DIY on a DIME

A Tiny Piece of Paradise: Budget Bathroom Reveal

Good Morning Y’all from my own personal cozy cone. This morning greeted us here in South Carolina with the most blissful chill. The air is crisp and full of endless possibilities, and I am happily sequestered in my living room in front of a raging fire, wrapped up tight in my buttery-soft pink sweater with a hot cup-a-joe. Literally my definition of paradise on earth. I think my true Libra self is most at peace in the fall. When the trees boldly start showing off their colors with no abandon, I know it is MY season. My favorite season of all.

 I had vacation this month, which equated to me working a whopping 6 days, and let me tell you… RETIREMENT is for me, people. I am just kidding… sort of. I have literally had the best month and I have gone NOWHERE. My butt has stayed happily in Clinton, South Carolina for almost 17 days straight and it has been just the respite that my soul has needed. No planes. No road trips. No travel. Nada. It sounds crazy, but when you are on the go for a living you really just need time to press pause on that. To stay still instead of moving. Easier said than done when you are an antsy-pants like myself. 

That being said the past 17 days have been anything but idle. I cleaned the house (surprise surprise it already needs to be cleaned again. You would think we actually live here or something *rolling my eyes for effect), hand-stitched countless, tiny leaves for a baby mobile I am making (for my COUSIN – before y’all start that gossip chain), and I painted and installed board and batten in our third bedroom, with a lot of help my family… Emphasis on the A LOT. My poor Dad probably stifles a sigh every time I send him an idea for the house because he knows that will mean he is along for the ride. Along with all that crafty goodness, I was able to get many many other things done that I have been letting simmer on my own personal back burner. So I would call that a win. 

John and I have officially lived in this little house together for a year now, and I have to say it is quite the charmer. It really had the bones, to begin with, but man… have we put our own little spin on things. Every little project we do has the place feeling more like “ours.” I have been waiting patiently for the perfect time to reveal our latest project and I think we are there! So without further adieu, Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the tiny bathroom! No REALLY. The tiniest bathroom you have ever seen. This was honestly the room that gave me the most anxiety when we were thinking about buying the house because the footprint is “fun-size”. Yet somehow, they managed to fit a toilet, sink, and shower in there! The perfect trifecta!

Do you want to know the irony of it? That teensy room that I was worried about the most is now one of my favorite rooms in the house. Now let me show you “the why”.

This was the only picture we got when we went to buy the house. It makes you feel a certain kind of way, doesn’t it… claustrophobic? Maybe? Like it’s slowly closing in and we need to GET OUT before it eviscerates into nothing! Yeah? You felt that too?

Before

And here was after we moved in. As you can see it is pretty much bare bones. We didn’t have a toilet paper holder for at least 7 months. That is one of life’s joys is getting up to pee in the middle of the night and playing “Marco Polo” with the toilet paper that doesn’t talk back.
Eventually, I would love to tile in here. I have been toying with the idea of penny tile or small black and white hexagons. I want to go with a vintage look. I love tile that looks like it has been there for 100 years.
Gotta love that plastic sheeting for a backsplash :/

After

TADA it’s a bedroom! MAGIC! Just kidding. I am going to give you a sneak peek of our bedroom so you can see the “flow.”
I kept the vanity the same color because I felt like it complimented the dark hues in the wallpaper well. I did change the hardware to a vintage glass knob that I used all throughout the house.
Hi there Lovely.
It took me a very long time to find a gold mirror small enough for this space. It couldn’t be wider than 16 inches, but I eventually found something. I got this pill-shaped gold mirror from Bed Bath and Beyond. In the future, I plan to change the sink hardware to a matte black, but for now… silver it is! I was doing this reno with a very small budget that had very little wiggle room. I hung Orainege wallpaper in this room from Amazon. I absolutely love the pattern, but I will say the quality was more like contact paper. That is great for cleaning the bathroom but it is very difficult to hang. It took me several tries to get it right. The coloring in different batches is also different, so if you decide to order you need to order all at ONCE. Believe me, I learned this the hard way.
I found this beautiful reclaimed wood shelving on Etsy.
Do you recognize this light? Instead of buying a new one I took it down and spraypainted the hardware gold. It saved me close to $100!
I painted all of the trim in this room a bold blue-gray. I had some leftovers from an accent wall I did in the guest room and it pulled out the blue in the butterflies in the wallpaper so I just went with it. It was a bold choice… One that John wasn’t quite sure of, but we both loved the finished result.
“Marco!?” “Polo!”
I ended up taking a piece of wallpaper into the Sherwin-Williams store in town and having my wall paint matched to the creamy color in the base of the wallpaper. It has a very vintage feel and I love how it turned out.
“The End”

