Mini makeover for the smallest bathroom ever...

I kid you not!


small... small... small.... Ready for the grand tour?


Look to the left... (no need to even turn your head, just move your eyes)...


Now look to the right... Okay, tour's over!

I know some of you probably thought it couldn't get any worse than my windowless kitchen blogpost, but here it is... the windowless bathroom blogpost - and it's the one and only bathroom we have in our house (with the exception of one down in the basement off the room that Court is using as her bedroom).


The inspiration for this mini facelift was this scrumptious Simply Shabby Chic shower curtain that I picked up this past January at Target - on sale! (Recognize it, Claudia? Claudia had one just like it at Mockingbird Hill Cottage west! She's so clever - she repurposed it at MHC east into a table skirt!)


The reason it has taken me since January to redo the bathroom is because I didn't actually hate the old bathroom decor... in fact, I quite liked it! But, as someone pointed out when I posted this original canvas painting in a blogpost once, it wasn't wise to perhaps have it in the bathroom with all the steam from the shower, etc. Good advice! I decided I liked the painting too much to risk it getting ruined... And although I absolutely LOVE my white battenburg lace shower curtain, as you can see, I have all white walls, I painted my sink vanity white, and the over-the-toilet storage unit is white... It was just too much white, white, white... The room definitely needed a little OOMPH!


So yesterday I got busy and finally tackled the mini makeover. First I scoured the bathroom, top to bottom, inside and outside the tub, every crevice in and around the toilet, every nook and cranny I could find (isn't that always fun? Actually, I guess some people do enjoy cleaning bathrooms... I'm just not one of them.) And then I hung the shower curtain. I'll save my white battenburg for someday if I ever have another bathroom.. or if I ever decide to paint the walls with a color other than white!

The canvas painted ocean scene has been replaced by early photos of my girls wearing their "no tears" shampoo visors. (If these get ruined from the steam, I can just reprint them from my computer!)

Look at the dainty little ruffle all along the bottom edge... That's what I love about Rachel Ashwell... It's all about the details, and she makes the most of them!


As a matter of fact, this is an old chenille bath mat I've had for years, and if I remember correctly, it's also from the Simply Shabby Chic line. I think it's the perfect match for the shower curtain!


These are the shower curtains hooks I've had for years and I absolutely love them!


They started out as a dark purplish-pink with dark green foliage, but as soon as I got them home from Wal-Mart I painted the roses white and the leaves & stems light green.


Some embellished towels add a little bit to the cottage feel...

I've had them for about 15 years... They're pale pink with a blue, green, & pink floral border, so even though the patterns don't match the pattern on the shower curtain, I think they look good together... (Did I ever tell you I have a great fear of mixing and matching patterns? I love the look when other people do it, but it scares me to try it myself...)

I have a couple of these (very) inexpensive french buckets from The Christmas Tree Shop and this one happens to be the perfect size for holding 2 rolls of TP... If there's one thing I hate running out of, it's toilet paper!

And last, but not least, hanging up next to the vanity is this little vintage-styled FAIRY SOAP plaque that my sister gave me several years ago... I just love it in our little cottage bathroom. So that concludes the tour of our one and only little bathroom (which, although small, sure beats the outhouses of days gone by) !! Hope you all have a lovely week!..... Donna

Storage issue solved!

I love using chenille scatter rugs around the house; some vintage, some new. My problem has always been where to store them. I thought baskets might be a good solution (in a small house, you need to get creative about storage space)...


... so I measured my rolled up rugs, measured the space under our sap bench/coffee table, and set out for Home Goods.


I found exactly what I was looking for! These two baskets are the perfect size for my chenille scatter rugs and they fit underneath the sap bench perfectly! If I'd had something custom made it couldn't have worked out better! While at Home Goods, I also picked up some baskets for my bookshelves (another organization project I'll share in a future post).


And I have to tell you about this new little rug and the incredible deal I got on it! It's just a 5'x8' indoor/outdoor rug but for $4.99 I couldn't pass it up!! I found it at The Christmas Tree Shop (a chain of stores here in the northeast). When I got it up to the register the cashier said, "This rug rings up at $49.99." I said, "Oh, I thought the tag said $4.99!" to which she replied, "It does. Let me call a manager." So the manager came over, looked at the rug, looked at the price sticker and told her to give it to me for $4.99 even though the price was actually $49.99! Then he told me I got the buy of the year! Thank you, Mr. Manager! "Don't you just love a bargain?" is the jingle for their commercials... Yes, I do!!

Donna