my dirty little secret

I have a confession I am making in the hopes that once I am exposed I can 

move forward and finally take care of my problem.

It's my Master Bathroom. 

I have neglected it for far too long, having moved to this house almost 8 years ago and I have YET to decorate it. Or organize it. Some will say, well that is nothing, some people don't get around to decorating any rooms. But I am not some people. I have redone my bedroom 3 times since moving here.And rearranged furniture in my home at least 400 times. It is what I do. But my master bath is so, uhm, blah, and is riddled with so many angles and different ceiling heights, it makes me dizzy just to think about it. 

Are you ready for some photos? Don't judge, K?

It is a little bit of builders beige mixed with a blood bath. Think I am joking, read on.

Oh, that's not so bad huh?

That red accent wall behind the sinks is kinda pretty right? I can''t remember the name of it and am too lazy to go down stairs to look at the paint can. It was some type of Berry. Or wine. From Behr. But just wait. First I will talk about the basic, builder grade vanity with cheap cheap cheap wood doors. I mean they have 2 doors on each side. No drawers. HATE it. There is no shelving or anything under the sink. Just 4 big holes. The medicine cabinet we installed. Too cheap to even have a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. In ANY of the bathrooms. The only things we have replaced are the faucets, light fixtures and the handles on the doors of the vanity. The closed door behind the sinks is the closet. IN the bathroom. Yeah, not sure what the architect was thinking when he designed this house.

Do you like my display of products? Always out to collect the dust. Now in my salon 

I have my products out all the time, but this is NOT my salon. 

But there is no room under the sinks (for now) and no room in the medicine cabinet.

And how about those cultured marble sinks? We live in an area where the water is so hard, you would have to clean your sinks everyday to keep the lime scale from building up. All that around the drain is discoloration of the metal when I let a cleaner sit over night to remove it. Well it removed it alright.

The only redeeming quality about the handles on the vanity is that they now

match the faucet and the lights above the mirror.

To the left of the sinks is a wall my daughter decided needed a little bit of pizzaz. And a few finger prints thrown in for good measure. Think I could have cleaned the walls? It's not like I have never wiped down the front of the vanity, the sinks and mirrors, why skip the walls? Ewwww

Here is the medicine cabinet we installed when we moved in only it sticks out pretty far. And the door 

swings the other way, not very convenient. This will be going in the kids bath and we have a newer one waiting in the wings.

One day I noticed a stain around the light socket. And a small one around one of the 

light fixtures. Apparently we had a leak near our chimney which is actually behind this 

mirror. We had that fixed. Did we repaint? Nope.

We still have child proof locks on the cabinet that only make it harder for us to get to them. Our son is plenty 

old enough that we have removed all the other safety locks except for these. Why? Too lazy.

The light fixtures like I said are newer. Filled with compact florescent bulbs that go out ALL the time, not the  10 years they say they do. HA! What a joke. My husband says now the new 'thing' is the LED lights. I wonder how long they will be the 'new, energy saving, best to buy for the environment' before they start burning out too. If you are thinking maybe it is the light fixture that had a small 'water'stain on it that may be causing the problem, we have the same issue with the CFL's all over the house.

I can't believe I am showing you under my sinks. how embarrassing this is!

I think it is easy to just shove stuff our of the way when you don't have any pride in your room. (and those baby locks help hold back all the 'stuff')

More unorganized mess.

Like my futile attempt at storage solutions using old shoe boxes? 

Man, we have a lot of vitamins under this cabinet!

Just sayin...

Yep, there is carpet in the bathroom. Not much else is as gross as carpet in the bathroom. I bought these throw rugs in an attempt to brighten up the beige carpet. Didn't work.

This picture is kinda blurry, but you get the idea. That is stained carpet in the corner. Stained because the previous owners apparently never changed the air filters during the winter. I spent a ton of money the first year we lived here trying to get anyone who could get rid of the dirty edges. After the 3rd Carpet cleaners fessed up and said you could eat off my carpets, but the stains were there for good.

We bought Bamboo flooring for the bathroom about 6 years ago and it is still in our closet, where we left it. 

I don't think time is an issue, cause who could not have found the time in 6 years? We happen to have a corner tub that has a curve to it that the thought of cutting flooring for seems a little intimidating. And I have not pushed the issue. 

Behind the sinks we have a nice accent wall. The towel  bar will be replaced. This one is 

ceramic  (with a nice plastic bar in between) and really made to be installed in tiled bathrooms.

Looks pretty good until you look further and it appears to be splattered blood. My poor husband worked so hard on this wall, all 8 vertical feet of it. MANY coats of red later, lets just say he started to get a little sloppy.

 Did we touch up the blood stains or leave em? Your looking at them aren't you?

The tub is so uninviting to me that I have just let the kids claim it as their own.

Even my poor plant looks miserable. Apparently it has taken a bath with the kids a few times too!

The curtain rod (Lowe's) and the curtain ($3 at a thrift store, and I LOVE it) were added in late summer. 

The curtain is a tone on tone cream Damask and there was only one curtain. I bought it figuring if it didn't 

fit, I could find something else to do with it. There used to be a buttery yellow valance here. The window does have a shade but we rarely use, it. We back up to woods, so we already have privacy.

Next to the tub is the shower. My only complaint is the shower head. I wish it had stronger water pressure.

And that the shower fairy would clean it more often.

Then there is the toilet area. It is so monochromatic and not in a good way!

I painted the cabinet above the toilet that used to be 'golden oak' white this summer, knowing 

the walls were going darker at some point. Or COLOR at the very least.

It is also the only area where there is flooring other than carpet in the bathroom.

BORING beige walls. Boring beige floor.

The same big clunky ceramic toilet paper roll holder is in here as the other 2 bathrooms.

So now you know. 

I am ashamed that it looks like no one has cared WHAT it looks like.
Well no more. For weeks I have been plotting and planning my mode of attack. 

Here are my plans.

I am still not sure about the red, if I should just repaint the trim and leave it or cover it and forget 

it ever happened. The bedroom is a beautiful medium beige and I was thinking of going a shade 

or two darker than that.

Here is the bedroom just off the bathroom so you can get a feel for the color. It is in the middle of being redone, but I am much further along with it than the bath.

I have been keeping an eye out for a used 72" vanity. Anything will be a step up from what we have. Something with drawers in the center would be ideal. Either way I will be painting it. Not sure If I will use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White on it or a dark Chocolate or black.  They will also be cleaned and organized, if not a newer vanity, then some shelves installed in this one.The hardware will also be turned to Oil Rubbed Bronze. The faucets will have to be new, unless you know of a way to make ORB spray paint permanent on metal. The light fixtures above the sink will get a coat of ORB but the fixture over the toilet will be replaced with something a little more up to date.

If I find a nicer sink top, I will get one, but if not, these sinks although are 'faux' marble, are just fine. I will also be adding trim to the mirror and that will be painted ORB as well.

I bought a newer medicine cabinet at The Habitat Restore that I will paint.It will be recessed in too the wall.

I also got a towel bar and a toilet paper roll holder there for next to nothing. Good old spray paint will keep all the metals in the bathroom the same. 

The tub wall will be getting a large beautiful decorative mirror and a few shelves to display some pretty's on. Gonna take back that area from the kids and make it a little more calming and relaxing, as a bath should be!

Some art on the walls and comfy rugs on the floor will bring this bath up to the 21st century. If I have missed anything or you can think of some different suggestions, by all means speak up!!

Whew!

I feel a whole lot lighter now that I got THAT out into the open. 

Do you have any dirty little secrets YOU would like to share??