Our Finished Otomi Bathroom

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I am so excited to share our finished bathroom! Here is part one and part two in case you missed them.

My friend, Jessica, owns Bella Wall Designs. She was such a sweetie and stenciled my walls for me. She did such an amazing job on the stencil. The whole bathroom just pops. The updated bathroom makes me smile. Just like Jessica does.

My philosophy on design is to do whatever makes you happy. And every room should have layers. Small bathrooms have so much potential, because you can really make them pop in a more bold way than the rest of your home.

Do not be afraid of color.

It has never bit anyone.

That I know of.

I wanted to share some tips on what I did for a quick update on a builder’s stock bathroom. Our bathroom is over twenty years old. I thought of replacing the vanity, but the tile in there is fairly new. And it matched the tile throughout the house. To replace the vanity probably meant having to patch some areas of the tile. This seemed risky (what if it didn’t match?) and costly. I also priced out several vanity pieces. I fell in love with an antique pine cabinet, but it sold out when I was not looking.

What’s a girl to do?

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Well, I simply purchased these furniture legs on clearance from a hardware store in town that specializes in molding. Our woodworker who did our library cabinets and baseboards put them in for us at the same time he did our mirror.

Then we just painted the cabinet a medium shade of grey to compliment the blue that was going to go in.

Added mustard knobs from World Market.

And voila’! Our vanity looked like a new one!

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I love the frame that Paul from Vrieling Woodworks. (he also installed our large baseboards and our bookcases) built us last year. It was installed around our standard builder’s mirror. It definitely goes with my Alice In Wonderland meets The Hobbit themed home.

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I love our farmhouse copper sink in our kitchen. I purchased that one off of eBay. So, I knew I wanted to continue the copper theme into our hallway bathroom. I continued the savings by purchasing this copper vessel sink from eBay, as well. Copper is a natural killer of bacteria. So, it is perfect for a bathroom. If you do choose to purchase copper sinks from eBay, it is important to do your research. Some copper sinks from certain countries have lead in them. That would be dangerous to have in your home!

The faucet was also purchased from eBay for a steal.

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We went to the local countertop dealer and requested a look at their scrap pieces. We were able to save money on the countertop this way. We also got a much higher end countertop than we thought we would be able to get, because of our savings. It is a concrete countertop with bits of blue glass and shells in it. Almost as if Alice came back from her adventure and put her souvenirs into this countertop.

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I bought the Otomi Stencil from Etsy. I have a collection of Otomi pieces from our trips to Mexico. I love the pattern. I knew I wanted to match the blue of the Otomi in the bathroom to the blue of the pattern below.

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Here is sweet Jessica, who did my stencil in the bathroom holding the Otomi piece with me. Notice her amazing vintage Ralph Lauren tie. She has the coolest style.

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Here we are in the finished bathroom. The embroidered crewel pieces are all part of my vintage collection.

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And here are some pictures of the bathroom sans us friends. The shower curtain is Anthropologie’s Flamenco Shower Curtain. I love the different shades of blue and green it holds.

I am so proud of this room. I think it came together in a variety of cool layers.

Have you redone a room in your home lately? Added any fun colors?

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

And I Become The Crazy Rabbit Lady

I saw these Menagerie Pillows online and I knew. I had to have them. Then Anthropologie had a customer appreciation day and they went 15% off.

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I purchased two of them for my husband to give to me at Christmas. But then they came.

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And I fell in love.

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They have pompom balls. There is even one on the back. Get it? It’s a tail.

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I have one in each of my yellow chairs.

And now it is official. I am the crazy bunny lady. Or the crazy Alice in Wonderland girl….

I’ll take it! Excuse me… I have a pillow I must go cuddle. No carrots required.

* I shared this on Savvy Southern Style

And My Romantic Home

Small Bathroom Remodel Started

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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:

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

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

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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!