to hide the toilet paper/bath stuff if you wanted.
Your bathroom looks fantastic! Love how you hid all the stains by using accessories!
Love the wallpaper in the frame! What a great idea and a great pop of color.
I LOVE the towels tied idea! The wallpaper in the frame adds color. And I so NEED one of those cute little trays from the Dollar Store. Fantastic!
I Just found your blog through Nester…through another blog…ya know how it is! You click on one blog, then you find another, etc! I just read through a lot of your posts and you have great ideas! I”m looking forward to continue reading and getting some inspiration!
I Just found your blog through Nester…through another blog…ya know how it is! You click on one blog, then you find another, etc! I just read through a lot of your posts and you have great ideas! I”m looking forward to continue reading and getting some inspiration!
I Just found your blog through Nester…through another blog…ya know how it is! You click on one blog, then you find another, etc! I just read through a lot of your posts and you have great ideas! I”m looking forward to continue reading and getting some inspiration!
Hi Kendra!
Your bathroom looks beautiful. I love that wallpaper you framed. It brings such a pop of color to the room. And that silver tray is beautiful.
Everything looks wonderful – as usual!!!
Jen
Great ideas!!! Just found your Blog today, I’m so happy that I did. Can’t wait to read more.
It looks great!! Makes me want to get in my bathroom and do some decorating.
Linda
Looks great!
I love your transformation. I love things like this and yours turned out great!
I love any room in greens and reds! Seriously. This is my FAV-O-RITE color combination. My most fav of those is a sagey green and deep burgandy (I’m sure there are fluffy, more exact names for them but I’m more of a sage-Y kind of girl!)! Mmm, just love it! My point is that I love this room! Cute!
Rebecca
RootsAndWingsCo.blogspot.com
Nice results. I really like the bathroom.
I definitely know about a recent move-in. We’ve only been living at our apartment for one month. It’s a challenge because it’s 2000 square feet. We don’t have much furniture so we’ll be in the decorating mode for a few months.
Okay…now I’m inspired…I’ve been looking for a reason to get out of bed. 😉
I’ve got an idea for something over your toilet that would also give you a clever way to display and store your towels. Get three (always a good number in decorating) handleless rectangular baskets (a nice dark cherry stain would look great with the deep red you’ve brought in with the wall paper) and arrange them in an interesting grouping over the toilet by screwing the bottoms of the baskets into the wall. Then fold and roll your towels and put them in the baskets.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE CHANGING THINGS UP LIKE THIS. JUST ME SAYING THIS, BUT IF IT WERE MY BATH… I WOULD CHANGE OUT THE GREEN TOWELS TO THE RED IN THE PICTURE. I LOVE GREEN, MY HOUSE IS GREEN AND ORANGE AND WARM TONES BUT I THINK MATCHING THE COLOR IN THE PICTURE WILL ADD ANOTHER POP! (PROBABLY COST YOU $10.00 AT THE MOST IF YOU LOOK AT ROSS!!!) GOTTA LOOK AT ALL YOUR OTHER YUMMY IDEAS NOW!!
Do you have any video of that? I’d like to find out more details.