Is this happening to you?!… Wow, your bathroom is stunning. Said no one ever.
Your plastic shower liner is so flippin’ cute. Said no one ever.
Toilet cozies are so rad. Said no one ever.
Have I got a doohooozy for you today...
Brace yourself. This is going to be juicy.
Ba-da-boom-ba-da-bing.
I need to let you in on a little secret …
The featured bathroom today is in a forest and it’s beside our treehouse.
I’m not suggesting that you transport your toilet into a forest, or build a bat shit crazy awesome treehouse (although I highly recommend it, haha) but rather…
Look at your bathroom in a whole new light. Think outside the box. Think outside.
Even small changes make a big impact.
My bathroom project didn’t always look like this…
It was once a pile of dirt.
Yup.
Dirt.
If I can create a bathroom from dirt, you can do anything. Your toilet is at least in your house.
The hardest part is already done.
What NOT TO DO in your bathroom
1. Colourful decals on your walls or bathtub. If it’s stuck, it’s yuck.
2. Furry dried out potpourri. Blah.
3. Fake plastic flowers. Fugly.
4. Dark smelly towels. Don’t go there.
5. Decorative soaps in the shapes of shells or animals. Oh.My.Word.
6. Toilet cozies and wrap around toilet mats. The 90’s called. They want their mats back.
7. Dirty & visible toilet brushes. Don’t. Even.
8. Plastic see-through shower curtains. Our eyes. Our eyes.
9. Shenanigans strewn across the countertop. Put that crapola away. Yikes.
10. Plastic shelving units. Grotty to the max.
11. Unless you’re a glow-worm, no fluorescent lights. Never. Ever.
17 Steps from Blah to Bodacious
As with any reno project, there are realities. Pfffft. An almighty throne can be a challenge. It’s worth it. You’ll have years to enjoy it. The non-shitty version of it.
1. Random wilderness-y things happen.
My reno project will make your project seem like a snap. I live in the country. The mice and squirrels just invite themselves in. In the country, you walk through random cob webs on the way to your reno project.
Grotty to the max. Me no like. Me freak out.
2. Mosquitos.
You can make a difference to your home. Your bathroom. Your everything. If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in a treehouse. I rest my case.
3. Planning a bathroom requires hard liquor, arm wrestling and a very big squirrel eraser.
Anyone who tells you that a reno is easy, well… you need to grab them by the arm, wrestle it behind their back and then sucker punch them in the face.
Right. Between. The. Eyeballs.
4. Work completion is like waiting for paint to dry.
I bought Homestead House Milk paint to whitewash the panelled walls. It’s faboosh. I used a colour called Ironstone for a warm white washed look. The same milk paint can be used to give furniture a new life.
Lurve.
5. Make lemonade out of lemons.
Don’t you just hate that expression? It’s so syrupy sweet. I wanted to punch the lemons right square between their lemon eyeballs. We had lemons alright. A forest of lemons. Our treehouse is located in a forest on our property. The forest consisted of 20 year old Norwegian pines.
Guess what?!! They last for 20 years.
Suddenly, the forest had a naked bald spot. We build the cabin on the bald spot.
Bathroom Cabin = Forest Toupee
Lemons to Lemonade. Just add vodka. *hiccup*
6. Create a space that will rock your socks, Amadeus.
Your space can feel good. It can smell good. It can be all that and a bag of chips.
How?! Copy me.
It’s all in the details.
The sweet little details … Colourful glass bottles. Beautiful soaps. The scent of essential oils and diffusers. Candles. The best incense on earth
Clean, fresh, white and smelling good.
It all matters.
7. Sip bourbon.
Take deep breaths along the way. Sip bourbon. It will dissipate your fears. If only for a moment. Not that I would do that. I totally did that.
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It’s like magic. In your box…
8. Mix the old with the new.
Combining reclaimed up cycled materials with new stuff is the best thing ever. I kid you not.
Best thing ever.
The outdoor sink in the photo above is actually an old baby bathtub.
Quit expecting normal from me. It’s never going to happen.
Quit expecting normal from you. Here’s the thing. You CAN think outside the box. It doesn’t have to be a typical sink. It doesn’t have to be typical anything.
Mix old and new: We mixed the old sink with a new Brizo wall mount faucet. We mounted the faucet on a few blocks of worn wood. Creative. Sink problem solved.
Mix old and new: We used this door track hardware for a WINDOW track. A new track on an old window.
