"Purty" Potty!

I'm very particular about bathrooms.  When I rent a home or stay in a hotel I want the place to have a pristine bathroom--immaculately clean and fresh.  When we bought Coast Awhile Cottage  we knew we had our work cut out for us to bring the tired, old bathrooms up to date.

 Upstairs there is a bathroom which is at the end of a hall-like area.   

Once you step inside there is another hall.  We believe this bathroom may have been added on--not part of the original house.

This photo was taken before the walls in the house were painted white.

There wasn't much to please the eye in the beginning...

...in fact, it was a little scary...

Ewwww.  As we took a closer look, the tub and the tile were in pretty good condition but the glass shower doors needed to go.  

It was the same with the faucets--we needed new ones.  We decided to keep the pedestal sink but replace the toilet.  And since there was no venting, we decided to replace the shelves with a window over the toilet to bring the room up to code.

It was rather disconcerting to find that once the toilet was removed we could see through to the deck outside.  It's a wonder someone hadn't crashed through!  Needless to say that floor was well-supported before things were put back together. 

Once everything was stripped down, we added bead board to the walls and painted everything white.  I like the clean feeling it gives and I think it will be easier to keep clean than drywall.  Here's how it all turned out....

 The sink was a freebie--it was in good condition so we reused it.  We took down the old "Hollywood dressing room" light fixture and replaced it with something more up to date.  The mirror was a find from World Market.  It was beautiful in it's natural wood color but we spray painted it with Rustoleum paint in Aqua to give a punch of color to this all white room.  The towels and throw rugs are from Target--Room Essentials fast dry towels and matching rugs. 

My designer, Jane Coslick, had an old medicine cabinet in her stash that she keeps on hand to furnish her clients with unique pieces when the need arises.  We thought it would be perfect next to the sink to add storage and to have a place to put personal items needed while 
getting dressed.

Some hooks for clothes and towels and a bright and cheery shower curtain from Home Goods finish off the room!

Now that's a safe, clean, "purty" room I could feel good about using to "powder my nose"!
 

Gorgeous New Old Stuff!

Where would I be without eBay and Craig's List?  So many of the things I bought for Coast Awhile Cottage  were purchased secondhand from these websites or they came from 

flea markets.

Two reasons for this:   (1)  I can afford better goods if I buy them used  and (2)  the house will have more character, look more collected over time, if some of the things are vintage.

When I looked over the pictures of the dining room to select some to share I realized that almost everything in it was owned by somebody else first.   I wanted a pagoda chandelier for the dining room.  I love the bamboo look--it's beach-y and elegant but not stuffy.  Most of the ones I looked at were out of my price range.  So I began searching for one on  eBay.  It took some time but patience paid off and I found this vintage tole pagoda for an amazing deal!

A coat of spray paint (Rustoleum aqua) and boom--it looks fresh and ready for it's new life at Tybee!

 

Peter and I couldn't wait to take down the old fan and put it up.

Source:  Jane Coslick

My dining table and chairs were scored by searching Craig's List.  I paid for the table and six nice, heavy chairs with rush seats less than I would have spent for one chair new. The wicker chairs at each end of the table also came from another Craig's List search.

I wanted a buffet or sideboard piece for the white sheetrock wall and this one came from a flea market.  The gorgeous vintage Imari lamps also came from a flea market and I was able to get them for less than I would have spent at a discount store.  They came with wonderful black silk shades but I bought some white ones--it's a beach house after all. 

  I'd have put a pretty painting above the buffet if I had not sold the house.  Maybe one like this one by Bellamy Murphy.  Here's a link with some of her paintings--what a talented lady!

Source

Remember the fabulous shell mirror from this post?  It was a special anniversary gift from my husband Henry.  It wound up coming with us to Doc Holiday when we sold the house but I originally planned it for this dining room.

T

Now let's put these things all together....

The curtains are from Ikea--this style with grommets is called Merete.

  

 My designer Jane Coslick arranged these shells in an antique bread bowl.  Aren't they fantastic?  It's the little details that make everything magical.

