More adventures in home improvement

This last weekend, I was in Reno, Nevada for a political convention. While I was away, Randy got into major home-improvement mode, and surprised me with renovations in our master bathroom!

I never took a "before" picture, because I honestly hated our bathroom. Everything about it screamed "1984" in an unpleasant way. We had been talking about some changes for awhile, and Randy implemented some of them. Some of the things we want to do are a ways off, but these small changes made such a huge difference that I doubt I'll mind the rest for a long time to come!

So, what changed? First, the color. The whole interior of our house is painted a pale peach color, which I love, but which I figured needed some variation in some parts of the house. So I chose Eddie Bauer "Bluestone" from Valspar, which happens to match the tile around our fireplace in the living room, and is about two shades lighter than the trim outside our house.

Second, the lighting fixture. Previously, it was a cheap brass fixture with four exposed lightbulbs. It was bright, no doubt there, but it was also tacky. All of the original lighting fixtures in the house were brass like that one, and we've replaced most of them (even the front and back porch lights). The new one in the bathroom has star accents and frosted glass, and is part of the same set that our dining room light came from (we got all of this at Lowe's).

Third, the mirror. Like many bathrooms, ours had a huge wall mirror that covered all the space above the vanity. Randy discovered that, worse than most, ours was fixed to the wall with what appeared to be tar. We've noticed that the bathroom walls are very cheap drywall, and putting up heavy things is a bit of a trial (the lighting fixture took two people to put it up), so undoubtedly this was the easy fix during initial construction. Anyway, I didn't really like the mirror, and Randy put this framed one up in its place.

Fourth, light switch plates. Randy picked out brushed nickel plates, for the two light switches and one electrical outlet. Much better than ivory plastic!

You can't see it here, but we also have a dark wood towel rack with brushed nickel hooks on the wall facing the vanity. The bathroom is decorated with Texas-themed items, and bluebonnets.

The next thing to do in here will be to replace the faucet on the sink, which is old and rusting apart at the base. Ideally, we would like to replace the sink and vanity, but it isn't as much of a priority, and the vanity and medicine cabinet could probably just be painted over to more closely match the mirror frame. The tacky pink-flowered linoleum flooring is going to have to stay for awhile (I will never understand why the previous owner, when replacing the flooring in the rest of the house with ceramic tile and wood laminate, didn't also attack this bathroom). But these changes described here have made enough of a difference that I feel a great sense of relief - and it was such a nice surprise to come home to last night!