Our new vanity mirrors

I finally got our new vanity mirrors hung up last week. Now I just have to put the shaving mirror up and paint the room a lighter color. I am thinking a pale yellow, something lighter and brighter. I am just not personally a fan of the muddy brown wall color, especially first thing in the morning when I am waking up and want to be in a good mood not start of the day feeling a little depressed.

Master Bathroom (part 4) - shaving mirror

My husband had one additional request, a shaving mirror. We had one in the house we used to rent and I admit it was rather useful to have it. Now that he started straight razor shaving he thinks this will be even more useful to have than it was in the rental when he was just using a safety razor. I didn't realize just how expensive these shaving mirrors can get, some of them were several hundred dollars a piece. I knew there was no way we wanted to spend that much on a shaving mirror, at least not right now, so the search went on to find a reasonable shaving mirror for a more budget minded price. I actually managed to find one that extends up to 30 inches from the wall and is only $24.86 at The Home Depot. I figured that getting one that extends that far out might be rather useful, especially when I am cutting my own hair - getting the back is always a challenge. Of course if money were super tight I did actually find one for $4.99 at IKEA that reviewed equally well, but it only extends out 10 inches.

Master Bathroom (part 3) - extra storage

Once I decided that medicine chests were out of the question I moved on to finding some additional storage for the bathroom vanity area. I knew we really could use some additional storage that was easier to access than the storage we currently have under the counter top and would also be more attractive than just leaving the counter full of stuff as it currently is. It is really nice to be able to have some things out where they are in easy reach. I decided that maybe a black wrought iron look would be the best fit with the French antique theme I was hoping to achieve in the bathroom. Unfortunately most stores currently only sell free-standing storage units for the bathroom or single glass shelves that you mount directly to the wall. When I saw this one at IKEA for 19.99 it reminded me a bit of one I used to have at my parents house that was mounted to the wall for a bit of additional storage. I like the slightly less modern feel that this style of shelving option for a bathroom provides and the black wrought iron style of it will help it fit in with the black and white accents in the bathroom.

Master Bathroom (part 2) - vanity mirrors

I knew that I wanted new vanity mirrors because the ones in there right now aren't really our taste and they are just decorative mirrors that aren't even particularly well made and take up the entire wall above the counter top. They just feel too big to me, too overpowering especially for a room that has some really nice small details in it that lend themselves rather nicely to the feeling of an old French bathroom. So the search for new mirrors with a French antique feel to them was on.


I really wanted to find an actual antique, but being that I need two matching mirrors I didn't think that was going to be very likely to happen - especially in my price range. So I went online and searched. I found various mirrors that I thought might work. I even found wall mounted medicine cabinets that had a nice shape and feel to the mirrored front, but at about $250 a piece I just couldn't even bring myself to seriously consider them. Of course I prefer to at least start off a bit cheaper and take it from there if the cheaper option(s) doesn't work out. As far as the more affordable options go, I found these mirrors at IKEA for $29.99 which means $60 for two new vanity mirrors. I just love how they hang from the wall on a chain and ribbon, to me it gives them a bit of that old antique feel that I was hoping to find. I think the lace detailing around the edge of the mirror also lends itself to that antique look and feel that I was hoping to achieve also.

Master Bathroom

I have finally figured out what I want to do with the master bathroom. It isn't that we really dislike the way it was when we bought the house, it is fine. It is more just a case that the decorative tile in the shower and other details in the bathroom just go unnoticed. The decorative tile in the shower goes unnoticed until you get into the shower which seems like a shame to me, why spend money on decorative tile if you are just going to let it go unnoticed. Knowing that I wanted to make the decorative tiles and other small touches in the bathroom stand out more is where my idea stemmed from. I decided that in order help pull out the blue in the decorative tiles and add to the French theme that the towel bars and toilet roll holder and a lot of the other smaller things in the bathroom seem to have I would go with a nice traditional blue toile for a curtain. This would also help make the room appear more finished as having a bare window in there right now just makes the room feel unfinished to me.

This isn't necessarily the exact toile I will use to make the curtain for the bathroom window, but it provides an idea of what the curtain will look like. Now that the curtain was decided I was left figuring out what else to do with the room to make it feel more finished and make it work better for us. I knew we also needed to find a new paint color for the bathroom because to us the bathroom is just not that inviting. It is a muddy shade, not a bad color really but just not something we feel is appropriate for a large bathroom like ours. I know we both loved the bathroom of our last place at grad school and that was a rather bright bathroom with a retro feel to it. It was two different shades of green with bright white as the third color. I don't think that color scheme would work in this bathroom of course, but I know we both like a nice cheerful bathroom. I think that when I have a brighter color on the walls of my bathroom it helps me to wake up and start my day off on a more positive step. I think that a nice light and fairly bright shade of yellow would be a good match for the blue in the toile and the decorative tile work. I still have to pick the exact color for the walls, but a friend suggested The Freshaire Choice for a non-VOC paint. I did notice that they have at least one yellow that might work for our bathroom (it's kind of hard to tel when looking at paint chips on the computer) - Delightful Daffodil. I still need to get paint chips for The Freshaire Choice line of paints and see if I can find some other good non-VOC paints that are available locally. A non-VOC paint is very important to us for the interior of our house because we really don't want to breath in all that stuff while we are painting or to need to air the house out for several weeks after painting. Non-VOC paints are just a much healthier paint option.