 

Source:  Jane Coslick

 Don't you love the oyster shell candlesticks....Jane's son made them!

Source:  Jane Coslick

Source:  Sandy McCloud

Source:  Sandy McCloud

What do you think?  Pre-loved stuff is not so bad, huh?  Sometimes old things used in a new way can look fresh and beautiful.  Who wouldn't like having dinner in a dining room like this?

Chandelier Shangri la!

I showed you lots of chandeliers in my last post...lots of bee-u-ti-ful chandeliers that I loved but had to pass by because they were too costly for me at the end of our major restoration of 

Doc Holiday cottage.  But I was determined to find Chandelier Shangri la in my price range.

So, starting with an inexpensive off-the-shelf chandelier from Home Depot

    

and some spray paint--Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X Satin spray paint in Aqua--to be exact this is what my fixture looked like (minus the glass beads).

 It was in great need of some embellishment and some shades for the light bulbs! 

Here's what I did...

First I consulted my friend Beth Silvercloud, a very gifted jewelry artist--you can drool over her creations on her website here.  She had some great ideas and showed me which tool I needed to purchase in order to recycle some of the hooks from the glass bead strands.

 When Beth saw the shell necklaces I had purchased from Michael's she suggested that I use something with larger shells.  She felt (rightly) that the smaller shells were too tiny for the chandelier.  Here they are hanging on the chandelier.  They were kinked from being in the bag and I was trying to get them to straighten out.

In the interest of the budget, I decided to use the smaller shell strands for half of the project--the part where the strands come down from the top of the chandelier to each arm.  Like this...one...two...three...four...five...

...and six!

Then in keeping with Beth's suggestion that I use a larger scale strand of shells I found this rope with shells attached one day while shopping at Home Goods (where else?)!!

 I played with the strand to determine how long each section needed to be to look pleasing as it draped from arm to arm on the light fixture.  Then using some covered aqua-colored wire I found at Michael's, I marked each section

 Then it was time to attach the rope and shell strand to the arms of the chandelier.  I unhooked the other small shell strands temporarily and then reattached them after I attached the rope.

One at a time like this until I made it all the way around...

 Once the rope strands were attached I re-hooked the smaller shell strands.

Almost done!  I had some extra starfish left over and I decided to add them to give a little extra pzazz!  This is what it looked like...

 

Last but not least--shades.  The bulbs are way too bright without shades.  Voila!

 

Ahhh---It's Chandelier Shangri la!

Let's Be Enlightened!

The crown jewel of most dining rooms is the chandelier.  My remodeling budget at this point was more like rhinestones than crown jewels.  I did lots of looking around for a bargain.  First I went to a great flea market in Savannah called Two Women and a Warehouse.  They can usually be counted on for some funky, fun finds--and they did not disappoint.  I found this cool chandelier with 

strands of turquoise....

It was nice but a bit too small. 

I spent some time looking at online sources.  No luck with Craigslist or eBay but I checked on Etsy and found a vendor who made these fun pieces with canning jars.....but at $385.00 I had to pass them up.

 Here are three of my faves from Shades of Light--one of my all-time favorite sources.

I would have loved one of these especially the jute one (on the far right above) but they were way too pricey sooo.... I kept looking and found this gorgeous oyster shell chandy from

Low Country Originals...

 So many pretty things--so many expensive pretty things.  It became clear to me that I was going to have to buy an inexpensive chandelier and rework it so that is what I set out to do.  I found these great chandeliers at Home Depot that were more in my price range.

 

But the chandelier that really caught my eye was this one from Home Depot...

The glass beads could be replaced with strands of shells and it would be easy to spray paint the gold-tone metal before putting the shell strands in place.  At $169.00 it was more affordable so I decided to take it home!

Here is what it looked like after being sprayed with Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X satin finish spray paint in Aqua.  The electrician had just finished hanging it and he hooked the chain to make it shorter so the workers would not hit their heads as they worked.

It was time to get busy embellishing the chandelier.  I'll show you what I did next time!