With spring in mind I was inspired to work on some small projects that involve my bathroom. I love my bathroom, I spend a lot of time there and I want it to look good. I noticed how dull and boring it was this last month so I have done a couple small, inexpensive things to spruce it up.
I rent my place, and I am a college student who works part time which means I have no money to spare on redecorating my space. Since I rent I cannot paint my boring off-white walls; I have to work with what I got. I have a regular old sink, average bath tub, old ass toilet, and no counter space. One thing I do have is a nice size closet in my bathroom.
First: I added some color. I love drama, if I have white walls then I want some dark color. I chose a dark rich purple with silver/grey, and a little bit of white (mostly with my towels) to give my bathroom a nicer look. I have specific towels for my bathroom, so I chose a nice grey, purple, and white towel for my bathroom to match the look I want to achieve. I found an awesome purple shower curtain with silver rhinestones for 10 bucks at a discount store along with a nice fuzzy purple bathroom rug for 5 bucks. These two things add a lot of color to a bare room and it makes a huge difference.
Bath mat and shower curtain bling
Next: My sink sucks. Truly, deeply, sucks. The counter space in my bathroom also sucks. I have no sophisticated words that can get the point across better- it just sucks. Instead of giving my sink area the evil eye I decided to just make it awesome. I have a mirror above my sink with a small drawer area that holds very little, but it creates a ledge. I bought an acrylic makeup organizer for about 7 bucks and put it on top of this ledge. This adds something to the room I love: personality, a peek into my goodies, and convenience. For me, if something is out of site it is out of mind and my makeup is often out of site. I love having my little acrylic organizer right over my sink, cuddled up next to my mirror. I have some of my makeup brushes in it, along with some of my newer or most used makeup. I love seeing this every day! I also hate a cluttered sink, and since my sink counter is so small, I don't like to have anything other than soap or lotion on it.
My sink, my mirror and my small but awesome makeup organizer!
Next Next: To the right of my sink I have a waste basket and a litter box, it is very boring and not at all pleasing to the eye. I want a lot of things I can't have for this area of my bathroom, so I brainstormed for some things I can have and I came up with a happy little result. I have a closet that gives me plenty of room in my bathroom but it is dark and half of the closet is an inconvenience, and quite frankly, I love shelving. With this in mind, I decided that a few corner shelves would definitely give that dull, ugly corner of my bathroom some spice. I bought 3 dark brown corner shelves at Home Depot for 10 dollars each. These shelves came with screws, but I bought extra anchors for extra strength and security. Now, these 10 dollar shelves aren't the best quality but they work and they look nice for my cheap ass bathroom. I have never put up corner shelves before, and they tested my patience. They are more difficult than regular shelves because it is a corner and it takes some very accurate measuring and a very good level, and (if you can) spare an extra set of hands if you are a newb like I was. I plan to add a table under my shelves to give that corner a little something extra; the table will sit over the litter box, concealing it a little bit and adding a nicer look to the room. This has not happened yet, but it will...
My new shelves! I don't even quite know what to put on them yet...
Next Next Next: My toilet area. We all need the toilet, and I am very grateful for its invention, but it is often a hated piece. Do we ever have good experiences there?! Well, behind my toilet was boring, so I added one of those over the toilet shelf things. I have a plain silver metal one with some shelves, nothing special but it definitely gives a little something extra. The plain cheap metal ones are very inexpensive and usually come as a set with a toilet paper holder and towel rack (or something like it). I like to keep candles, hair products, and a basket of extra soaps, bath salts, and bubble bath on my back of the toilet shelving (I have no idea what its real name is).
Still kind of "eh", but I'm working on it ;)
Next Next Next Next: My beloved, and somewhat hated, bathroom closet. I love my bathroom closet because it provides me with a lot of space to put things. However, the door to my closet is quite small and it makes half of the closet space frustrating to access. It creates a dark space that is inconvenient to use. I store most of my makeup, and all of my hair stuff in my bathroom closet. The closet has four long shelves. The top shelf holds all the bathroom towels, the second holds my makeup and hair stuff, the third hold other bathroom items such as Q-tips, cotton balls, extra hair stuff, nail stuff, etc. It is the most unorganized shelf. The last shelf holds bigger things such as big makeup boxes, as well as peroxide, band-aids, extra lotions, etc. It is a great space to put a lot of items, but the construction is poor. The door is narrow and the shelving almost comes right up to the door, so you have to just bend and reach to the far right to grab things since the closet is long and the door is narrow. It is also dark which makes it frustrating to find things sometimes. Especially on the shelf where I keep my hair and makeup items.
-The first thing I did was add some cheap touch lights to illuminate my bathroom closet a bit. I bought a 4 pack of touch lights for 3 bucks, batteries included. These aren't the brightest lights, but they do work on a budget. After all, I am not doing my makeup in the closet, just looking for it!