There you have it. A tiny transformed bathroom that no longer feels like it might just squish into nothing. And now I must sign off. The dogs have just about had enough of my writing for today, and my house currently is nestled under a mountain of fuzz from the decapitated elephant they keep fighting over… You know. We just live here 😉

Until next time,

XOXO,

Pill Shaped Gold Mirror $55

Reclaimed Wood Shelving $67.50

Wooden Light Switch Plate $14.99

Wallpaper $27.99 – I used two rolls to do that one wall

Glass Knob for Vanity $3.49 I got mine on a half off sale!

The Painted Bungalow: Living Room Reveal

Raise your hand if you have been absolutely enveloped by the craziness of life lately… If you aren’t raising your hand right now – call me stat*. I need to know what you know! My life lately has been constant GO GO GO with a side of “okay… GO.” I swear I haven’t been to my house in an entire month. Thank goodness for roommates and husbands (only one in my case:P) to hold down the fort while I am on my seemingly never-ending trip. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. I have much-needed vacation time in October and I plan to do absolutely NOTHING but be home. Do some laundry, take time to garden, heck maybe I will paint the whole house if I feel like it. The world will be my oyster for an entire seven days and y’all I am here for it.

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DIY on a Dime: Budget Bathroom Makeover

Well good morning y’all from my striped Magnolia sheets. John literally was an angel of mercy today and let me sleep until the audacious hour of 1:00 pm!!! I know it sounds totally wild but I am pretty sure my body was in desperate need of some decent rest because I NEVER sleep that long! We did the math and I traveled more than 10 hours yesterday with work and the commute back to “small-town-USA,” otherwise known as Clinton, SC.

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DIY on a Dime: How to Craft a Christmas Wreath with Supplies from your Local Dollar Tree

Good Morning fellow homebodies. Here we are a week before Thanksgiving and I have already decked about every hall I can get my hands on. Full disclosure: I started right after Halloween. But don’t you worry I only decorated the inside and I have kept my blinds closed tight so the neighbors don’t think I am a total nutter – probably futile at this point ;)… What can I say? I am a freak for the ho-ho. I start early every year but this year I started WAYYY early. Only because, well duh, this year kind of sucks like an old, hair covered lollypop stuck to the bottom of a ripped cushion in a 1978 Pinto – It’s just that bad. So here we all are, stuck in our homes with nothing to do. So what do we do? We paint things, we eat way too many Tollhouse cookies, and we craft! And oh boy DO I HAVE a good craft for you?? So put down the cookie, throw on your sweats, sheath your beautiful face, and head over to the Dollar Tree because that is where you will source 98% of the materials for this DIY Christmas wreath. You can source 100% of the materials there if your little heart desires, but I will explain why I chose not to later on.

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DIY on a Dime: Taking a Builder’s grade Island to the next level with Planking

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Okay guys, so I have been feeling very antsy for some type of project lately. Lucky for me I had a little VACAY time this month (thank the Lord!), so my Dad drove to Charlotte for what I like to call, “construction boot camp.” My poor Dad… thank goodness he loves me because I work him to the bone sometimes. I have had this little island dream floating around in my head full of house plans for some time, and that was one of the many projects that we completed this week. (more…)

DIY on a Dime: Barn Wood​ Sign

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The “farmhouse home style” has officially taken the states by storm thanks to the incredible design eye of Joanna Gaines and her show on HGTV, Fixer Upper. I started watching the show early on, and I was always amazed at her ability to create these serene, comfortable houses that were equally stylish. I always expected that the show would be a hit, but I never expected that Joanna Gaines would bring about a whole new movement in home stylings: Farmhouse Chic. That’s where this next project comes in. (more…)

Diy on a Dime: Painted Pinecone Garland

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So I have been in full on nesting mode lately. Decorating everything in sight. The only thing is… I am on a strict budget, and when you are trying to save money you can’t just go drop bank on expensive fall decorations. The good news is: you don’t have to. Essentially you can decorate for fall with things you find right in your backyard. This year, I used pinecones, and I have to say… for a project that was pretty much free I am very happy with the results. (more…)