Laundry Room/Half Bath Before and Afters

I'm glad we took the weekend to finish up the laundry room.  That plumbing took Chris a little while to figure out--but he did it (!!) and having a new sink and faucet and all around easier-on-the-eyes room has made such a difference.  Like every other before and after, it is fun to look at the before first to see the progress and also, it really makes the after look even better--especially when you got a before like ours:

The one on the left (you already scrolled, I just know it) is how the room looked when we moved in the house.  Although we did change the light fixture and remove the bright blue shaggy rugs before that picture was taken.  The one on the right is the photo I snapped before we started this renovation last week.  And here's how the room looks now:

In the words of Greta, "NaNaaaa" (ta-da!).  We had a really good time making over this room.  It is small and narrow (and windowless--all of which makes it hard to photograph) which translates into a speedy one-week renovation, which is f-u-n.  We also wanted to make it a really low-budget revamp, so we kept the same floor tiles and just refreshed the grout, added $12 trim and baseboards we already had and painted the space in a two-toned modern look.  Where we spent all of our money was on the sink and new vanity.

Before we had a full-sized towel rack, a small-ish round mirror and a dingy, dingy, dingy sink and faucet atop a vanity I painted green.  I don't know why I painted it green, but I did and it makes for a horrendous before. :)

We took down the full-sized towel rack that, really, has no use in a half bath, and the too-small mirror and replaced them with a huge mirror we picked up at Ikea that doubles the size of our small room.

As for our last minute decision to upgrade the vanity, we couldn't be happier about spending a couple hundred dollars for something like looks a hojillion times better.  We easily decided on the Hemnes sink cabinet in white, because it felt the most classic to us.  And drawers!  Drawers make so much more sense for tall people (or do they make more sense to everyone, too?).  The striped insides sealed the deal.

The sink got an upgrade, too.  Because, uh...it was time.

We went with the Odensvik sink and the Apelskar faucet.

They both feel modern but also classic enough that they won't be on their way out anytime soon--which we feel good about.  Plus, I turning these little x-shaped knobs is so much more fun than trying to yank out the handle of our previous faucet.

Here's one last look at this side of the room before:

And how she's lookin' now:

We did get a new toilet seat because I couldn't stand our old one that always slid around, and we picked up a shiny, new toilet paper holder as well.  Ooo. Ahhh.  A basket of magazines, that are mostly West Elm, Restoration Hardware, and Crate and Barrel catalogs--you know, the eye candy, complete this little corner that I feel incredibly awkward photographing and blogging about.  

To wrap up the potty talk, the vintage printable and velvet pumpkin I found at Ross are resting easy on top of the toilet to make this room a little more festive.

On the opposite side of the room, is a little gallery that I arranged that really makes this room feel special.  As special as a laundry room/bathroom can feel. 

The before of this side is depressing.

Right? Adding a chair rail and painting the bottom half of the wall a dark grayish-brown (Martha Stewart's Gray Squirrel) and the top a bright white really set the stage for a slew of art.

The painting on the far side of the room as you're looking in the door (scroll up) is a screen print of The Gray Ghost by my Uncle.  As for the rest of the art, here's the breakdown: The "Home is the nicest word there is" print is available in our Etsy shop.  The pencil still life I did in a college drawing class.  The watercolor of the old Bug I did on site a few years ago.  The Asperand (apparently that is the formal name for the "at sign") I ordered from Joss & Main a month or so ago.  The print of the girl with the long brown hair is a post card print by Clare Elsaesser that came with the painting we ordered for our bedroom--totally framed it. The glasses is a chalkboard drawing from earlier this year, also available in our Etsy shop. The African lady with the big gold necklace is an oil painting I did a little while ago.  And, *exhale* the tree print I did in my printmaking class in college. 

And that, my friends, is what we like to call a wrap. 

I guess this means it's time to get started on actually doing the laundry--here's hoping this room inspires me to stay caught up.  Not likely, but there's always hope.  With the laundry room/half bath done, we are already moving on our next quicky project--and it's one that we have been wanting to do for months!  Spillin' the beans about it mañana.