The $23 Bathroom Makeover

Some people have Pinterest. They are then inevitably left pining for time, money or energy to do all these fun and cool ideas that they've pinned to their wall. And I don't begrudge them their indulgence in those cool and fun ideas. But, because I've heard of its overly addictive nature, I've avoided Pinterest at all costs and instead look to a few other places for ideas of inspiration for our home. And, just like those addicted to Pinterest, I was left pining for time to do just one new thing to our bathroom. A slight injection of botox, instead of a complete facelift, if you will...

This is the most hectic and chaotic time of the school year for both Gerard & me. Show Choir competitions, Large Group Band and Choir contests and my self-described "D-Day" of Solo contest where I accompany roughly 65 students in an 8 hour day of craziness, makes January through March absolutely insane in the Krupke household. (Can you tell I'm already sleep deprived just from the state of that run-on sentence?!)

So, in the midst of this season, our Wednesday Date Nights have succombed to our fatigue. At our least creative moments, we have built a fort in our basement out of our sofa sectional to cozy up and watch The Biggest Loser on Hulu.com. Last Wednesday, though, found me a little bit farther above water...

After receiving the same email on cool ideas for your home from two separate people, I finally decided it was time to organize the linen closet (yawn... I know!) and put each set of sheets in one of its respective pillow cases. That led to the discovery of some bathroom carpet mats that I had used in a past apartment when I was single. Our current bath mats were completely disheveled and falling apart, so those went in the trash and the old barely-been-used ones replaced them. (Thank Heaven they were the same color scheme!)



The next idea was inspired by a 20% off coupon I'd received via email from Bed Bath & Beyond. I quickly went to the clearance section on their website and found this simple beauty suggested to me by my subscription to Real Simple magazine. On clearance, it was listed as $29.99 but they also accepted my 20% coupon. So, we were at $23 (for the bathroom...don't get me started on what else we found in their clearance section! That place should have CAUTION tape wrapped around it!).

We brought her home and as I had already taken our old mirror down, Gerard went to work assembling and mounting the mirror/shelf combo to the wall while I pondered what to change with the other walls. I came to the conclusion that we had too little of a bathroom to have so much on said walls. More wall space makes a room look bigger and/or less cluttered in my experience. So, I took down a few things and placed just one framed art (instead of 4) above our towel rod. In a few years, if I want to update or change the look again, I have a few things to pull out of my linen closet that will still work with the overall scheme of things.

On our medicine cabinet, I used four sheets of scrapbook paper with a similar color as our shower curtain to negate the clutter of what's behind the glass of the door. Cleans things up pretty nicely eh? THAT idea came from THIS BLOG. Thanks, Laura & Andrea!

(And yes, the new mirror has been baptised in teeth brushing flecks already...such is life in our house right now!)

That's it. Rearrange some wall art. Find something in your home that's barely been used and use some coupons smartly and you too, can have a $23 Bathroom Botox Injection. Not a complete overhall facelift, and it can make a BIG difference!