Final Reveal: Powder Room ORC Week 8

We made it! I didn’t know how much I would be able to accomplish in the past week, since I broke my toe last week, but it’s finished!

I redecorated this bathroom on a budget and have been blogging about it as part of the One Room Challenge. You can find the previous posts here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five/Six, and Week 7. Special thanks to Linda from One Room Challenge for putting this together and the media sponsor Better Homes and Gardens.

I am absolutely obsessed with these rugs. They are so beautiful and work well together. I don’t like things to be too matchy matchy, and I think they work to define the separate entry area and bathroom.

As you may recall, I contemplated switching up the Varga prints, but I actually grew to love them even more with the addition of the new rugs and the colors in the bathroom. I plan to repaint this entry space next.

My goals for the bathroom were to highlight the architecture of the room, add color, and do it on a budget with minimal trips to the stores. The total came out to less than $1000 and I used a lot of what I already had.

Here’s the cost breakdown with links to the items: Faucet ($260), Mirror ($225), Rugs ($190), Paint ($100), Towel Ring ($63), Cabinet Pulls ($20), Misc ($75).

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the wall mural was inspired by @banyanbridges on Instagram. She paints colorful murals and this room was screaming for something on the walls. I wanted to incorporate a mural into the entire space, and bring it all together, but I also didn’t’ want it to become too busy. I think I succeeded! My husband Dave said that this is his favorite room that I’ve ever designed.

I knew that I had to do something to make that missing tile spot look intentional, so I added a color block with a rounded top to mimic the lines of mirror. I also painted the gas pipe the same color as the ceiling. I contemplated covering it with something and then painting that, but with COVID it’s just too annoying to go anywhere that’s not necessary.

The mural’s focal point is the canvas. The lines start here and then extend around the whole room. I knew where I wanted the lines to go, so I started them on the canvas and then extended the lines around the room. I’ll do a separate blog post about how to get crisp lines. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw lots of stories about this.

The cabinet pulls I got at an Estate Sale at Maximalist Studios from Eddie Ross. They fit this room absolutely perfectly and the holes even lined up so I didn’t have to drill new ones! A fun fact is that one year ago this week Eddie Ross was at our house styling a photo shoot for BHG. I hope it someday makes it to the pages of BHG! The suspense is killing me.

The pocket door I painted years ago. I still liked the color (Alchemy from Sherwin-Williams), so it was incorporated into the color palette.

Let’s take a short trip back memory lane to see what this space used to look like. I’m very into sustainable design. A lot of times you can keep and re imagine what you already have, instead of ripping it all out and starting over. I was lucky and able to save a lot of money on this space by keeping what I liked: flooring, sink, cabinet, and counter tops. In the future, I want to make that large closet a shower, but that will be much more than $1000 🙂 I’m saving my money for that project.

The biggest change to the space was removing the upper cabinet that housed a gas meter. As luck would have it, the gas company came out to move the meter outside about a month before we tackled this project. We still have a pipe running vertically through this space, but it looks a million times better.

I wanted something large to cover the electrical panel. A thrift store find canvas that I already had was the perfect size for this space. I just painted over it and incorporated the design into the whole room.

Original tile and sink in bathroom remodel.

I also already had that hanging planter and plant. The plant I stole from my craft room, so now I have to replace it!

I couldn’t just buy any old towel ring, so I found this one on Etsy. I really love fun design elements like this, and it’s handmade in the US, so that’s awesome too.

I would really love to hear your thoughts on this room. What to you love about it? I LOVE it all!

Be sure to check out the One Room Challenge Blog, which links to everyone’s blog posts. You will be SO inspired by what you see. I love interior design and it’s so fun to see all of the creativity.

Cheers to the end of my third One Room Challenge!

*Brandi

Powder Room ORC: Week 7

Bathroom, house, One Room Challenge

It’s already week Seven of the One Room Challenge. You can find the previous posts here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four and Week Five/Six. I only have one week left and I just broke my toe, oh no!

