The Hall Bath

hen we first took a look at the new house (before it was even on the market), it was covered in tan paint, beige carpet, antique furnishings and generally dark, or drab colors. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful. But not my taste. I prefer more color. Dark color doesn't bother me, but you've gotta mix it up. "Mixing it up" would not be a description I would have used for the previous owner's decorating choices.
So when we got to the hall bath, I was a little stunned to see a black and white tiled bathroom with TOMATO red paint on the walls. It looked so out of place to me! But I thought it was great.
Now that we're here and I'm in decorating mode, I get to make even that color-filled space a little more my own. The previous owner.... I'm getting tired of typing that, so I'm just going to say Mr. C, ok? Mr. C left all the curtains, including the bathroom ones. Here is what he had chosen.


Black and Cream Toile. Not black and white, black and cream. I like when folks mix different shades and tints of white, but this bugged the crud outa me.  (It's looking pink in the picture... probably from the red walls reflecting off of it.)

That was first on my list to change. I had some trouble finding something I liked.  Target and Dwell Studio to the rescue!

I bought some red hand towels while I was there, but ended up deciding that there was still opportunity for more color.

I loved the combination of black and white and turquoise in the nursery in our first house so much.... and I have really enjoyed turquoise and red together whenever I see them paired...  So turquoise it is with some black and white fabric for an applique on each. (and I do NOT understand the stupidness of the spacing on Blogger... the tabs in this paragraph and the fact that this pic is so far below.  ahhhh!)

Here's the finished product.  Not as blue looking... I need to learn to edit my pics better...

And, in context...

Another purchase. A necessary bathroom addition, so why not also aesthetically pleasing?

And perhaps my favorite change - red knobs instead of silver.  This gets top honors in my book because it's one of those things I never EVER thought to do, but can be relatively inexpensive, bring in the unexpected and make a space truly unique.  Not to exclude the fact that this could be a VERY expensive change.  Anthropologie knobs can be $10 a piece and that would add up super quick.  These are from Hobby Lobby.

The lights say 'Old Hollywood Dressing Room' ish... don't you think?  Oh, yeah, and there's the window treatment with the stripe you saw next to the toile in the first picture up top.  That's on the list for changes, don't worry.  I've got a long list of sewing machine projects and it's on there somewhere... more towards the bottom.