Powder Room In Progress

 Before I show you how our our powder room is coming along, I'll let your imagination run wild wondering what those croquet mallets are doing in here. I found them last weekend for $2 each at a local antique store. 

OK. So here's what the powder room looks like as of today. 

 The makeover started with the light redo which happened almost two years ago. I wasn't so into the super shiny brass fixture and frilly glass shades, so I painted the hardware black and replaced the shades  ($5 each at Menard's). 

By the way, it's really hard to get decent pictures of this room because there is very little natural light. The walls are sort of a grayish blue. After we put up a chair rail, I'll paint the bottom half of  the walls white. 

There's the before shot. 

Then I got this cute little cabinet at Home Goods. I needed a place to store toilet paper other than on the floor or way upstairs in the other bathroom closet. Ignore the little trinkets on the shelf. They're just resting there for a while. 

Cartographers take note: no maps were killed or harmed in any way to decorate my cabinet. That's a $3.50 sheet of wrapping paper from Broadway Paper (a local stationery shop). It hides the toilet paper stacked inside. 

See my stash? Comes in handy. 

I also knocked out that long towel bar because I thought it was strange to have such a long towel bar in a powder room. I repaired the wall and put up a new towel bar. 

 Here's what the powder room looked like when we moved in. 

 What we've accomplished so far:

Painted over the old sponge painted walls. No, we're not leaving it half painted (read the "To Do" list for more on that)

Replaced the very old clunker of a toilet 

Replaced the too-big towel bar

Replaced the floor tile 

Gave the shiny brass light fixture an under $20 makeover

Put in some toilet paper storage with the cabinet

Still left to do:

Finish up putting in the base molding

Add a simple chair rail and paint everything below it white

Paint all the trim and doors white

Replace medicine cabinet with a pretty new (or maybe antique) mirror

Clear out the beachy trinkets

And complete croquet mallet mystery project (hopefully next week).