Boys’ Bathroom Update

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

Welcome to the boys’ updated bathroom!

Basically, my plan was to update the room to what I had originally envisioned it to be, when I bought the shower curtain and shower hooks four and a half years ago. The colors that I used to update it were all based on that curtain and hook pattern, and what I love most about it is it will transition as the boys grow. Eventually the animals will move out, but the color scheme can stay.

The canvases were both A and I’s creation. The elephant one we did when he was little with finger paint, and I traced and painted the elephants over. The geometric one we created just using painter’s tape and lots of coordinating colors. The shelf items included a plastic pitcher for holding bubble bath, a container of bubble wands (because they constantly fit over them in the tub), my vintage rubber duckie (that’s right it’s a Sesame Street original), a clock, and a little set of robot wheeled bowls.

Can I just stop for a minute and say the shower curtain rod replacement may have been the most challenging thing I attempted? The broken rod left a dime size hole in the wall that I had to fill and repaint. AND I didn’t realize upon my purchase that the screws would position differently for a circular towel rod versus the rectangular one.

One of the things that I have learned with A is to change slowly. The first thing he asked when I was re-doing the bathroom is that I not take out any of his “stuff”. So that’s why I kept the shower curtain, and several other pieces:

Like our friend the giraffe toothbrush holder

Their hooded towel holder

And the little monkey soap container, that contains no soap.

My big projects were the signs by the hand towel rack:

These are vintage frames that my Grampie made. I spray painted them white and then created and added the picture hand wash reminders for the boys.

And then my wall sign:

I have an odd knack for creating songs from songs for the boys. This is a reference to that and my husband and I’s quirky sense of humor (it’s a take on Aersomith’s Walk this Way if you are not hearing the song in your head yet…there you go. You’re welcome).

If you look at the picture close you can see I matched the blue to the blue shower hook, and then created an ombre effect by just adding white before I went to each next letter.

What cracked me up about this is my 7 year old nephew said “wash this way? There’s a certain way you are supposed to wash?” HA! The irony. Then he decided I should get a sign with an arrow pointing to the shower, so people completely understand they are to wash this way. Reason number 670 why I love that kid.

Now let’s look at the wall stripes:

I got the idea from watching an episode of Sarah 101 on HGTV and I thought…wall stripes! I can do that! There is a very subtle difference, but it is a lighter green, darker green, lighter green, and then a taupe. I am going to eventually repeat the darker green under the taupe, but honestly I was tired! And it looks good for now. I varied the tape dimensions so there are wider and smaller lines in between.

The wall stripes were not super difficult, the biggest obstacle is getting them straight and getting the paint to not leak through the tape. My Dad has a straight edge that was my Grampie’s that we used with a level to mark straight lines all the way across with a pencil and then I taped along the lines. It is 100% a two person job to do that.

The other tip my parents gave me (that I didn’t do because I ran out of paint before, but you should do it!) was to paint over the taped lines with the wall color and let it dry and then paint your colors. It will create a seal so you will run less chance of having the paint bleed through. Super smart! I had a bit of paint spread, but nothing major. However, I am a bit of a perfectionist with that stuff and went back and hand painted the stripes and wall so it wouldn’t show.

So now just a few organizing updates:

I bought a new toy holder because ours had gotten yucky with bath scum and picked up a whale cover for the tub faucet because our other faucet cover would never stay on.

Amazingly the boys favorite part of the update was their new rug:

Seriously. It is a really boring color, too! I went with one that was easy to vacuum, wash, and would just blend in. It is also memory foam and both boys had a fit over it (“It’s my turn to sit on the rug!”).

About a year ago I posted about organizing the boys’ linen closet and I wanted you to see that I updated that just a bit:

By adding new larger bins and moving their medicine and humidifiers to the top shelf.

The bottom is relatively the same, but the organization that I did has kept up! Yeah for us!

So that’s it! Two things that were out of the budget that I would like to do eventually is to frame around the sink mirror and get one of these sweet pictures to frame and add.

Oh and just in case you are wondering here is my product list!

Wall Color Paint: I used a leftover gallon of paint that I had from when J’s room was painted, which means I am truly not sure what the color is. It was a light mint green from Behr if that helps!

Dark Paint Stripe: Behr Vineyard

Lighter Paint Stripe: Behr Grassy field

Taupe Paint Stripe: Valspar Oatlands Subtle Taupe

Wash this Way Sign: Hobby Lobby Chipboard Letters, Paint Color: Amsterdam Acrylic Sky Blue Light (mixed with pure white to create ombre). I also spray painted the letters first with white to completely cover the cardboard color. I attached them to the wall using first painter’s tape to position them and then command strips to keep them in place and not damage the wall. Again I used a straight edge and level to make sure they were in line.

Shelf, Towel Rod: Target

Baskets, rug, shower basket and faucet cover: Target

All shelf items from Target, except for rubber duck and bubble wand container