Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Bathroom Makeover

After having the classic 'beach theme' bathroom for several years, I decided I wanted a bathroom makeover. I had no idea, at first, what I wanted to switch to, but I thought something with purple would be nice. I started with my poppy picture and pieced together an elegant poppy, purple and orange bathroom.




  When I got my first apartment on my own, I was excited to decorate in themes and colors of my choice. I picked seashells and beach colors for the bathroom and found three seashell art pieces online for just $5 each and free shipping. Even when I first bought them, I knew I could easily paint over them when I wanted something different to look at. And that's exactly what I did as I redid my bathroom look.



  I started by completely painting one of the pieces completely tan;
I wanted to create a 'wooden pallet' look to the already wood square.
  After the paint had dried, I sanded it down a bit and put on a second coat. While the paint was still wet, I brushed in strokes of darker shades of brown to make it look like wood grains and knots. I used different sized paint brushes and, for some spots, brushed in a circle, let it dry a little, then brushed it out. Once I was happy with how it looked, I let it dry overnight, before starting to outline the lettering.
  I had seen this quote on a canvas at Target about a year ago and I loved it. I think it is a great reminder to have hanging next to the bathroom mirror, so that I see it each morning as I'm getting ready for the day.
  First, I measured out three sections and penciled in straight lines. Then I started penciling in the words. There was a lot of erasing and adjusting to get the letters (mostly) centered and to give each letter a calligraphy look. It was a lot of close-up work; I had to keep setting it down and coming back to it, so that I didn't get a headache. It was a few days to get all the letters penciled and painted on, but well worth it!




This bathroom feels super relaxing, happy, and inspirational.
I also added a picture that a friend made me as a Christmas gift.
He used mirror paint on the frame's glass, then painted in the
words from a stencil - absolutely perfect!