Our bathroom makeover

Thank you so much for helping us choose a paint color for our bathroom! Here are the before-and-after photos, if you’d like to see…

Before:
Here are the “before” photos, yikes!! As you can see, our bathroom is old and crumbling, and the white walls looked drab. There was only one overhead lightbulb (not flattering), and we had an old shower curtain and towels. We also had an ugly shelf from the Container Store behind the toilet. I liked our artwork, but it didn’t really match anything else in the room. We needed help, clearly!

So, we decided to first give the room a fresh coat of paint. Valspar Paint was sweet enough to offer the paint, and since they have a “Love Your Color” Guarantee (where if you don’t love your first paint color, you can pick a second color for free), we felt like we could try something bold. After asking your advice, we ended up picking Ballard Blue, which is just a bit softer than navy.

Our friend Kendra Smoot is a prop stylist who understands how little elements can pull a room together, so she helped brainstorm affordable pieces that would perk up the room. And our friend (and interior designer) Jenny Komenda helped do some of the crafty projects that she’s so good at (and I’m not!). We’re thrilled with how it all turned out!!! Seth Smoot took photos, and here they are….

After:
First, we created a frame wall with a nautical theme. The biggest print is a framed surfing photo from the fantastic affordable art shop 20×200. We also hung some family photos, a John Derian plate that was originally on our bookcase, and Kendra made some art! In the black frame on the left-hand-side, Kendra simply knotted three pieces of white rope! Then she framed pages from books on the right-hand-side (the sailboat and blue nude), and finally she just painted an anchor on a grocery bag and framed it! Genius ideas, right?

Jenny added the acrylic shelf; the bath milk is from Terrain and the ship in a bottle was actually a table decoration left over from our wedding.

Finally, one of my favorite improvements was wrapping rope on the heating pipe; you can see in the “before” photos that we had ugly insulation around the pipe to keep it safe for Toby, but adding nautical rope makes the pipe look a million times better. (FYI, Apartment Therapy has a tutorial.)
For extra storage, we got a red container from Kartell, and the navy bath mat is from West Elm. Meanwhile, Toby is totally in love with his new step stool, which allows him to wash his hands and brush his teeth all by himself, like a grown-up (!!!).
As you can see in the “before” photos, our medicine cabinet just had an old mirror, so Jenny framed it beautifully with white wood. Jenny also had an old ship’s mirror, which we debated putting something into, but in the end, we liked how it looked empty (plus, it showed off the new blue paint!). The chambray makeup bag and striped shower curtain are both from West Elm.
On the back of the door, we added five brass hooks, and hung Turkish fouta towels from Chance (have you ever tried foutas? they’re awesome) and a striped tote from etsy, where I now keep my hair dryer and brush.

Some small details:
Our shower rod was originally silver, so to make it look more polished, we painted it black and added brass curtain rings.
We had a glass shelf under our mirror that looked chipped and shabby. So Jenny had the brilliant idea to use leftover paint from the walls and make it blue! I love how fresh and new it looks, miraculously:)
Finally, we put mirrored light bulbs on either side of the mirror to add light and a design-y touch, as well as a brass hook next to the mirror for an extra hand towel.

That’s it! I hope you like it. We are PSYCHED and next time people come over to our apartment, I’m going to shuttle them right in. :) It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and a few pretty pieces can do. Thank you so much to Kendra, Jenny and Seth for the great ideas and talent!

P.S. Our bedroom makeover, our living room and Toby’s nursery.

(This post is sponsored by Valspar Paint. Thank you so much for supporting the sponsors that make Cup of Jo possible. Photography by Seth Smoot; styling by Kendra Smoot; interior design projects by Jenny Komenda)