Bathroom finishing touches

So I have been out treasure hunting almost daily since there are A LOT of things we are suddenly in need of as we finish our basement.  One of which was bathroom sconces.  I recently saw these ones in a Pottery barn magazine and loved them.  I need two of these babies to go over the mirrors in my boys bathroom downstairs and each costs $100.

Then one day at Lowes I spotted these in their outdoor lighting area for just $25!!!!!!  (Just because someone thought they should be outdoor lights doesn't mean they have to be, mine will be bathroom sconces!).

The finish is great "as is" however I was itching to spray paint them glossy white like the Pottery Barn ones (any color would be darling really).  Here's the final results.

Once the bathroom is done and the lights are hung I will determine if they are staying white - like I said I think they would be cute any color - so I just might try something else on them.

The other treasure I recently came across was the bathroom vanity countertops.

I came across this blog post at just the right time.  Apparently Formica has recently figured out a way to duplicate the look of marble (can you believe the picture above is of Formica!).   Layla from "The Lettered Cottage" blogged about how she had recently gone to her local Home Depot and seen these countertops and found out they were just $16 a sq. foot (installed)!  For my bathroom countertop that equals out to be just over $200.  I was sold.  I love a great look at a cheap price!  Sadly the people at my local Home Depot weren't really sure what this product was and laughed when I told them the price (they said for something like this it would be more like $30 a sq. foot) - same thing at Lowes.  I read through the comments from different people that posted on the Lettered Cottage and some of them were running into the same problem - my guess is that it just hasn't gotten to every Home Depot in the nation and maybe when it does get here they will run it at that great promotional price?  I don't know.  Thankfully this story has a happy ending.  I went on Formica's website and found a list of distributers in my area, called one of them up and was able to get the countertops - "Calacatta Marble" Formica 180fx for $266 (I paid a little extra to get a "fancy" ogee edge - the basic waterfall edge would have cost me only $175 - and yes that is installed!).  So if you live in the Salt Lake area "Top Haus" is where I found my countertops, if you live outside of Utah try your local home depot - you might get lucky, and if that doesn't work then check for other distributors on Formica's website. 

Lastly -  I found a great deal on the tile floors (thanks to the blog Young House Love).  I wanted a white penny tile floor and my local tile stores wanted around $15 a square foot for the same stuff you can get online at The Tile Shop for just $5.59 a sq. foot! (plus you get 10% off right now if you use the promotional code YHL10).  Yahoo!

 I can't wait to see it all come together!

Trim work - 3 times as fast and 3 times as easy!

So workers are here finishing the trim work in my dining room.  Here is a picture of the windows that they framed out.  I just about died when I saw this header molding.  The reason - because that is one piece of wood - not 3!

Here is what it looks like - I think this size is 4" and you can get it in 5 and 6" sizes as well.

My husband and I had no idea this product existed - see below where my husband went with a similar look for our Master Bath.  Notice the top of the door and the horizontal piece that wraps all the way around the room on top of the vertical boards.  ONLY that is 3 PIECES and 3 times the WORK!!!  I'm sure it was more money too.  Had we known!  I guess the reason we didn't is because we have always picked up our wood at Home depot or Lowes to do our home trim work projects and I don't think they carry this stuff (unless I somehow just missed it).  Obviously it is something the Pro's know about and probably use all the time.

Just thought I would save you the time and headache incase you are into DIY trim work.  I'm really excited because I have always wanted an additional header at the top of every door in my house, just like we did in the bathroom - and now that is definitely looking like an easy and doable project!

I am so excited to show you all the dining room when it is finished - hopefully just another week!

SURPRISE!!!

As much as I love decorating - 

I am thrilled about not having to change a thing in these two rooms!

IT'S A BOY!!!  

In July I will officially become the proud mother to 4 boys!


(this is the bedroom and bathroom our baby boy will inherit since the other 3 boys will be moving downstairs into their newly completed rooms - the downstairs should be all done in just a few more weeks!!!)

Liquid Magic!

So recently I saw this product on Pinterest.  Some lady was showing how it cleaned up her white dishes really well, they had marks all over them from her silverware.  I immediately thought of my white porcelain sink.

I picked up some at Lowes and gave it a shot.  Here is the BEFORE:

And the AFTER!!!!  NO this is not a brand new sink - it just looks like new again!

I was so excited - don't you just love a great cleaning product, especially when it doesn't require a lot of elbow grease to make it work.  This stuff was so fast and easy!  It was like the day I discover the magic eraser - that was such a great day!  

   I have always liked a plain white traditional porcelain sink but always hated the one draw back - the permanent (or so I thought they were) black marks that appear when metal objects scrape it.  When I showed my husband he said - "have you never cleaned the sink before?".  I just laughed.  Every other time I have cleaned the sink (in over 10 years of owning homes with porcelain sinks) everything has cleaned up great EXCEPT those black marks so I always figured they were permanent and I always tried to be so careful when washing metal objects to try to not let them scrape.  Apparently the stuff works great on stainless steel sinks and metal cookware too (I'm sure there are a lot of great uses for this product).  It is  like Liquid Magic!

Nice that some of the time I have wasted on Pinterest has now paid off!!

Master Bath Toilet Room Transformation!

It feels weird to have the word "Toilet" in my title, 

should I have said water closet instead to dress it up a little?

One of my New Years Home Resolutions can be checked off my list!

This was my inspiration photo.  I am in love with trim work but a "faux trim" done in paint is a much more affordable way of getting that look.  I wasn't about to spend the money on trim for a toilet room but the area still needed some dressing up so this was a perfect soloution.

All it took was the cost of some painters tape - I used 1 inch thick tape so that would be the width of my lines.  It took some time and a level to get it all taped out but it was a small area so it wasn't too bad - maybe 3 hours (and I was able to spread this part out over a few days).  To get the corners of the tape perfectly crisp I used a razor blade.

For the curved corners- I drew those in using the two templates below cut out of card stock paper.  I left those curves "un-taped" and then painted in those curves by hand later.

I had the silver paint leftover from my dining room (the color is "tin" from the Martha Stewart Metallic line that is sold at Home depot).

The painting part probably took about 4 hours.  The most time consuming part might have just been taking the tape off and carefully wiping up any spots that had seeped behind the tape.  I painted over all my tape lines first with the same white that is on the walls hoping that it would stop the seeping problem - and it may have helped but I still had lots of areas that needed cleanup.  Overall the project was probably the same amount of time that it would have taken me to paint all the walls a solid color and I like this look a lot better - so definitely worth the effort!

 It would be even cuter in a room that doesn't have a toilet!!!