Keeping Things Private

I'm not the most modest person you'll ever meet.  If there is a load of clean laundry on top of the dryer and I need a pair of jeans, a shirt, etc, I've been known to dart quickly through the house half naked to get them.  You can ask my college roomies.  Some of them were not too fond of this maneuver.  That being said, I am not an exhibitionist.  So after Seth and I removed the plantation shutters on the windows in our master bathroom, we needed to figure out a new way to maintain our privacy.  The neighbors behind us aren't that close, but I can definitely see their windows so I'm sure they can see ours.

I'm not a plantation shutter hater.  When they are made of quality materials, they can be very classy. I do not like the fake plastic ones (we had those in our old house and they were promptly removed). The problem with these in our master bathroom was twofold.  One - they had been improperly painted and were no longer functional.  In fact, the slats were stuck at various angles (you can kind of tell in the photo above - I'm sorry I don't have a better pic).  Two - they were painted cream and when we had all of our trim painted white, there was really no way to salvage them.  

We deliberated options like 1) new plantation shutters, 2) cafe curtains (they cover the bottom half of the window only letting in light from above), and 3) frosting the windows.  Number three was the winner.  We used this tutorial and this window film (it can also be found at Home Depot).  

before

We started this at night and so my before picture is horrible.  I will be a better blogger during the next project.  

progress

After completing only four panes we were tired and frustrated so we called it quits for the night.  FYI - applying the film is much easier with two people.  I was able to get you better pictures in the daylight though.

after

We fully intended to cover all of the panes, but I was sad that I wasn't going to be able to see the trees in our backyard anymore so we left it like this for now.  Don't worry - only my head is visible above the frosted part.  And if the neighbors glimpse the top few inches of Seth's manly chest, that's okay.

  

I spent some time today using our new toy (an awesome compound miter saw) for a living room furniture project...stay tuned.  Why I decided to do this on the hottest day of the week I'm not sure. It was a steamy 97 degrees and I was sweating for sure.  That's DIY commitment, right?  Have a great weekend everyone!

Bathroom Love Notes

Ah, communication.  Supposedly one of the most difficult things to master in a marriage.  With Seth working days and me working nights, it can definitely be a challenge.  Inspired by these projects on Pinterest, I created our own dry erase "love notes" board for the master bathroom.

I just printed "[love notes]" onto the bottom of a piece of white card stock and popped it into a cute navy blue frame that I found at Home Goods.  

Seth and I use it pretty frequently to jot down notes to one another.  Sometimes they are lovey and sometimes they are just practical.

This was a quick, easy, cheap project that could be customized in so many different ways.  I've seen it used on Pinterest as a weekly menu, a calendar, a grocery list, and a to do list.  The possibilities are endless!

A Striped Bathroom

You may remember that I mentioned in the whole house update post that I had an idea for pepping up our plain white-walled master bathroom.  Last weekend Seth and I painted gray stripes on the two walls surrounding our vanity and I am loving the way it turned out.

We chose Valspar's Gravity, which is the color in our first guest bedroom.  I knew I wanted a gray stripe to sit against the vanity backsplash (since it's white) so I measured the height from the top of the backsplash to the ceiling and divided that out, making sure that there would also be a gray stripe up against the crown molding to set it off.  The stripes turned out to be 6.5" inches wide except for the one at the very top which is only around 6" (you can't really tell when looking at it).  

We used the measuring tape to space out the stripes and a level to draw out lines on the wall using pencil.  I also marked "x"s in between the lines where the gray stripes would go (I like to make things as idiot-proof as possible for myself).  Then I carefully lined up the tape on the pencil lines (making sure to tape on the outside edge of  where we wanted the gray stripes).  

To be super safe and prevent bleeding of our gray paint under the tape, Seth and I first brushed the white wall color over the tape edges.  That way if there was any bleeding under the tape, you wouldn't be able to tell since it would be the same as the wall color.

After letting the white paint dry for about 2 hours (it was a thin coat so it dried quickly), we got to work on the stripes.  Apparently, I didn't get any actual pictures of the process, but I think it's a no-brainer.  We used a brush for the edges and for cutting in around the mirror and a foam roller for the rest.  It took two coats and then we removed the tape. After letting the paint dry overnight, I used a magic eraser to remove a few of my pencil lines that were visible (whoops - I had tried to tape outside of them so that the gray paint would cover them up but I guess that didn't always happen).  

And here is the finished product.

The artwork on the left side of the sink is from my Mom (10-2-10 is the date we got married).  The frame used to be a very light wood so I spray painted it dark blue to go along with our color scheme. We also installed a more modern-looking towel bar and a new robe hook on the back of the door.

On the opposite side, I hung a couple of plates (the top one is from Anthropologie and the bottom one is from a local thrift store).  

It doesn't fix the ugly floor tile, but the stripes definitely cheer me up whenever I see them.