Left: My closet, looking very barren and lifeless. Right: The touch light that will go in my closet.
I stuck the four lights on the bottom of the top shelf with double-sided sticky tape. I staggered them so that I get light toward the back and toward the front for better coverage. Now I can just tap the lights on and off as I see fit.
Even these cheap little lights make a noticeable difference.
-After lighting my black hole of mystery, I wanted to better organize it. I love my makeup, and I really love having it accessible and displayed. In the photo above, to the left, you can see a small 3 drawer storage container. I have hair clips, ties, etc in the top drawer, all of my lip stuff shoved in the second drawer, and all of my eye shadows, liners, etc overstuffed in the bottom drawer. I also have my pallets stacked on top haphazardly. It is awful, all of it. It is messy, unorganized and overfull. I cannot see all of my makeup so I often forget I have things and never use them. To the right of my 3-drawer house of horrors I have a cute little 3 section rectangular box that holds foundations, primers, mascara, blush, and other items. It is also overfull, but since it is open it isn't as bad. After cruising Youtube, I found a couple DIY ideas for makeup storage. I love acrylic makeup storage, but those can get expensive and I can't do expensive.
The first DIY: Makeup storage pyramid!!! I found 6 square, glass candle holders for 2 bucks each and I glued them together to form a makeup storage pyramid (3 on the bottom, 2 middle, 1 top). All you need to do this is the glue of your choice (hot glue works great) and your 6 glass/plastic items. If you get jar candles, once you use up your candle you can clean out the jar and use those. I don't have enough yet, but when I do I will definitely make one because they work amazing and you are recycling. Bath and Body Works candle jars work extremely well because of their shape and they have no lip. You don't have to glue in a pyramid shape, but I prefer to because I like the way it looks more than just stacking. I also took a round thick piece of felt, cut it in half, and glued the pieces on the bottom front of my pyramid so that it slightly tilts upward and prevents sliding/scratching. For 12 bucks I made an attractive, accessible makeup holder.
My awesome new storage pyramid! I plan on making one with candle jars next!
The second DIY is for makeup brushes. It costs less than 5 bucks and works great. You need a nice glass vase or container (not super tall, but not super short either), Epsom salt, food coloring (optional), perfume or scented/essential oil (optional). Clean your vase and set it aside. If you do not want colored or scented salt, then all you do is pour Epsom salt in your vase until it is 2/3 of the way full. Stick your brushes in and BAM! You now have a nice little brush holder. I prefer color and scent, so I take a few extra steps. First, pour your salt in a bowl, add a few drops of the food coloring of your choice until you get the desired color. Next, add a few drops of your essential oil and blend with a whisk for a couple minutes. Then just let it sit for a few hours, stirring every 30 minutes to an hour. You do not want a lot of moisture or the salt will become hard. If you stir every once in a while and wait a few hours, the salt will dry and be good to go. Once it dries, you just pour it into the vase and add your brushes! Epsom salt is good to use because it is cheap and works great with food coloring and fragrance/essential oils. You can use sand if you want, but it does not work as well if you want to add color or fragrance. I enjoy adding fragrance because I keep this DIY brush holder in my bathroom closet and it adds a nice, faint fragrance to my closet and my brushes that I enjoy. I personally added Jasmine essential oil because it is one of my favorite scents.
My brush holder, it's great because it can hold a lot of brushes, or just a few, securely and it is safe for all brushes. Make sure you change your salt when it starts to look dirty or old/gross.
Lastly: Bathroom art. I never put original or expensive art in my bathrooms because of the moisture. There is always a chance that your art can get water damage if hanging in a bathroom and you never want original art damaged. Art is precious, and expensive, so always treasure it and treat it with care. I love my bathroom and I love putting art on my walls, so I put prints securely framed in my bathroom along with some wall decals and decorations. Right now my bathroom does not have a lot of art in it, I am slowly figuring out what I want to do, and it is honestly the most time consuming and expensive thing to do for me (most of the time). I choose my own photos, matte and frame them myself, then choose how to hang them, and I am picky. So far my bathroom has a small print of a small abstract purple orchid with a pretty quote. I also have a wall decal above my door that says "Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful".
I have spent very little and my bathroom has come very far. I love my bathroom, I spend a lot of time there. It is where I do my business, where I shower, take relaxing baths, do my hair, and do my makeup (most of the time). I want my bathroom to have a good feeling about it. I have a great window in my bathroom so I get to bathe by sunlight and moonlight and it is an amazing feeling. Cleansing and transformation takes place in the bathroom, so I want to treat it well.
Even if you can't change your sink or the color of your walls, you can make your room look and feel good for very little money. I have future plans of adding more art, a table, another mirror, and some accents around some areas to really pull one of my favorite spaces in my home together.
Thanks for reading this long ass blog post!
Razzle Me, Dazzle Me,
~Stevi
No comments:
Post a Comment