Oh! The travesty of a backlog of “things to do.” It can be mentally crippling. Finally, we are getting some projects done around the house!

It feels good.

We wanted to do a quick change to our hallway bathroom. A quick change. A speedy change.

AKA, a cheap change.

We are currently one third of the way through the renovation process. I thought I would share my ideas and the current status of the project.

We opted to keep our existing vanity. We are going to have it repainted grey. We are adding some fun legs to it. This way it looks more like a piece of furniture.

We also added a new countertop.

I think it looks like bits of seashells Alice in Wonderland would have collected on her adventures.

We went directly to the countertop fabricator in town and asked to see all of their remnant pieces. We ended up selecting a recycled glass concrete slab and saved about 25% doing it this way. It is Icestone Sky Pearl. And even with the discount, it was a splurge. But we needed one high end item. It is a little etched from being outside, but my husband has the best outlook on this.

He said, “I like that it is not perfect.”

And he is right. We are two very imperfect people and flaws just build character. So, our cheaper countertop has some character all ready!

I purchased the copper vessel sink on eBay almost two years ago. I believe I paid around $100. Maybe $130. I just remember it was a good price! I have found the key to purchasing copper from a seller is that it is “made in Mexico.” There might be lead in a copper sink purchased elsewhere.

There are a couple of reasons I chose copper:

The first being, I have had our farmhouse copper sink in our kitchen for five years in constant use. It has held up beautifully. I love it.

Copper is a natural germ killer. The copper will start killing bacteria in minutes. I think this is important in the bathroom. Copper is amazing!

And I just think copper is beautiful.

The Kraus Riviera vessel faucet has a retail price of $160. I bought mine off of eBay. The pictures online had shown some marks on the edge in the photos. Which was “perfect” for our imperfect house. But the seller sent me a beautiful new one. And that was just perfect, too! I paid $50 with free shipping.

We also opted to keep the existing mirror. My husband thought I was crazy, but it was still in great shape. I could not rationalize destroying it. For $75, our carpenter is building us a custom 5″ frame. He is painting it high gloss kelly green. The actual color I chose is called “Caterpillar” from Home Depot.

I am doing an Alice in Wonderland inspired bathroom, so the color of the mirror seemed like kismet.

With that “theme” as inspiration:

I purchased this Otomi stencil and will be stenciling the walls the color of the blue of my Otomi throw.

I will be using my collection of vintage crewel animal art. Wouldn’t Alice love the bright animals? Perhaps she knew them.

I am reusing my shower curtain from Anthropologie. Because, I LOVE it!

We still need to:

Have the bathroom repainted light grey (Moonshine from Benjamin Moore)

Install legs on vanity

Paint vanity dark grey

Install 7 1/4″ baseboards

Stencil otomi design in bright blue in the entire bathroom

Install bright green frame

Rehang vintage framed crewel animal art

Sew two white bathroom matts together (if I am feeling ambitious!)

Install new toilet roll holder in oil rubbed bronze (eBay)

Install new shower rod and shower curtain rings

I cannot wait to show the final pictures! This should all be done in the next three weeks.

Have you tackled any “to do lists” lately?

Please share!