One Room Challenge: Vanity Project

Round 8 of The One Room Challenge!
(Need to catch up? Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6)
Pssst: Wondering if you missed Week 7? Nope! We just skipped right over that. June was jammed packed full of celebrations over here at Casa de Bowden, so our home improvement project(s) took a slight pause in favor of a different/sweeter version of DIY: cakes.

So this is it! Today is the BIG REVEAL of the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE.

And because I am fully convinced that the secret to life is managing expectations...allow me to suggest that you lower yours. That's right, folks....prepare to be underwhelmed.

Ta da!

OK- it's not that it's a bad end result...actually it's quite lovely in my opinion. But I've already shared so much of the room that this last piece- a painted vanity- doesn't feel quite as dramatic as it could. It seems a little "been there, seen that". BUT- Dustin did work really hard on the vanity, and it turned out beautiful, so enough talking it down, let's check it out!

 

Because of the lighting, it's a little tough to get a true color representation in photos, but the paint is Behr Dark Everglade (semi-gloss finish)-a deep kelly green with a bit bluey-teal. It coordinates beautifully with the green in the shower curtain, and is dark enough to feel nice and rich but with enough saturation to still feel fun. I'm always nervous about paint color selection but this one feels really right in this space, so I'm thrilled. There are a couple tiny areas that still need to be touched up, but after skipping last week, I wanted to share something this week, so I forced Dustin to get everything photo-ready, if not picture perfect. 

And quick reminder- the cabinets before were plain oak, no hardware:

So this change is actually pretty dramatic, even for being pretty simple upgrades.

The new hardware is from Hobby Lobby- clear lucite with metal "collars". I decided I wanted the metal to be silver, to coordinate with the faucet (which I don't hate enough to bother replacing) so we spray painted those "chrome" to match. I really love them- they're elegant without being too fussy.

 

And that's....it! 

You may have noticed that there's one pretty major change we didn't make to this space: the floor. Honestly...we just didn't get to it. But I'm almost glad we didn't, because now I'm rethinking our tile choice a bit. We had planned on doing a medium grey peel and stick vinyl (groutable, to make it look more like tile), but now I'm not sure. I'm worried it will all feel a little dark when paired the vanity color, and I think it could blend too much with the grey carpet in the adjacent bedrooms. I don't quite have an alternate in mind- so I think we'll take this pause point as an opportunity to live with things as-is for a bit and figure out something we'll love rather than just rushing through with something just ok. (who knows...I might still go with the tile we planned. But there's no harm in taking our time to be sure.) I'm toying around with the idea of terrazzo- to bring some more color and pattern. This vinyl paper option is super intriguing! But for now we'll just keep our old grey bathmats in place while we mull it over.

So...there you have it. The 7 week saga of a peachy-clean little bathroom. (HOW did I make it this far into the documentation process without using that pun?!) Overall- I give this whole project a 7/10. There are pieces I love...actually I kinda love all of the pieces individually...but for some reason it seems like it's missing something to pull it all together and make it sing. I don't know if it's because the floor isn't done, or if I'm still struggling with the various shades of white/cream (the floor really isn't helping that cause) but it just doesn't quite feel totally done here. But just because the challenge is technically over, doesn't mean my design process has to be. I think I'll keep my eyes peeled (oooh- bonus fruit pun!) for a new mirror (something with a natural element- like wood or rattan could really warm up the space) and keep exploring options for the floor. But for now, I'm pleased with where we are. It's a real peach of a space.

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