This is definitely one of those “why didn’t we do this earlier?!” kind of room makeovers. Redoing our downstairs half bathroom really didn’t take that long (as far as actual time spent doing stuff) and wasn’t that hard. But it’s SO MUCH BETTER now than it used to be.

It’s also impossibly hard to take pictures of, so just pretend that in real life it’s ONE THOUSAND TIMES PRETTIER than in these pictures, and we’ll pretend that that’s the truth.

But, for real, I’m very happy with it. I talked in this planning post all about how we’d love to replace the cabinets and get rid of the texture on the walls, but that that wasn’t in the cards right now. We also ended up not replacing the old faucet (you can’t really tell from the pictures, but it’s a charming combo of chrome and shiny brass). We actually bought a new one and everything, but then when Dave tried to uninstall the old one it was so hard that we gave up. Particularly because there was nothing that special about the new one I got anyway.

Okay, but anyway–here’s where we started:

We replaced the too small mirror with one I had found awhile back at the thrift store.

We painted the cabinets Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy (using paint we already had left over from our den). I mentioned in that post that I was a little nervous how the paint would hold up, since it wasn’t fancy cabinet paint at all, but just the regular satin finish we had on hand….so far, so good.

And the reason this post wasn’t up two weeks ago? The only thing we still needed to finish? Those little knobs on the cabinets and drawers.

The cabinets didn’t have any pulls at all originally, so I wanted to add these both to protect the paint from everyone’s grubby hands and sharp fingernails and to add a little more color and interest to the room. I ordered these inexpensive ceramic knobs from Amazon and they sat on the counter for weeks. Then we finally managed to find the fifteen minutes to drill holes and screw them in. So that this post could happen.

The rug is another addition since my last update: it was a gift from my friend Cassie of CassieBustamante.com ….it used to be in our master bathroom (and I still need to find another rug either to go here so this one can move back upstairs or to take its place upstairs. But for now, it stays here).

I went very simple and just hung a couple of pictures I already had in the basement up on the walls here. I had considered doing some kind of DIY art for the far wall, but I didn’t get to it. It might still happen eventually….

And, finally, we added the towel rack and toilet paper holder. I ended up ordering the exact same ones we have in our master bathroom, because they’ve been in there for years now, they’ve held up well, and I still like them. Word of warning: these are shipped from China, and they took more than three weeks to arrive.

Here’s what it looks like when you give up with waiting on incredibly slow shutter speeds and take a couple of pictures with the lights on:

And without lights:

And with that, every room downstairs has now been redone at least once since we moved in. Umm, six years ago. Which means it’s time to start all over again and finally redo the dining room!

All the sources:

Wall color: Benjamin Moore’s Jack Pine

Cabinet color: Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy

Light fixtures: All Modern (here and here)

Edison bulbs: Amazon

Cabinet knobs: Amazon

Towel rack and toilet paper holder: Amazon

Hand Towel: Target

Rug, trash can, wall art, and mirror: thrifted

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