Escape from the 1960's

This weekend was such a whirlwind. We're getting ready for a big Thanksgiving practice party (more on that later) and parties like that always remind me of everything that needs to be done in our house. Couple that with a serious case of preggo nesting and we've been quite the productive family the last couple weeks.

And my favorite thing is doing make-overs on a budget because it forces some serious creativity.

This last weekend we made over our terrible straight from the 1960's bathroom. The counters were original to the house (built in '67) and most of the fixtures were from that era as well. I couldn't handle it one more second (there's that preggo nesting coming into play) and we couldn't afford to overhaul the bathroom completely either.

Here's our before:

Sorry for the terrible picture. It's one we had left over from the previous owner's real estate info. Just in case you thought that clock was my idea, it wasn't. And it didn't stay in the bathroom. Who needs a clock in the bathroom anyways? That seems like a lot of pressure to get things done quickly...

Anyways, it's a little difficult to get a good pic of the interior because of a funky angle. But, you get the idea. Boring. Even a little ugly. And, unfortunately, the counter top isn't nearly as hideous in this pic as it is in person. But, with a new coat of paint, some inexpensive curtains & fixtures from Ikea, we turned that into this:


We hung the shower curtains from the highest point on the wall in an attempt to make the room seem taller and added the pop of orange on the curtain sash and a small medicine cabinet to make things a little more interesting in there.

But, my favorite part is the new finish on the bathroom cabinet. Did you realize you can paint your laminate countertops? It's true. You can put a new finish on almost anything with the right process. For countertops, all you need is a quick sanding with some rough grit sand paper, a couple (or 3) coats of paint, and a thick coat of polyurethane and voila a new counter top without all the bad fake marbling that came with a 1960's counter top. I LOVE the way it turned out: