DIY... with support from my sponsor aka Husband

Gone are the days of "It's been (insert large number of days) since my last blog post" because it feels like I am in trouble and since not many people read my blog why would I be in trouble?  I do feel guilty about not blogging as much as I would like, but not because of the time between posts, but because of the overwhelmed feeling I give myself by having so much to write about and not enough time to do it when I go this long between posts...

So while I have a good amount of catching up to do, I do want to share our first major project we complete in our new house!  We were smart and started small and so we were able to have a more "instant" gratifying moment than if we had started with say the kitchen or living room.  Our first project was to paint and decorate our half bath on the first floor.  I was inspired by my bud Shannon who has an all black bathroom (sounds creepy but is totally super chic and makes using the restroom at their house a luxurious experience!) but did not want to copy said bathroom and so we made it our own by introducing a color I like to call Merlot.

Here's the bathroom before we started...

 White walls... White toilet and sink... white trim and door. Oh and the mirror was this weird octogonal shape.

















As I mentioned above we decided to go bold in this bathroom.  For several reasons, but the main one was because it was a small space and could handle bold colors.  It's not as if people go in the bathroom all day, every day so if it was a bit of an assault on the senses we figured it would be ok for a few moments at a time.

First we taped out the bathroom so that the painting came out nice and neat.  When you have an anal precise husband this is sure to go smoothly.

 

You can see that the old mirror left 2 big spots on the wall, but I think we're lucky that's all it did seeing as it was glued to the wall!

First color we applied was the Merlot.  We went with a semi gloss because Im too wimpy to go with high gloss but I think in the future we wont even go with semi gloss because of our textured walls.  This sounds like a fancy feature of our new home but really is not and it's quite obnoxious if you ask me.  Not sure why anyone would want bumpy walls.... But back to the Merlot color... mmmm Merlot!

 

Next was onto the trim.  I will say with the black trim we made a happy mistake.  I bought flat paint by mistake, so the trim and door look almost like caulk boards...THEY'RE NOT FYI.... but we like the contrast, so all is well that ended well.

 

To finish up the room we put up faux roman shades.  I got this idea from Pinterest (which yes I am obsessed with...) and it was super easy.  I glued all the hems (yes I own a sewing machine but this was WAY easier) and then you arrange the fabric on 3 tension rods and TADA!

They don't move up or down, but with the bars on the windows (we live in a city and we're fine with them...now) and the fence right outside the window, we figured no one would have a desire for them to be up.  Also because the fabric is super thin, light still filters in when it's sunny out so win-win.

The next thing we did was decorate.  Originally I wanted to go with a fancy, heavy on the wooden frame look, but then I found Fleur-de-Lis accessories at Hobby Lobby (southern craft store) that I loved and so the wrought iron/ New Orleans theme was born...

Fleur-de-Lis towel hook and metal globe

Mirror with scroll work from Ikea. It covers the 2 boo-boos from the first mirror perfectly!

I am very excited that these two pieces of art have such a great
home now.  We got them on our Mini Moon in NOLA and they
are by an artist from NOLA!

Fleur-de-Lis toilet paper holder... obvs 

At this point we just need to find wrought iron light switch covers and new bulb covers for our light fixture.  Then our first major project will be complete! That is until we replace the sink for something more modern and maybe get a black toilet.... Jarrod's idea... I'm kinda weirded out by it. 

Next up is the upstairs guests bathroom (elements themed) and our master bedroom (NYC themed). I guess we like themes....