The mirror arrived early, so that is up! I think it looks great and works for the space. However, I do wish that it was a better quality. The gold should wrap around the front a bit more so that you can’t see the edge of the mirror. The great thing about making my own purchases is that I can give unbiased reviews! Don’t buy this West Elm mirror! Ha. It looks good from far away, but up close it’s not so great.

I am seriously loving how this bathroom is coming together. I painted the cabinets blue and still have to paint the mural, pipe, and radiator covers. I also have to install the hand towel ring and install the window film so that you can pee in here without someone seeing you from outside. 🙂

I have been wanting a new rug for the entryway, so I ordered this one from the same seller as the orange rug, Turkish Rug Loom. I really love these rugs. I will say that it’s tricky to order rugs online, because you never know exactly what the color will be or how soft they will be. The entry way rug is pretty rough, so it wouldn’t work for a bedroom or living room, but it works fine for an entryway.

Vintage rugs instantly add character to a space.

What do you think so far? I’d love your feedback!

There is only one week left in the One Room Challenge and I am really glad that I don’t have toooo many things to do, because it’s going to be a challenge with a broken toe.

Stay tuned for the big reveal next week and be sure to check out all of the other participants in the One Room Challenge. You can also easily browse on Instagram with hashtag #oneroomchallenge or #bhgorc.

*Brandi

Powder Room ORC: Week 5 and 6

Bathroom, house, One Room Challenge

I have made a bit of progress over the past two weeks in our Powder Room. I am documenting this as part of the One Room Challenge. You can find the previous posts here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four.

The canvas was painted over to match the wall color and the wall mural will be incorporated on it. I am still not 100% sure what that will look like, so you (and I) will have to wait and see. If you recall, there is an electrical panel on that wall. This canvas was the perfect size to cover it, and center on the wall. I’m so happy I’m a hoarder and kept this giant thing for years. haha.

Use a large canvas to cover electrical panels.

The window is still clear and I still love the view. A friend suggested that I use that one way mirror film, which I thought was a GREAT idea. But when I looked into it, it doesn’t stay opaque once it’s dark outside and light inside. If anyone knows of something that would be opaque from one side even at night, but still be able to see out, let me know. I’ll probably end up using the frosted film to make it opaque.

My husband Dave installed this new faucet. Isn’t it beautiful? Our friend Brendan helped with it. Thanks B! After 4 trips to the home improvement store, it now works.

I plan to spray paint the silver closet handles to match the rest of the gold hardware.

The vintage rug I found on Etsy from Turkish Rug Loom. It’s really hard to pick a rug online, because you never REALLY know what the color will be. But I think it works, what do you think? I love the warm orange color and the large scale floral pattern. You don’t often see that in vintage rugs. You can also see the paint chips of what I still need to paint (the cabinet and radiator cover).

The towel ring was another Etsy find from seller Nancy Funk Ceramics. I love how unique it is. Given what’s going on in our country right now I wish it was black, because Black Lives Matter!

I made a list of all that I have to finish before week 8: Paint cabinets, paint entry trim and door, hang towel ring, paint mural, paint pipe, paint radiator, spray paint handles, hang mirror (once it arrives) and apply window film.

Let me know what you think so far. Right it looks very minimalist, but once I get more color in here it’ll all come to life.

Be sure to check out all of the other blog and Instagram (#oneroomchallenge) posts of everyone working on their One Room Challenge. There is so much inspiration out there!

Powder Room ORC: Week Four

Bathroom, house, One Room Challenge

We are half way through the One Room Challenge!

This week I tackled painting the walls, the ceiling and the window trim. I decided to go wild and paint the ceiling a color. I have always loved a painted ceiling, and this time I made it happen. Most of our house has wooden ceilings, and I wouldn’t dare paint them, because they’re beautiful. When I see someone painting a wooden ceiling, I cringe. Since it was already painted, I figured I was safe. I decided to go with the Brandywine color from Sherwin Williams, which is sort of like a Terra Cotta, but more orangey. I like that it mimics the color of the flooring.

