Five years ago, when we moved into our house, I brought over the bathroom decor from our apartment and threw it up in the guest bath. It wasn't too horrible. It was colorful and girly, but simple. I had made the ruffle shower curtain myself, and repurposed a couple 3D flower frames rescued from an old job. But, now that Miss Ella is almost 7, she has some serious decor options (and opinions about EVERYTHING else!), so it was time for a change. Here's a few before pics...


- Determine what you want for a wall color before you get to the hardware store. I picked out 3 swatches for Ella to choose from and quickly got a gallon mixed up. Took no more than 10 minutes!


- Preorder all your linens and shower curtain. Have them either delivered or ready for pick up. I ordered the shower curtain online, but the purple linens and mermaid rug were from Target. They were on sale and I used my Red Card for additional savings, I picked them up Saturday morning from customer service.

- Explore your decor options online before you head to the store. I knew I wanted to make one stop, and Hobby Lobby seemed to have it all. The wall decor (except the mermaid cove sign) is from there. It was a "Wall Decor" sale week, so everything was 50% off. Yay!
I had a general idea of that I wanted from Hobby Lobby, so I let Ella make the final decisions. Again, she apparently has options now! The mermaid sign and faux star fish are from there, as well as the netting over the window. The shells and starfish used to decorate the E is also from HL. Let's talk about that E for a second....
I made this quick how-to video last week, but it literally only took me 10 minutes to make, so it could have easily been done in my weekend time line. The very large wood E was found at HL in the clearance section for only $4 a year ago! I've had it floating around forever trying to decide if I really wanted it in her room. But inspiration struck, and now it's a mermaid E! I think it came out pretty cute for a quick craft. Speaking of repurposing....
- Repurpose what you can. I redesigned the towel rack to look more beachy than it was before. A little sandpaper, white paint and hot glued rope gave this rack a whole new look!
The towel rack! If you look back at the original pictures, you'll see this rack how it used to be. I thought it was decent as it was, but it needed to be mermaid-a-fide! Another quick craft and voila! To add a little dimension to this wall, I "stamped" bubbles in white craft paint. They're subtle, but effective. For stamps, I hit up my plasticware cupboard for kids cups, bowls, lids, etc.
Bonus points to you if you can spot the two Disney references in this pic, they're a little hard to see. We are big Disney fans, but I didn't want to go full Ariel in the bathroom!
- Find what you have around the house and use it! Upcycle what you can.
Leave a comment