9. Look up. Look down. Look all around. You dizzy?
LOOK UP: Up cycle. We up-cycled old barn roofing and beams.
LOOK DOWN: New flooring created from old boards.
The ‘kitchen sink’ boards are from Reclaimed Lumber Products. The wood is created from every kind of wood, but the kitchen sink. It was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious easy to install. Not that I installed it. But still. I watched. It looked easy.
We sealed the floor with Waterlox. I’d like to seal some people’s lips with that stuff. It worked like a charm.
10. Sink it. Sink it with the sink.
My sink is from Bali, Indonesia. Because I like you, I found a similar one for you here. It will save you an airplane ride with 416 weirdos people.
You’re welcome.
Need some sweet faucets to accompany your sink? The double handle wall mount faucets are so pretty.
I {almost} licked them.
And. You. Think. I. Joke.
11. Raise the curtain. It’s show time.
I used a $4 white flat sheet from Ikea to make the curtains. I cut it like the boss. I hemmed it with the no-sew, iron on stuff. They turned out spectacular.
Not feeling it?
These sheer linen curtains are a faboosh alternative.
They. Are. Everywhere. In. My. House. Shhhh. West Elm and I are having a love affair.
It’s a pretty smutty affair. 12. Houston we have a problem.
We no likey to spend money on curtain rods. Why?!
It’s stupid to spend so much money on a pole with a thingy on the end.
Right? Right.
Solution: Make ’em. Here’s how. You can do it. You’re smart like that. There are two freakishly easy and free tutorials on this bloggity for making curtain rods.
A. Industrial Curtain Rod Tutorial
13. Composting Toity talk
I wanted to use a composting toilet. I really did. If you have a cottage-like project, the composting toilets seem like a good idea. Then oh then, my instagram peeps said NOoooo. Sheesh. Someone drank the hater-aide.
Composting toilets smell. The end.
We went to Home Depot and bought a real toilet. The Delta low flush is an eco friendly jobby. A sweet thing. We chose the Prelude Elongated Model. The Delta throne only needs a quickie little flush and whoosh. It’s gone.
Vanished.
Nuff said.
Phew.
14. I’m positively positive that you’ll love door track hardware.
There’s a free tutorial here if you want to read how to make your own door track hardware for your bathroom door. It’s the most popular blog post here on the blog. They are stunning. Legit. Stunning.
The DIY blog post will teach you how to make your own DIY sliding barn door hardware. You will need wheels to accompany that awesomeness.
15. I’d like to counter that thought with a countertop.
Drum roll please. The live edge wood countertop is the icing on the cake in the room.
Cake?!! Did someone mention cake?
The live edge wood counter and industrial rod base is from One One Eleven Designs.
Seriously unique. Seriously pretty.
Koombaya my Lord. Koombaya.
16. Take a cold shower, hot stuff.
Do you want to have a speedy shower with cottage-y character? We built this one with tin roofing. Lightening speed install. Super FAST.
You can mix classics with shabby chic basics.
We used a Brizo thermostatic shower {{ LOVE }} and slide bar hand shower with tin roofing.
It was beautiful, fast and easy. You love beautiful, fast and easy, don’t you?
Thought so. Floozy.
17. Shed some light on the situation …
We bought these tin lanterns from Target and converted them into electric hanging lights. This style of lantern could work too. We used Edison bulbs throughout the cabin for ahhhhhh
HOT TIP: Whenever you see your light bulb in your light fixtures … for the love of Pete … make them pretty. The Edison bulb is dang pretty. It casts a warm hue. It makes you feel like butter. Warm yummy runny butter.
Seriously. I need a butter tart now.
That’s it. That’s all. I’m pooped. How about you? There’s a TON of juicy stuff in this blog post. It only took me 49,000 years to write it. I just love you like that.
Gotta tottle to the treehouse bathroom.
See you never.
Helpful links and Shop This Post :
DIY Free Sliding Door Tutorial || Live Edge Wood Countertop || Flooring || Waterlox Wood Sealer || Stone Sink || Colourful Glass Vases || Incense || Candles || Hand lotions and soaps || Metal Buckets for Storage || Towels || Delta Prelude Toilet || Brizo Wall Mount Faucet || Brizo Shower || Brizo Shower Hand Wand || West Elm Sheer Linen Curtains || Delta Bathroom Faucets || Delta Toilet ||
Spill it. What’s your bathroom dilemma? Let’s chitty chatty and talk toity wacky.
Please wait to be seated.
Bare butts are welcome here.
