Our bathroom renovation has been a real labor of love and it’s my favorite room in our house! We’ve been working on renovating our house one room at a time for quite some time now. But the transformation that has been the most astonishing, so far, is our bathroom.
We’ve renovated our master bedroom, our son’s bedroom, our daughter’s bedroom and the hallway. By “we”, I definitely mean my husband. I’ve helped with painting, decorating and cleaning, but he’s done the scraping, demolishing, sanding and everything else. Oh, yeah, plus he built me a brand new customized bed that I absolutely love. LOVE. (I’ll share our master bedroom renovation soon!)
My bedroom is probably my second favorite room – for now. But, my bathroom, it literally makes me swoon. Seriously. I walk into the bathroom and it’s like I’ve stepped into a new house that was made just for me. It’s bright, clean and uncluttered – the total opposite of what it was before.
But, first, we gotta talk about the ugly before!
The Ugly and Dated Before – Our Bathroom Renovation
Dark was theme for the old bathroom. Dark vanity. Dark medicine cabinet. Dark light fixture. Dark linen cabinet. Dark wallpaper.
Seriously. There was all kinds of dark ugliness going on in this bathroom. Of course, as with any home renovation project, the whole space had to get a lot uglier before it became the bathroom of my dreams.
I told my husband that the room was so dark and heavy, I just felt like it was caving in on me every time I stepped in there! We actually purchased a new vanity for the bathroom, then decided to paint the one we had. I’m so glad we did!
It’s amazing what some paint can do to a space! I painted the vanity, medicine cabinet and light fixture with white chalk paint. Spray painted the brass light fixtures and hardware. We also bought new drawer pulls for the vanity cabinet.
I did a little decorating in the bathroom. We installed a wire basket shelf and towel holder above the toilet that we bought from Hobby Lobby and bought a new soap dispenser and waste basket from Target. My husband even made some custom towel hooks and robe hooks for our bathroom. But, there were still a couple of spaces that I felt needed a little something.
I just adore this Gargany Teal duck print that I found on the NYPL Digital Collection website. I’ve actually obtained a lot of my vintage illustrations from the NYPL website. In fact, if you like vintage illustrations, you’ll find tons of them right here on the blog! Below are just a few:
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- Where to Find Vintage Prints
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- Fruit Tree Illustrations
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- 4 Botanical Cards – Set #4
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- Fish Note Cards
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- 7 Vintage Botanical Illustrations
But, back to this duck print. My husband’s grandfather made these 8×10 picture frames out of old barn siding – years and years ago. We have incorporated quite a few of these frames throughout our home. I simply downloaded the print, printed it on some nice cardstock paper using my home printer, trimmed the print down to 8×10 and inserted it in the frame.
Download Gargany Teal Vintage Illustration
To download the Gargany Teal illustration, simply click on the image of the ducks below. The image will load in your browser and you can select to download and save or print directly from your browser.
Aren’t they just a lovely pair of ducks? I really like the subtle shades of color. Maybe I’m totally off base, but ducks just seemed to fit in the theme of a cottage or farmhouse style bathroom – or anywhere else in your home, for that matter!
I think this print would be adorable transferred onto a pillow cover as well. In fact, if you transferred it on to a pillow cover, it just might make a lovely handmade gift for someone for Christmas or anytime!
Our Bathroom Renovation – My Favorite Room
Our bathroom really is my favorite room in the house. The transformation has just been amazing and I love all the little handmade touches that we were able to incorporate into the bathroom. My husband is such an amazing craftsman. Even when he’s not feeling well, he keeps pushing to try to do as much as he can.
I’ve shared with you before that my husband suffers from a rare disease. He has good days and bad days. Some days he just doesn’t have the energy to do much of anything – and I’m perfectly fine with that! So, we’re taking our time, doing what we can and trying not to stress about things not getting done as quickly as he’d like or as perfectly as he’d like. I’m just so very grateful to still have him around to share this journey with! (And I’m very grateful for this much needed bathroom renovation!)
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse into my favorite room in our house. Our home renovation story continues as we move towards the actual living areas of our home. Are we in for some fun times or what?!
Hey, if you use this print, I’d love to hear about it. Just leave me a comment below or tag me #thebirchcottage on social media.
Til next time…
P.S. – If you like this Gargany Teal Vintage Illustration, you might also like these:
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- 7 Vintage Botanical Illustrations
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- Fish Note Cards
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- 4 Botanical Cards – Set #4
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- 4 Botanical Cards – Set #3
Judy Adams
Tuesday 3rd of October 2017
Pam I love your renovated bathroom also!! You and your husband did a great job! Our master bath needs redoing and you have giving me some ideas!! So thank you for that! One question, do you have wood on your floor or is it an engneered product? Maybe it's not wood at all; it's hard to tell! Thanks!
Pamela Baker
Tuesday 3rd of October 2017
Judy, there was linoleum on the bathroom floor. We weren’t sure what was under the floor. Turns out there was nothing under the linoleum but the subfloor. We ended up purchasing some really thick linoleum and put it down. What I like about it is that it’s cushiony under our feet instead of hard like the tile would have been.
We were hoping there was hardwood under the bathroom floor that we removed, but there wasn’t. So far, though, we’ve uncovered nice maple hardwood floors in all three bedrooms and the living room.
Here’s a link to the linoleum we used (I think): https://www.menards.com/main/flooring-rugs/vinyl-flooring/sheet-vinyl/tarkett-reg-harbor-village-sheet-vinyl-12-ft-wide/p-1444444774573-c-6618.htm?tid=-6350096888197238796&ipos=10
Pam
Tuesday 3rd of October 2017
Thanks, Wendy! My best guess is that it needed to bake a little longer. Also, are you using pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling? Otherwise, I’d try baking it a few minutes longer and see how that works. This “bread” recipe is really a sweet bread or cake recipe, thus no yeast. My family loves it. I’ve made numerous loaves. Do you have a “light, medium and dark” setting on your breadmaker? If so, try the medium and see if that helps. Let me know how it goes!
Wendy Whitcomb
Tuesday 3rd of October 2017
I loved your bathroom redo. I too did it to our 2 bathrooms. I also wanted to say thank you for the pumpkin bread recipe--I printed it and made it. It didn't require any yeast? The baking soda helped some with rising a bit but there was still an area in the bread that was kinda wet. I followed the directions but thinking it might be the difference in bread makers. Any ideas?