Front Porch Lemonades: March 2015

One day last week, hubby and I decided to run to Lowe's to see if we could find some tools to take down the builder grade mirror in our half bath. All the updating (priming, painting, and new light fixture) hinged on getting that mirror down. Armed with suction handles and duct tape, we headed home. We stuck some hot pink tape (color chosen by Hannah) on the mirror, and I heated up the glue with a hair dryer.

This mirror was on pretty darn good. After stringing some wire down the back to try and cut through the glue, Weston just pulled it off with as much even resistance. And he did a really good job of keeping the drywall damage to a minimum and not breaking the mirror!

And then it was go time on the bathroom update. First, we primed the walls because it was such a dark color before. We even had to prime part of the trim because the red was painted on the bottom section of trim. Then I painted the trim, BM Simply White, the same color as the rest of the house's trim we've painted. You can see the difference in trim color from where I painted and didn't on the picture below.

We patched some holes and the glue spots from the mirror and got to painting next. We chose a Sherwin Williams paint. It called "Sea Salt", and it's a pretty blue-green with gray undertones. I love the color. It feels so much more peaceful and bigger in there.

Next up was taking down the light and painting. We wanted to wait to do that until we were almost done painting so we could have good light during most of the painting. We were left with two giant holes from where the light was mounted incorrectly and more painting. Yay!

Once the patching and painting were done around the light box, we installed our new light that I love from Shades of Light.

I was considering painting the cabinet and adding different hardware to make it look a little more like a furniture piece and less like a standard cabinet sink. After we got everything painted and the mirror hung, I was sold that I wanted to update the cabinet. I went with BM Rockport Gray that I've used in both of my houses in different rooms, and we used the semi-gloss finish. Our cabinets had a white laminate finish, and we knew we needed to get the laminate off so the paint would adhere and last. Luckily the laminate was SO easy to peel off, and it came off almost in complete pieces.

Then we ended up with this! I love how it turned out. I wish I had before pictures of just the sink. We added new hardware and added a pull to the middle faux drawer. This cabinet was in bad shape before. The doors were sagging and the cabinets were stained from age.

This is how we ended up in there. The mirror was only $40 from Kirkland's. I think they always have a nice selection of affordable mirrors. Overall, we're pretty pleased with our affordable half bath update. Sometimes I forget we've done the work, and I get happy walking by and seeing it.