Next Project — The Studio Bathroom (A Look Back, The To Do List, And Two Wallpaper Options)

Here’s what the studio bathroom looks like as of this morning…

For those of you who are new, I wanted to take a trip back in time and show you exactly how this area started. My studio used to be our garage. When we bought the house, the garage was just studs and tar paper, so it was very dark. Shortly after, my father-in-law came and helped me put up drywall in the garage. So at that point, it looked like this…

The breakfast room is through the door on the left, and the opening on the right is how the area at the back of my studio originally looked. It was a very dark storage room with a solid door leading to the back yard.

Inside that storage room, this was the view of the area that is now my studio bathroom. This area used to house the huge furnace, but I don’t have a good photo of the area before the furnace was removed.

So this area has gone through a massive transformation. When I originally decorated the studio bathroom, this is what it looked like.

I did this hand painted design on the walls, and while it was a fun project and I loved how it turned out, this was just for me. I was the only person who ever used this bathroom, so I went a little crazy with color and pattern.

And at the time, I painted the back entry walls this very bold green.

It was fun for a while, but when I finally got around to finishing my studio, those bold green walls had to go. I ended up painting the walls a different green (a custom color that I mixed myself) to tone them down a bit. This color looked much better with the floral wallpaper mural that I used in the studio, which is the same design that’s on the curtains on the back doors.

Once the studio was finished, I started doing a makeover on the bathroom. I don’t remember what my plan was for the walls, but I removed the yellow tiles and started doing this wood accent in place of the tiles.

I think I got about halfway finished with that, and then we changed direction completely.

I believe it was around that time that we decided to move our kitchen into the area that is now our breakfast room and walk-in pantry. And then we were going to turn this bathroom into a walk-through pantry for easy access from the carport (through the back doors of the studio) into what would be our new kitchen (in the current breakfast room and walk-in pantry area). So I basically closed the door on the bathroom and walked away.

If all of that sounds confusing, or you can’t envision what I mean by a “walk-through pantry”, don’t worry about it. Plans have changed since then. 😀 At some point last year, I decided that I didn’t want endless remodeling projects (and those would have been MAJOR remodeling projects), and I was perfectly happy keeping our kitchen right where it is now, keeping our breakfast room a breakfast room, and keeping our walk-in pantry right where it is. So the plans for all of that major remodeling and construction were scrapped, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

So now, that leaves me with this bathroom that still needs to be finished. And now that our original guest bathroom has been subsumed into our master bedroom suite, it can no longer be our guest bathroom (because how awkward would that be to have a guest bathroom inside of a master bedroom suite?!). So for now, this half bathroom in my studio will be our guest bathroom.

Here’s a look at what it looks like right now. Again, it’s a complete mess, so I really do need to spend about a day just getting it cleaned up. But once that’s done, I think you can see that getting this room finished won’t be a massive undertaking.

I’ll need to do some repair on the walls with drywall mud. That’s really the hardest part. Once that’s done and the walls are smooth again, I’ll install wallpaper, add some trim, change out a few things (new faucet, new ceiling light), and then add a few decorative touches.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll repaint the vanity or not. I’ll determine that after I decide on the wallpaper. Right now, it’s a really dark gray/off-black color.

The most expensive part of this project will be repairing or replacing the pump that the sink and toilet are connected to. The plumbers seemed to believe it can be repaired, but there’s a possibility that it will need to be replaced. That broken pump is the reason this bathroom hasn’t been used in so long.

But several people said that I should swap those and use the colorful squares in the storage closet and the floral in the bathroom. I was open to that possibility, so I decided to try them out. Here’s a look at the teal floral wallpaper with a view into the studio. Keep in mind that the floral pattern on the front wall of the studio is also on the curtain on the back doors of the studio. (Please forgive the mess in the studio. I was like a tornado through this room as I finished up projects for our bedroom. It needs a good top-to-bottom cleaning now that the bedroom is finished.)

Again, I’m open to this idea, but I’m not sold on it. The doors to the bathroom and the storage closet in this back entry of my studio are painted a deep eggplant color. And one thing I don’t want is for my wallpaper decision to start the ball rolling on other changes. I want to avoid the whole “one thing leads to another” trap (aka, the “if you give a mouse a cookie” trap). And I don’t love the dark eggplant doors with this wallpaper.

I also don’t love it with the floral mural in the studio. I know I’ve said that I’d cover every surface in our house with flowers, trees, birds, and butterflies if I could get away with it, but I would also like for them to coordinate, and I don’t think these coordinate or complement each other at all.

Here’s a look at the colorful squares wallpaper that I actually designed for this room using colors that I pulled from the floral wallpaper mural. To me, this looks much more pleasing to the eye since they coordinate and complement each other.

Every color in this wallpaper comes from the studio, so it even coordinates with the dark eggplant doors.

So if I were to decide right this minute, this would still be my choice.

But again, I’m open to having my mind changed. You can let me know what you think. In the meantime, I’ll be in here getting things cleaned up and getting ready to start on this project. This should be fun, and I’m really hoping it will go very quickly!