Thrifty bathroom facelift

I had a little fun this week.  I painted the bathroom.  In our house we call this the girls' bathroom, I guess because it was previously pink and flowery.  Let me say I really liked the bathroom the way it was.  The wallpaper, however; was probably original to the house which was built in the 70's.   It was a floral metallic Impressionist  kind of print.  I have always liked the Impressionists, particularly Monet so it pleased my eye.  Unfortunately, the seams were pulling away from the wall.  I have contemplated (for about two years)  whether to try and fix the seams, or repaint.   Finally tired of the peeling seams, I opted for paint.  I knew what my wall would look like once I peeled the wallpaper, because I have done this once already in another bathroom.  Only the pattern comes off of the wall, and it leaves a fuzzy texture behind.  This can be removed as well with a little water spray and elbow grease, but I am lazy!!  I have not wanted to go to the trouble of removal.  With that being said, I have to give full credit to this decorating idea to my niece Alyssa Urban.  Her bathroom walls look the same, but are a different color.

 Here are the pictures of the previous paper.  You can see how the seams were pulling away from the wall.

 

Deciding on a color was tough. I was going to go with a pink rose color to match the existing shower curtain and towels.  I thought I had some paint lying around in that shade but I didn't so I looked around some more.  I found a gallon of paint in a neutral shade.  It was given to me by our painter a couple of years ago.  He just had it "lying around".  So the price was right!! Free.  I had to buy a new roller and I got white tissue paper at the Dollar Tree.  Twenty sheets.  I also had a little extra lying around the house from gift wrapping. Cost so far?  $4.78

Yes.  I said tissue paper.  I gave my walls a Feaux finish using tissue paper.  It is very simple but also quite messy.  

• Step One:  Tear the edges off of the tissue paper  Keep some of the strips to place along the trim and then wad the paper up.  
• Step Two:  Smooth out the papers and place them in a  stack.
• Step Three:  Paint  lines along the trim.  It is very difficult to line up a full sheet of tissue paper with the ceiling or floor.
• Step Four:  Put on glovesand then with a roller, paint an area slightly larger than the tissue paper.  While the paint is still wet, press the tisssue on to the wall and smooth out the wrinkles.  There is no set look.  Make it as bumpy as you wish.
• Step 5:  Paint over the tissue paper with the roller.  Be sure to keep a wet edge and repeat the process. If you don't have a wet edge the tissue paper won't stick. That's it!

Here is the picture of the wall in progress:  

 Warning, this is not for you if you are in any way inclined to perfectionism, or OCD, or any other term you might want to call such tendancies.  This method is for those who want to hide imperfections, and still have a cool look on the wall.  Or those who are too lazy to scrape wallpaper, or have bumpy drywall :-).  

Okay, so that being said at this point I now have a bathroom with a shower curtain and towels that do not match.  I have no idea what I am going to do to coordinate with the new look.  Possibly a fancy new shower curtain in a coordinating color.  I'm not in a hurry to finish that.  I will get to it when the budget allows, UNTIL...I stopped at a garage sale on Thursday.  There sat a full shower set for only $15.  Set includes:  two bathmats, one hand towel, shower curtain and matching tabs, wastebasket, a planter, and a cute picture of a palm tree.  I actually liked it and low and behold it matched.  SOLD!   So...who is keeping up?  That brings my total cost to $19.78. 

All I am missing now is the shower liner.  I chose K-Mart because it is close to the house and all I needed was one quick item.  Ummm...guess what peeps?  K-Mart still sells the shower set, and the curtain alone was on SALE for $16.99.   Yay!  Now I am feeling even better about my garage sale find and savings.  Also if I need a soap dish or something like that I know where to go.  So I purchased the liner for $4.98 and went home.  Wait...I had some $$$ on my rewards card so the liner was more like $2.98.  Happy, Happy thrifty me!!!