Mid Century Modern Power Room One Room Challenge

Next up is to paint the cabinet, pipe and radiator cover, add the new hardware, install the new faucet and mirror and paint the mural. I unfortunately waited too long to order the mirror and the estimated arrival date is June 25-29. The ORC ends on the 25th so fingers crossed that it arrives before then!

The pipe above I plan to paint the same color as the ceiling. However, it’s a gas pipe, so I am finding conflicting info online as to whether or not I should paint it. Another option is to cover it with another cylindrical shaped something. I am still figuring it out!

The cabinets will be painted the blue color and the radiator cover the green shade. So far I like how it’s coming along.

What do you think?

Make sure to check out all of the other rooms posted this week for the One Room Challenge!

Powder Room ORC: Week Three

Bathroom, house, One Room Challenge

It’s week three of the One Room Challenge! To be honest, I have done nothing with the powder room in the last week. However, I did order the new faucet, so that’s progress!

Here is the latest design idea mood board.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is MCM-Powder-Room-Week-3-round-mirror-1024x1024.jpg

As I have mentioned, the walls will be painted white and I will add a hand painted mural. I started following @banyanbridges on Instagram and have been totally inspired by her wall murals. Here are some examples of what she has accomplished with paint! Her instagram also has a lot of painting tips, so give her a follow.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 95750338_2500772923508859_2507953070152701423_n.jpg — @Banyanbridges inspiration picture of colorful wall murals

I LOVE how she incorporated everything into the color blocks below Door, trim, wall, and even the door hardware!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 79917150_2572939052760841_7482749210275952232_n.jpg — Inspiration of wall paint beauty by @banyanbridges

I am not 100% sure what the mural will look like, but I have been thinking about it a lot. Once I paint everything white and have a blank canvas to study, it’ll really come together in my mind. There are a couple of problem spots that I need to incorporate into the design. The back splash tile doesn’t go all the way to the left where the cabinet was. I plan to use color blocking to incorporate this area and make it look intentional. And there is an access panel in the ceiling that is pretty banged up. I was thinking of making it a darker color to camouflage it.

The faucet that I bought is this one from Delta. Isn’t she pretty?

I decided to go with gold everything (faucet, mirror, towel bar). I contemplated using black, but the handles are gold-ish and the canvas frame is gold so I decided to do everything in gold.

The mirror choice has been narrowed down to the West Elm pivot mirror. Do you remember that in the first post I mentioned that I couldn’t see myself in the last mirror 🙂 I found one that pivots, so I can angle it down slightly and be able to see myself! Hooray!

Mirror choices. Round or rounded rectangle?

I am deciding between the two above, circle or rounded rectangle. The room has so many 90 degree angles and straight lines, so I plan to add some curves with the mirror and mural. Which would you choose? I have to decide soon so I can order it! I’m leaning towards the circle.

Let me know what you think! And be sure to click around the ORC link up website to see what everyone is up to. I have found some great new accounts to follow this way. And special thanks to the media partner for this event, Better Homes and Gardens. I hope that someday they publish the photos that they took of our house last June!!

My previous posts can be found here: week one, week two.

*Brandi

Morrison Residence Then and Now: Part 5 Bedroom and Bathroom

Bathroom, Bedroom, house, Morrison Residence Series

This time we will take a look at the bedroom and bathroom in the back of the house. If this is the first post you are reading in the Morrison Series, here is a quick recap. I compare the house as it was when the original owner and his family lived here. He was also the architect, Robert Morrison, and it was built in 1963. You can find part one (living room) here, part two (master bedroom) here, and part three (kitchen) here and part four (dining room) here.

In order to give you some perspective on where we are in this tour, I wanted to show you a drawing of the house. I have been showing you the upper level (and I am currently redoing the bathroom on the lower level, which you can read about here).

The houses was actually built in two stages. The first stage was the living room, kitchen, bathroom upstairs and downstairs and the master bedroom (which was was actually two bedrooms.) Phase two of the plan was some of the portions in yellow below (combining the two bedrooms into one, adding the dining/multipurpose room and two bedrooms and a shared bath.)

