Originally Adam and I had planned not to sell this house until after we move into the new one. Our current house is paid off, and we figured that one of the advantages of not having to carry two mortgages is that we can move at our leisure. We were planning to finish the new house as much as possible, move our stuff over (slowly, because I’m going to purge the crud out of it as we go), fix up all the lingering details on this house, then sell it while it’s nice, empty, and clean. Because really, the last thing I want to do is be showing this house while we live in it. Keeping it sparkly clean and show ready at all times with three little boys and ongoing projects sounds not only terrible, but pretty much impossible.
But, plans changed once we sat down and crunched numbers, as they tend to do. Even though our former plan sounded like a pretty sweet way to move, financially, the crappy stressful way makes much more sense. Of course it does.
So now it’s time to seriously start tying up loose ends at our current house. And by loose ends I mean unfinished projects. A whoooole lot of them.
The first room I decided to go through with a fine tooth comb is the boys bathroom. We worked on it quite a bit a few years ago, but we never completely finished. Here is a before picture…
And what it looked like after a $300 makeover…
If we’re being honest, I never loved this makeover. I like where we were headed – and think it has some really cool features – but I have always hated that the cedar is bright (practically glowing) orange. Also, the backsplash is a polka dot failure, and I have come to realize that vessel sinks are basically the worst. Live and learn.
Anyway, that’s not the point…the point is I gotta make this beast look glorious so it will sell in a hot second.
I started by touching up all the paint…
The plan from the beginning had always been to install crown moulding throughout the house, so when painting I was super sloppy where the walls meet the ceiling. It’s like that in nearly all our rooms. (That pink is the original color of the house. You can see it here).
Then I caulked and painted the baseboards, which, after putting it off for about three years took me all of 30 minutes.
Then it was time to address the issue of storage. I had always planed to put some sort of storage under the vanity, but never actually did it because the drain pipe was in the way.
To make things easy (and avoid spending hours making a super custom shelf) we just used a cedar 2 x 6 and slid it behind the drainpipe to make a shallow shelf. I bought three galvanized bins that fit perfectly on top, and now there is plenty of storage.
Other than that I added some simple finishing touches, like a cute soap dispenser and toothbrush holder…
…and some update shelf decor, including some fake succulents, a rustic white frame, and a candle.
Ahhh… one room down, about seven to go!
If you want to read more about the projects in this bathroom you can click on the links below…
For even more inspiration follow Better Homes and Gardens at Walmart on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.
*This post was sponsored by the BHG Live Better Network. All opinions are 100% my own.
Looks great! The rustic industrial is very appealing. Hopefully the other rooms will be as quick.
It looks really great! I like that the light fixture and and bins are galvanised steel and how that goes with the plumbing stuff you used for the shelving and curtain. Also, it is a very dramatic difference, isn’t it, from before!
It sucks that you can’t stagger your move…but at least you have lots of great pictures of the entire house for putting a listing together?
I’m not going to lie, knowing that I have good pictures of the house has made me feel a little better about the whole situation!
Hahaha. I love that the three year buildup for the caulking project ended up taking thirty minutes. We all have those projects. I have a cabinet with a screw that came loose and it’s just hanging there at an angle. I wonder how long it’ll be until I fix it again.
For the purging – have you heard of 40 bags in 40 days?http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/40-bags-in-40-days/
I have, I participated a couple of years ago. I think this time (now that we’re moving) it will almost be easier to go through and pick the things I want to KEEP, and garage sale the rest!
Hi there Cami, that was some great inspiration. It wouldn’t look good if you were going to show someone before as the dullness would just chase them off. It’s really amazing to see how $300 can transform such a place into a haven. Thanks a lot for the inspiration, I think we should also look into brightening ours a bit.
Cindy
I’m so glad to see you are also a sloppy painter, every single piece of trim in my house is splattered with paint cos they need to be replaced, but a year and a half later I still just have ugly trim! Oh well :)