The bottom line:  Under $25 for a bathroom facelift.  The final test:  My daughter, and I quote: "I like it much better than my old bathroom."  "I love palm trees."  Me, too girl.  

The Reveal

 If you look above the picture you can see the texture on the wall.  I took down the old pink towels that don't match anymore, and I'm not sure when I will replace them.  The pic is a little grainy because I lowered the resolution on my phone camera. 

Thanks again, Alyssa.

Blessings,  

Monica

   

No Hope For Jellyfish

I am a beach walker.  I have been since my teenage days.  The reason stems from vacations with my step-mom Barbara and my dad.  If you know me, you already know my dad remarried when I was 13, after my mom died from breast cancer the previous year.  They bought a condominium in Perdido, Florida so many days were spent there decorating and planning.  NO offense to them, but my brother and sister were off to college and being the teen that I was they were not cool to hang out with, so I tooks lots of walks.  They also took me along on some beach vacations where I spent plenty of alone time on the beach tanning or walking.  One year I got my worst sunburn ever.  I had goose bumps but still managed to get burned.  I digress.

June 30 my dad celebrated his 80th birthday.  The whole family gathered at the condominium complex.  I took a long beach walk every day.  I am finally able to do that again because all of my childern are now old enough to go to the pool or beach without an adult present.  And one of my childreen is an adult, and can supervise.  How about that for cool. 

Okay, so I got to take a really long walk.  You see many interesting things along the beach, and it is never the same from day to day.  That is the beauty of it.  On this particular afternoon, the tide had washed up several pools of water.  These can be pretty yucky...filled with foam and broken shells, or sometimes they are close enough to the breaking waves to be clean and enjoyable for the little ones to play in.  This one was a little yucky, but fairly deep.  I looked down to see a jellyfish swimming in the pool.  It was fascinating to watch.  I could see it swim sideways and watch its tentacles at work.  Then I felt sorry for the little guy.  He was certainly about to die.  The water was prety shallow. Unlike something else that may have washed up, I couldn't pick up the jelly and throw him back to sea! Ouch!  So I proceeded to do the best I could at pushing the jelly into the deepest part of the water pool.  I used my foot and some sand.  Minimal success.  Then I continued my walk.  Who knows how far.

After turning around, I searched each pool along the way to find my jellyfish.  No luck.  Why?  The tide was no longer coming in as high, and water was not reaching the pools anymore.  The pool was empty...for that matter all of them were, and all I found was a (actually numerous) dead jellies.  Heavy sigh!!

Now you are thinking...who cares.  No one likes jellyfish anyway.  They sting and drive people out of the water.  You are right.  My story continues.  The water on this particular afternoon was beautiful.  It was clear and the waves were just right.  If ever there was a day for swimming in the ocean, this would be it.  So my kids and their cousins plunged in with Boogie boards in tow. When I walked up to our claimed spot of beach, I found our cousins looking forlorn.  What's wrong, I asked?  The answer...jellyfish.  My kids did not get stung, but their cousins did; hence, off to the pool and clear water.  I stayed down by the beach and watched the crowd.  I was amused by a couple of adults with nets, who really must have wanted to ride the  perfect waves.  Both men would enter the water, catch jellies in their nets, and take them on the shore and bury them.  This cleared the way for a little swimming.  Very little, because five minutes later they were fishing them out again.  Finally one guy gave in and said...too many jellies!  

So you see, there is no hope for the jellyfish.  No one likes them in the water, because they sting, you really can't remove them from the water, and if they wash up they are certain to die. In this case they kept a beautiful ocean free from swimmers.  One of the best days we had actually, but no swimming in the ocean.  

I am glad I am not a jellyfish.  I am so thankful that there is hope for my soul.
 I don't know if there is a time when you can feel closer to God, but I do know that my walks on the beach come pretty close.   This is the hymn that came to mind that day.

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. 

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
In Him, my righteousness, alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Cousins

Blessings,

Monica