one day, zero dollar bathroom refresh

Our downstairs bathroom is fine but it has never been one of my favorite parts of the house.  It is fairly small and feels dark.  These are photos from shortly after we moved in.  

Four years ago, just a day or two after we came home from the hospital with Cora, a leak sprang in the plumbing between the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms (which are stacked on the two floors).  Adrian had to tear out the drywall above his sink and disconnect the electrical to the light fixture and take it out to work on the leak.  He was more than willing to redo the drywall and fix everything then and there but I begged him to just leave the gaping hole in the ceiling and just hang out with us and help me with a new baby and an almost three year old!  

Those days were super sweet times and I wouldn't trade our afternoons of sitting on the couch snugging a newborn during David's naps and watching movies together for a finished bathroom these past four years.  

sweet boy two years ago 

My amazing mother-in-law showed up for under 36 hours in March, a quick stopover visit between two other destinations and announced on the morning of her full day here that she knew what we should do that day, redo the bathroom!  What a fun announcement!  I do not know where she gets her energy and stick-to-it-ness but she is astounding when it comes to projects!  

We emptied walls and took down towel bars bent from children hanging on them and mismatched to begin with. 

I began to rummage through my storage area to dig out various decorative treasures amassed at flea markets, garage sales, etc. and not currently in use elsewhere in the house.  

glue gun and drill employed together!  

Rebecca (my mil) concocted a sort of chalk paint from leftover paint plus a package of milk paint that I once upon a time picked up at an estate sale for $1 and had never used.  She painted all of the dark "wood" - in reality it is plastic - panelling "polar bear" which is the same white we used in the upstairs bath in the fall.  

The original to the house, 1950s towel bars that had previously been in the upstairs bath before the remodel (where I used hooks instead) were lined up side by side for this bathroom.  

The metal grate on the wall is from the original screen door from the house into what was at first the backyard before they added on our sunroom in the 1980s.  I picked up the wooden arch somewhere along the way and have displayed it different places but never yet on a wall and I like it!  The pressure gauge was an estate sale find that has always been one of my favorites.  

We used the mirror that was original to the upstairs bathroom that we had taken out during that remodel downstairs and my MIL wired this neat basket onto the black scrolly metal brackets that I have had forever and never really used much and it became a spare toilet paper holder.  

The Ansel Adams photo was found at the Arc thrift store ages ago!  It is framed in a garage sale frame and hung with some black ribbon over an old sewing machine drawer knob screwed into a neat looking old metal square plate.  

Unfortunately, the leak doesn't particularly want to be fixed once and for all (60 year old plumbing!) so we have left the ceiling open still but I strung up white bulb lights on S hooks leftover from our pot rack when I took everything out of the kitchen that doesn't get used weekly and it is now either gone or in secondary storage.  We also put up a black and white stripe strip of fabric in front of the open ceiling portion which masks it nicely.  The big black iron hook is awaiting a hanging plant, preferably string of pearls.  

This hanging basket set that used to be in the nursery holds bathroom stuff and a plant but I would love to find a more permanent solution but for one day and zero pennies, using what we had works!  

I bought this fabric to cover the swing outside but then I didn't like it and used a 25 cent remnant from one of my favorite thrift stores in town, the Bargain Box run by the Assistance League and benefitting many wonderful projects.  We made it into a "window mistreatment" as the Nester would say and I got to use this pulley that I have had FOREVER and never used.  

My brilliant mother in-law rigged up this pull system with an old knob I had in my collection an an old door plate.  I love it!  

It is not perfect as we did not repaint the top of the walls, etc. (we only spent a day on it afterall!) but it looks SOO good compared to what it has been and I am enjoying using it (and honestly am more apt to clean it) than before!