Guest Bathroom Update.

We installed a new light, new hardware, and a new mirror (well, not really new, it's the mirror from the living room). The hubby was kind enough to patch the random hole and re-texture the wall. I painted it Gobi Desert by Behr. Still beige, but a nice sandy beige rather than the sponge-painted Bandaid pink/beige nightmare that was in there before. It was the last room in the house that still had that color in there, and it feels amazing to have it finally gone.

A few things left to finish: find a towel bar that coordinates with the other satin nickel hardware, replace the faucet (also in satin nickel), paint the trim white, and possibly paint/stain the vanity a dark espresso brown.

Dresser Revamp.

I finished the dresser (mostly, like 99%). It's not perfect but it looks so much better than before. And it was my first major refinishing project. I spray painted the outside white after patching the wood, but I left the faux bois laminate on the top as is. The edge got a little funny, so at some point I will go back and clean that up. I don't really want to paint the laminate, simply because I don't think it will be as durable.

The drawer fronts and legs I refinished following this tutorial. The finish had become very grey. I was thrilled at how amazing it looks now. The wood adsorbed a crazy amount of the Feed N' Wax.

I also repainted our guest bedroom, where the dresser is. My husband really can't tell the difference. It's still beige, so not a huge change, but it no longer picks up that horrid Band-Aid pink tone during certain times of the day. Normally neutrals aren't really my thing, but I'm actually kind of loving it. I'm planning to do the entire room in white, wood, and a touch of black (and maybe some metal, like a vintage fan).

There's a Hole.

Well, after bugging him for a month or so, my husband got started on some of the updates for our guest bathroom. He scored some free satin nickel hardware from work.

He took down the builder grade mirror, only to reveal a fist-sized hole in the wall with no obvious purpose, except maybe access to the pipe? Since the new mirror is smaller and doesn't cover the hole, it has to be patched, textured and painted.

There was also apparently no junction box or stud installed in the wall for the light to attach to, but he managed to install the new light fixture we got on sale at Lowe's:

 

It is soooo much better than the ugly thing that was up there before, which looked like this only really dingy with the chrome worn off in places. It had been there since the house was built 15 years ago, judging by the white rectangle left behind once we removed it.

Kitchen Greens.

Well the shelves above the stove are now home to the majority of my houseplants. Little kitty cat figured out how to get up on the top of the fridge and massacred them, so to save the new ones I just got (and keep her from poisoning herself), I put them over here, which is just high enough she can't reach, unlike the other side. I actually am kinda loving all the greenery. If she couldn't reach the other side via the fridge, I would totally replace all the wine bottles with plants instead.

Refinishing the Dresser.

I've stripped and sanded the entire thing (except the legs, those are last), patched the missing chunks on the sides, and now I've primed the main part. I'm gonna paint it white with an oil-based paint (probably spraypaint) and leave the drawers the wood tone. They have some chips, but they were overall in much better condition than the rest of the dresser. We'll consider the wear and tear as "character". I was going to paint the legs white also, but I'm kinda digging the wood tone. The top is a plastic laminate or something, I decided it would be easiest to just leave it as is.

It looked like this before:

The photo hides a lot of the damage it has, and you can't tell that the finish was very greyed and sad-looking, especially compared to our other vintage pieces.