The two rooms in the back are mirror images of each other. They each have a sink and in between them is a bathroom with a shared tub and toilet.

There used to be a glass curved window across the whole back (above each sink and the tub) which looked incredible! When we bought the house it had been replaced with high clerestory windows instead.

These spaces can be used as bedrooms or offices or anything really. When we had our master bedroom in the front, we used one side as a guest bedroom and the other side as my craft room. Then we moved our bedroom to one side and use the other side as a dressing room. Unfortunately it’s a hot mess, so you will only get to see the bedroom side today.

The bedroom is off of the dining room. You can read all about what we did to this room in this blog post. I have changed some things around since then.

Initially I had plants on the shelves, but they weren’t getting enough sun so I moved them to an area with more light. I decided to display my purses on them.

The art is an antique mall find (oh how I miss shopping for vintage). The chair was from the Clover Market, the bed is Article, the bedside tables and square pillows are HomeGoods finds, the round pillow and lady art are an Estate Sale finds, and the lamp is IKEA. The quilt at the end of the bed is for sale in my shop. Don’t worry, we don’t actually use it; it was just used to style this room!

The sink area we kept the same, and only painted the cabinets and got new knobs. I made that huge flower arrangement from plants in the yard. I used bleeding hearts, solomon’s seal, purple iris, hellebore leaves, and two plants that I’m not sure of the name.

We had this bathroom remodeled a few years ago. We wanted to save costs, so the right side of the room we left as is (except a new toilet). And the left side and floor are new.

I wanted to mimic the look of a full slab wall, at a fraction of the cost, so we used large 24″ square marble tiles.

We painted the build in cabinets and added new knobs. Those wooden closet doors are original. Aren’t they beautiful? The windows in this room are really unusual. You can see it on the drawing above, they jut into the room 90 degrees. Since they are at an angle you really can’t see into the house, but you can see out, which is cool. We can lay in bed and watch the wildlife outside this window. The foxes especially like to torment our dog Winnie.

The hanging lamp is an estate sale find, as is the art above the bed. I plan to reframe it one day into a smaller frame in a different color. I just remembered I have a whole blog post about it here.

I love those windows at the top to let in light from the dining room. This room is dark, so it’s hard to photograph and I hope I did it justice. One day perhaps a professional will photograph this room.

The design of this area really is so versatile. We like having our bedroom tucked back here, because it’s nice and quiet. Plus Dave can get ready in the other room without waking me up. When school is in session he wakes up at like 5am. Yikes.

Let me know what you think!

*Brandi

Powder Room ORC: Week Two

Bathroom, house, One Room Challenge

It’s week two of the One Room Challenge! You can find my week one linked here. Last week I told you that I had six weeks to redo this room, but I found out it’s actually 8 weeks! Because I have extra time, I decided to add this space to the project. It’s our downstairs entrance that we use all of the time. I think that it just needs some fresh paint and new artwork. I really do love these Varga prints, but the frames are bent. You can’t tell in the photos, but they are both bent at the top. I’ll either re-frame them, or move them somewhere else. What are your thoughts on them?

The pocket door I painted alchemy several years ago, and I still love it. I’m excited to see it surrounded by more colors.

If I was going for a beach vibe, this painting would be perfect. Ha. It actually matches the before space perfectly. But I plan to paint over this (Sorry Dana, who ever you are that painted this!). I plan to paint colorful lines and shapes of some sort and will incorporate the painting of the walls on the canvas.

Canvas that I’ll paint over to cover the electrical panel

The window film will be replaced. I wish I could keep it clear, but this is a bathroom and what you see is the entrance, so that would be a really bad idea.

Paint chips and handles.

The counter tops, sink and flooring will stay. This goal of this redesign is to highlight the architecture of the room, and make it fun!

Be sure to check out all of the featured designers, and guest participants of the One Room Challenge. There is so much inspiration to find out there. And all we have is time right now, so click around and read lots of blog posts about design! Thanks to ORC and BHG for sponsoring this fun event.

