My Home

The Bathroom

09.26.13

Cookie Monster Blue. Three words that should never come up when discussing interior design. And yet, there it is:

Cookie Monster Blue Bathroom || Jade and Fern

Oh my word, I can’t believe I’m sharing this. I am a DIY-blog masochist.

The BLUE. The glossy, gloopy, splattered-on COOKIE MONSTER BLUE. Gag me.

We have lived in our apartment for 4 years now. It’s SO. EMBARRASSING. that the bathroom still looks like this. I couldn’t even take a decent picture because the light is crappy and I hate the colors and I just want to pretend this room doesn’t exist. But I want to be a truthful blogger, so, there you go. My neighbor dubbed it right: this is the Cookie Monster Bathroom.

One picture is enough though. Let’s move on to some pretty photos of how I WANT the bathroom to look.

White and bright and planty. Aaahhh. So serene. So not channeling Sesame Street.

Plant-filled Bathroom, via The Brick House

Photo via The Brick House

Or, perhaps, something with a bit more color? Alan would totally dig the pink shower curtain and swan wallpaper, right?

Bathroom Design by Natalie Clayman

Photo by Natalie Clayman

And there’s always the dramatic black and white option, which I am craving more and more these days:

Bathroom by Manhattan Nest

Photo by Manhattan Nest

Bathroom by Manhattan Nest

Photo by Manhattan Nest

How stunning is that light fixture? Also, horse prints. Also, I love you Daniel Kanter. Will you be my blog husband?

Someday—SOMEDAY—we will get down and dirty with the bathroom and paint it and accessorize it. We have no plans to move anytime soon, so we really need to make this space our own. Ok, let’s be honest—I really need to make this space MY own. Alan appreciates a good room design when it’s finished, but doesn’t mind the apartment the way it is, with all its hideous color vomit.

Painting the whole apartment just feels so daunting at this point. We should have done it before we moved in, or in the first week of living here. Now we have so much stuff and dust bunnies and we’re stuck in our ways or something. Let this be a cautionary tale, dear readers. Don’t wait 4 years to paint your home.

But I promise, there will be “afters” for you to look at. Eventually.

Do you have any advice on how to paint when you’re already living in a place? Which of my 3 dream bathrooms do you prefer? Any funky bathroom decor stories out there?

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Here’s a re-cap of all the sad apartment “befores”:

The Lavender Living Room

The Ok Bedroom

The Not-So-Dreamy Kitchen

 

 

Author: Marlene @ Idle Hands Awake

Maker, baker, cat momma, total nerd, perpetually covered in glitter/sawdust/paint. Blogging DIY and design for modern creatives.

8 comments on “The Bathroom”

    1. 1. I have no idea. But I want to meet them and yell at them.
      2. I know!!! I need all the plants. Saving my pennies.
      3. Thank you! It’s a work in progress–making little tweaks every day. You know, the professional web designer way. Who needs a big reveal when you can just throw something new at your readers every day?

    1. Thanks, Daria. I keep writing lists of all the big projects I need to do before the cold weather sets in, and then tweaking my blog design instead. 🙂

      I’m loving the bleach galaxy idea. Maybe on a small, easily changeable surface–like the bathroom cabinet–to spare my landlords and future tenants.

  1. Hmmm…I vote for option no. 1. It’s bright and airy and the polar opposite of what you have now, which would be a great big breath of fresh air. The wallpapered option is “cute” but not very gender-friendly. Besides I think you are way too sophisticated for “cute”. As for the black and white, although it is chic, it suffers fron the same darkness problem you have now. I do like the paint-by-number horses and the ticking stripe shower curtain, though. As for painting a room, you just have to take a deep breath (in a well-ventilated area) and jump in. It is the perfect excuse to de-clutter and evict the dust bunnies that we all have…and the end result is its own reward!

    1. It’s true–black can be really awesome for room decor, but in a small space with bad lighting (like our bathroom) it would be overwhelming. I want option 1 as well! Plus I think low-light plants would do very well in there, because of all the humidity (we don’t have a fan). You are so right, I just need to dive in! I have a friend who likes painting and said she would help me. 🙂 Just have to find a free weekend! Thanks!

  2. I realize I’m probably in the minority here because I don’t really have a sense of style….but I kinda like the blue *runs and hides*. I could see some rendition of Starry Night being painted over it and it would be kinda groovy.

    I like the idea of all the plants in the bathroom in theory but if I actually had that, all the plants would be dead in a week. That wouldn’t be pretty.

    1. That’s the beauty of design–it’s subjective! I’m glad that you like the blue bathroom. 🙂 Having “Starry Night” or some mural sounds like an awesome idea. Too bad I can’t paint more than a stick figure…

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