First Floor Bathroom Design Plan

A couple of years ago, when Colby and I decided to move from our rather metropolitan location in Maine to rural Vermont (rural as in the nearest Target is an hour and a half away), I was super nervous.  At the time, I thought I NEEDED my weekly (okay bi-weekly…or more) Target runs and it was always so convenient running out to Lowes or Home Depot real quick to pick up something for a project.  We don’t have those luxuries here in Vermont.  The nearest big box home improvement store is about 30 minutes from us and any decent home decor stores (Home Goods and Target) are a cool 1.5 hours away.  I thought I would hate this.  But you know what it’s done?  I plan better.  And I shop online…alot.  Hello Amazon Prime!  But I’ve noticed that because of this, we end up with rooms and projects we love so much more than when we had convenient shopping locations back in Maine.

Without local shopping, I’m 1,000 times more creative with reusing what we have around the house.  Whether it’s using old fencing to build a craft table or old shelves to build a bathroom vanity (both of which we’ve done), we’re repurposing materials and giving our home character where before we might have run out and bought something for convenience sake that lacked any charm.  So with the first-floor bathroom renovation project that we’re currently working on, I’m taking my time and sourcing items that I truly love instead of just grabbing something at Target that works.

So with that overly lengthy prelude, I bring you today’s post about our first floor bathroom design plan.  If you remember, this is where we left off on our bathroom “for now” makeover project:

We’ve removed a wall and nine towel bars and then brought it to a pretty neutral state which you can read about here and here.  I know I made it sound like we just threw this space together but we really didn’t.  There’s been a plan in place for quite a while dear Watson.  And by plan, I really mean an inspirational image.  

For a long time, and by long I mean the six-month stretch since the article came out, I’ve been obsessed with this bathroom image from Country Living Magazine. If you get a chance, check out the full house tour of the farmhouse in upstate New York.  It’s what I dream of our farmhouse becoming when she grows up.

That image includes everything that I want our first-floor bathroom to be.  The bead board, the dark walls, the vintage art collection, the rustic yet refined vibe, the built-in wall cabinet.  Do you notice some similarities?  This is where we are heading with the bathroom…to a point.  I’m actually heading out thrifting today to see if I can find some vintage mirrors.  So with that Country Living image serving as the jumping point, this is what I’m thinking for a style board for the space:

The sources:

• Flush mount light fixture from Lowes
• Burlap shower curtain from Ballard Designs
• Coat hooks from Rejuvenation
• Patterned towels from Pendleton
• Wood framed mirror from Pottery Barn
• Laundry basket from Ikea
• Bath mat from Target
• Sink skirt DIY inspired by a Pottery Barn shower curtain

I’ve been drooling over those Pendleton Canyonlands spa towels forever (like the Sandlot forrrrr-evvvvvv-errrrrrr) and used those as the jumping-off point for the design plan.  They’re a bit of a splurge at nearly $50 a towel but I’m saving my pennies, and also taking as many online surveys as humanly possible to earn Amazon gift cards to reduce the cost of said towels.  I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life to get a set of towels but Mama’s got her eye on the prize!

Since the towels are loud and patterned I’m going pretty neutral for the rest of the room, but adding in some texture.  Like with a burlap shower curtain and a sink skirt DIY with ticking fabric and a little ruffle.  We used to have that Pottery Barn shower curtain used in the inspiration board.  We would still be using it as our shower curtain to this day but it suffered a very unfortunate bleach accident while moving.  Note to self.  Don’t pack the bleach bottle in the same box as fabrics.  Thankfully it was only one of two moving casualties.  The other incident occurred when Colby dropped a rather large box of serving dishes (aka…breakables) down an entire flight of stairs.  Somehow, only one platter broke and even then just the handle broke off.  If that doesn’t earn me a spot in the master packer hall of fame, I don’t what does!

These last couple of weeks I’ve been busy scouring our house to dig up whatever I can to accessorize the bathroom.  I’ve also been on the great thrifting tour of 2017 on the hunt for art, mirrors, and other random accessories to help add some flair to the bathroom.  So far I’ve had some great success and I’m happy to report no more Target everyone-and-their-brother-has-this-accessory bathroom stuff for me!