*Brandi

Powder Room One Room Challenge: Week One

Bathroom, house, One Room Challenge

I am participating in the Spring 2020 One Room Challenge! It’s a fun event where you post about a space that you are redecorating (or fully renovating) over a 6 week period. I already wanted to redecorate our powder room so the timing is perfect. And I really don’t need to do that much so it’ll be nice to have a reason to spread out the timing of this project.

Here are the before pictures.

I love the horizontal window in this room, but 1/3 of it was covered by this cabinet that was hiding a gas meter.

*One Room Challenge Powder Room Before*, Gas meter

The week before COVID19 shut down our country, the gas company came to replace the gas line, move the meter to the outside as per code, and replace the main gas line by the street. The first two happened, and they could run the new line through the existing line without tearing up the entire drive way, hooray! However, they couldn’t replace the gas main line by the street, because it kept filling with water. They dug a GIGANTIC hole that took up a large part of the end of our driveway and yard and then haphazardly put it back together. It’s a bit of a bummer that the front of our yard is all torn up, but you know, GLOBAL PANDEMIC. It seems some of our neighbors are more upset about it than we are. We are hoping that one day they will finish the job.

The current situation in this bathroom really isn’t bad at all, but there are two main areas that I wanted to address. 1) The left corner had that counter cabinet that hid the gas meter. I am so pumped that they moved the meter to the outside so that we could get rid of the cabinet. It felt clunky and the window actually spans the entire wall, so it’ll also let in more light. A pipe is still there, but I plan to just paint it. And 2) the mirrors were hung high and I am short, so I could never see myself in the mirror unless I was on my tippy toes. I don’t often mind being short, but I really hate it when I can’t see myself in a bathroom mirror. This actually happens in restaurant bathrooms a lot (I’m looking at you Memphis Taproom!)

My color palette is below, along with my beer (lol). In case you didn’t know, you can call in and order to your local Sherwin-Williams and they will get it ready for you so you can just pick it up outside. The counter tops are staying and I picked up these handles at an Estate Sale without knowing where to put them and this room is perfect. One less thing to try and find and buy.

Color Palette One Room Challenge MCM Powder Room

After I had picked the colors, I was looking through photos from our trip to New Orleans and realized that the colors are very much a part of the city. When I was there I kept thinking, I should design a room around this, and apparently I did without even realizing it.

Color Inspiration from a church in New Orleans

I am very thankful that we got to go on a trip in January to one of our favorite cities before this pandemic, New Orleans.

Design Plan:

Keep: Flooring, sink, counter tops

Do or buy:

Paint the walls white

Add a @banyanbridges inspired painted wall art

Replace faucet

Paint pipe

Add baseboard trim

Cover electrical panel

Find a new mirror (I was going to use one that I already had below, but Dave doesn’t’ like it)

You can find all the other participants and more information about the event at the following LINK.

Let me know what you think!

*Brandi

Morrison Residence Then and Now: Part 4 The Dining Room

house, quilt, shop

Welcome to the fourth installment of the Morrison Residence Then and Now series. You can find week one (living room) here, week two (master bedroom) here, and week three (kitchen) here. I am showing you our home through our eyes along with photos from the original architect, Robert Morrison.

This week we will take a look at the dining room. If you’d like to see what it looked like 2 years ago, I have an old blog post from when we remodeled it here.

This room really can be used for a variety of purposes, much like all of the spaces in this home. When we bought it, this room was being used as a family room/TV room. The photos from the architect Robert Morrison, show it being used as a dining room, below.

We now use this room as a dining room and have a huge table to fill up the very long space. We love to have dinner parties and can’t wait for this pandemic to be over so that we can entertain again.

Several years ago I had this wallpaper installed and I still love it. It’s from York Wallcoverings (my hometown!) and you can find it here. A couple of years ago we replaced the flooring and built-in cabinets.

From the kitchen, you have to walk down this hallway to get to the dining room. The house was built in two stages, and this back part was built in the second stage. This hallway is currently very messy, so the before/after of it will have to be at a later date 🙂

This area below used to be a reading nook with a fabulous womb chair. This chair is on my wish list. They are really pricy, so if someone finds one at a good deal, let me know!

