Glidden | Operation Home

Alright guys, you ready for a quick, inexpensive makeover that we did to the teeniest, tiniest space in our home?? It’s one of those “why didn’t I do this sooner?” tweaks that, seriously, I should’ve done many, many moons ago. I became especially antsy about wanting to get this done while I was nesting during my pregnancy, but alas… I feared that my belly was too big to actually fit in the space to reach all the nooks and crannies. Haha. Better late than never, though.

The space in question? The toilet room. (applause! applause!)

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that this is a space that lives up to its name….

It’s a toilet.

In a room.

And that’s it.

Literally.

When we moved in, it was a purple blank slate. Observe….

See what I mean?? No baby bump could safely fit next to that toilet. 😉

Back when we took possession of the house, this space had nothing, and I mean, NOTHING in it but a toilet. And copious amounts of purple paint. We.mustn’t.discount.the.purple.paint. It looks greyish here, but no… it was purple. And it made me cranky. Not joking. I know that color can affect mood, and I’ve never heard of purple inducing anger, but seriously guys… It made me ornery. It needed to be gone. Big time.

In addition to the color, there was no function, no storage, etc. It had nothing but a *well loved* over-the-tank TP dispenser left by the previous owners. #no

So, a while back, I painted the room a bright color, built a pipe shelf and industrial toilet paper dispenser, and hung some art, which brought us here…

To be honest, I’m not really sure what I was thinking with this space. I was going for “fun pool bath” and, I mean, it was cute-ish, but not really our style at all. Plus, every time I looked at it, I felt like there was something lacking. It was seriously falling flat in some way. This became blatantly obvious as the rest of our home started coming together in a way that DID feel like us. More neutral. More simple. A mix of old with new. Warmth and coziness is key in our home, and this space felt just… cold.

So, on a whim, during one of Henry’s naps, I busted out the paint roller and some leftover paint and toned down the space with my FAVORITE grey tone ever (Driftwood Grey by Glidden).

Oh look, here she is now…

Isn’t this color the Sophia Loren of greys?? Sophisticated and rich. For real.

This tone is also in the guest bath (stay tuned for that update) as well as the master bedroom and Lucas’s room. It looks slightly different in each space, but just as lovely. The power of paint, guys. It never ceases to amaze me how just changing the color of a space can actually make it look more expensive… that’s my impression of this color. It somehow makes the room look higher quality.

After painting the walls, I sanded and restained the shelf I built with Varathane’s Early American stain to match the wood tones throughout the rest of the house, and then I decorated it more simply with practicality in mind. TP = necessary. A simple faux rosemary (from Target) and white plate (to hold jewelry and such while swimming) completed the look.

As for art, I kept the New York print (from Urban Outfitters), and found this vintage painting at a thrift store a while ago. I love the mix of bold and modern with subtle and old-school. The entire space flows now, both in itself and with the rest of the house.

I still want to do something with the ceiling in this space, whether it be simply adding crown moulding, or possibly something more architectural. Plus, wainscoting or some sort of board and batten would be nice on the walls. We’ll get to it. I’m sure of it. In any case, I spent zero dollars on this as I already had everything on hand and it took a mere afternoon to complete. This little refresh really, REALLY goes a long way into making the space fit the vibe of our home so much better. No more random aqua room in this Casa. And I’m okay with that. 🙂

So, that’s our toilet room, and boy are we so much happier with it. Next up, I’ve taken pics of our living and dining spaces as they stand now, and lemme tell ya, I’m so, SO happy with how those rooms are coming together. I can’t wait to put those posts together for you guys, so stay tuned.

Wow, guys. Just holy wow. I have so many (fun) projects going on right now that I’m not sure what to give you first. That’s what’s so crazy about these first months after a move. Everything’s a little schizophrenic. I want everything to be done all at once, so it’s an explosion of projects started in all corners of the house. No rhyme or reason. And what’s funny is, yes… I painted Lucas’s room this weekend. But, no. It totally wasn’t the plan. It was a whim decision. As in, I went for a jog, got back, saw Joey working in the yard (with Lucas “assisting”). And said, “Hey! I think I’ll paint Lucas’s room (rightnow)! “. I. Am. SUCH. A. Weirdo. Several hours later it was done. But not without a lone, sad pride casualty. I give you my Facebook status from that day….

Oh, Lucas. (sigh!)

Anyways, the paint-fest actually came as a side-effect of Lucas’s new bed. Ya see, my uncle gave us this great cargo bed that used to be my cousin Bryan’s. Here’s the foot-board…

You intrigued? 😉

I’ll have a separate post about the bed later, but the short of it was that after I refinished it darker, we started to move the bed into Lucas’s room. And then I changed my mind. I decided that I didn’t want to move the bed into the room before painting the walls and risk splatter drops violating the nice, new finish. Thus, the room needed to be painted sometime soon so we could get the bed out of the garage. At the time, I didn’t realize that “sometime soon” would be that very day, but it totally worked out. So, we’re good.

When it came to wall color, I’d initially thought that I wanted to paint the walls a punchy green. But, after throwing some green paint swatches on the wall to get a general idea, I wasn’t sold. It clashed with some of accessories that I wanted to use in the space. Then, I remembered that I had almost a full gallon of the gorgeous grey paint from the master bedroom leftover, so I threw that up there too…

And I loved it. It took on much more of a khaki color in this space due to the difference in lighting. It was perfect and would be a great backdrop for all of the bright colors I’m planning to bring into the space. So, I did it. And here’s where we are now….

Now, keep in mind that I haven’t even BEGUN to style the joint. This is literally just move-furniture-back-post-painting mode. I did, however, rearrange the furniture in the space which completely opened it up (aaaaand I’m now realizing that this means nothing to you since I neglected to take a before picture). Just take my word for it. Moving furniture around (FOR FREE) is one of the most crazy, game-changing moves to make a space feel so much more welcoming. This is the layout that this room always wanted. There’s plenty of floorspace for Lucas to play and yet, it doesn’t feel cramped in the slightest. I just can’t wait to get his new bed in here (we realized that we need to purchase a few more bolts to fully assemble it first). But, this is a really great start for his room.

And here’s the ninja-turtle-donning man of the hour pulling off yet another Chandler-Bing-Smile (the towels on his shoulder are his “back-up nunchucks”)…

So, still up…. curtains (once the windows are replaced next week), a little special treatment for the built in desk area (not shown), new chairs for his little white table, wall art, styling. Lots to do, but we’re on our way!! 🙂