The Before:

A vanity that wasn’t affixed to the wall, a vanity top that wasn’t affixed to the cabinet, and a micro-toilet that made even a modest derrière feel Kardashian-sized… these were a few of the obstacles we faced when tackling this bathroom makeover.

The After:

Something that really set the mood and took the room from ‘generic place for using the toilet‘ to ‘is this a suburban home’s powder room or am I at the club?!‘ was the Vitemölla light fixture from Ikea. It’s meant to be a ceiling spotlight, but I installed it on the wall with the rotatable heads pointed down on the mirror (#IkeaHack).

The lighting ended up feeling really snazzy and sophisticated.

To cover up the giant gap I had left in the wallpaper (a gap of necessity!), we got this great wooden-framed mirror at Home Goods.

Some seams faired better than others when my faux grasscloth wallpaper dried, and (of course) my most visibly fucked seam ended up being in one of the most prominent spots in the bathroom — smackdab beside our sink!

Visible seams are par for the course with grasscloth, but what I ended up with was a case study for plate tectonics on my bathroom wall. No bueno. (This is a work in progress…)

R thought a magazine rack in the powder room would look tacky to visitors. I was of the opposite opinion; I think a magazine rack in the powder room says “Don’t let societal pressures or pesky etiquette tell you that you can’t use this room for what it’s meant for. Take your time. Enjoy your stay. Mi casa es su casa.”

I want visitors to use my powder room and think, “ahh, I’m amongst friends.” (I’d also like them to think “that is some really freakin awesome wallpaper,” but that might be a tad ambitious).

We mostly furnished the space with leftovers from our apartment’s guest bathroom, including this Ikea Hemnes shelf (complete with random jar of once-scented twigs and fake plant).

One of my absolute favorite things in this room is the art. This is a framed page from To Kill a Mockingbird that we were given as a gift (a nod to our dog Scout), and I love how the rustic wooden frame looks with the wallpaper.

Another favorite is this Henri Matisse print that we found at Ikea a year or so ago. I loved the simplicity and style, and the pop of red against a solid background does a nice job of breaking up the texture of the walls, and all the shades of grey and black.

What we Did:

–Removed chair molding and wallpapered with faux grasscloth
–Ripped out vanity and replaced with pedestal sink
–Replaced toilet
-Replaced light fixture
-Decorated!

What we Used:

Wallpaper: Norwall Faux Grey Grasscloth
Toilet: Kohler Highline Touchless Flush Toilet
Sink: AquaSource Pedestal Sink
Faucet: Moen Boardwalk Faucet in Brushed Nickel
Light Fixture: Vitemölla Triple Spotlight from Ikea
Shelf: Hemnes Shelf from Ikea
Magazine Rack: Viv + Rae Magazine Rack