The chairs that we have in this space were Dave’s grandmothers. I would like to recover them in a salmon colored velvet one day.

I quickly ‘redecorated’ this room today to snap some new photos. You can see that half way through I decided this wall below needed some art, so I placed this watercolor piece below. The wood carving art above and the watercolor below I found at an auction in North Jersey. Oh how I miss going to estate sales, auctions, flea markets and yard sales.

During the renovation in 2018 we replaced the track lighting for these vintage pendant lights. The ceiling globe light came with the house and I think it’s perfect so there is no need to replace it. Chairs from Article, table from Crate and Barrel, Built in cabinets IKEA with The Tile Shop marble tile as the top.

When we replaced the flooring we left this original tile in front of the sliding door. We have a hot tub out this door, and I liked the original tile, so we kept it. The rest of the flooring was carpet, which we replaced with this hardwood floor from Lumber Liquidators. By the way, I am just listing resources in case you are interested. This is not sponsored (aka we paid for all of this ourselves.)

I bought these tulips from a local farm called Blooming Glen Farm. The shop where I have a space, Makers vintage + handmade, is sadly closed at this time due to the Coronovirus. The owner Jess has been having Instagram sales on her @thecrafterypa instagram account. I picked up these amazing flowers, as well as some earrings for myself, and a Mother’s Day gift.

Now: Living Room with Brand*Eye Home Pillows and quilt

The pillows and quilt (peeking out from the bedroom) above are for sale in my shop! They are 20% off, PLUS 20% of the sale will be donated to a local charity, Laurel House, a domestic violence shelter.

You can find my online shop here: www.brandeyehome.bigcartel.com

I have been keeping busy by making lots and lots of fabric face masks that I’ve been giving away for free. Email me if you are in need of one. I may eventually list some in my shop, but for now they are free.

Let me know what you think of these posts, the world in general, the pandemic, the meaning of life… I’m all ears (and eyes).

*Brandi

Morrison Residence Then and Now: Part 3 The Kitchen

house

Welcome to the third installment of the Morrison Residence Then and Now series. You can find week one (living room) here, and week two, (master bedroom) here. This week I am showing you the kitchen of this mid century modern dream home. If I had to choose a place to be quarantined for months on end, this would be it.

Below is what the architect, Robert Morrison, has to say about the “Culinary Arts Center.” All of this is so true, even from the perspective of the year 2020 (the house was built in 1963).

Then: The Morrison House Culinary Arts Center

The second owners of this home made several changes to update the kitchen. The major change was to open it up to the living room, which we love. The cabinet configuration was changed a little bit, appliances were replaced, and the counter tops were replaced with a solid surface, Silestone quartz material. The original cabinets remain (which we love!) See below for the same view as above, but 50+ years later. I have to admit that I need to bring back plants in this skylight area.

The only change that we made to the kitchen was adding a range hood, because we (Dave) does a lot of cooking.

*Now: Morrison Residence living room and kitchen*

The bar furniture piece below was Dave’s grandmothers, Lucille. She gave it to us and we just moved it to this spot recently. Dave had the idea to move it here and it fits perfectly.

I am so thankful for the previous owners of our home planting so many gorgeous plants and flowers. The daffodils and azaleas have been here for decades. I usually cut a few of them to bring indoors.

There is so much storage in this kitchen. We even have a wall of storage in the hallway off the kitchen, shown above to the right.

This eating nook above now is a credenza and kegerator, below.

Last June (2019) we had the great opportunity to meet the architect of this home, Robert Morrison. Here we are in the kitchen.

Then and Now. Robert Morrison and Brandi

It was such a treat to be able to sit in this home and listen to the design decisions, construction, and ideas directly from the creator of this home.

*Then and Now. Robert Morrison and Dave*

Thanks for taking the time to meet with us Bob! We hope that we are carrying on in your vision of this home. XOXO