This August marks another one-year anniversary, that being the one where Ben and I have lived in our very first home together!

I remember the first tour of the empty house, furiously texting Ben that he had to see the place and ignoring the landlord’s questions about how two people could possibly need this much room. I knew that was the house we would move into, the house he would carry me across the doorway as his brand new wife, the house where we would imagine our office as a nursery. And all of those fuzzy, warm fantasies kind of clouded the reality that the kitchen floor was scuffed to hell and there wasn’t a single electrical outlet in the bathroom.

Actually, those thoughts blocked out the entire image of the bathroom.

Before we moved in, our house had been a law firm for years. That means they had to put in a shower stall for us….aaaand that’s about it. Over the past year I slowly grew to loathe what essentially was a HALLWAY for a bathroom. I hated it so much that I didn’t even try to make it homey or presentable and just threw everything I had in my previous 1.5 glorious bathrooms into this overinflated linen closet.

Those holes you see near the toilet? Yeah, the remnants of handicap bars. The only “home improvement” project I insisted we do, and even that was half-assed.

So after a year of mildly tolerating the one room in the house I was guaranteed to see every day I decided that something needed to be done with it. I persuaded the property manager to let me paint the walls and went from there.

This is the first photo I took of the bathroom before we moved in:

Please note the paper towel holder and handicap bars.

And this, this is what I did with it:

I was already starting to feel better about the room already. Clearing out all of your junk can do that to a person.

I chose Olympic’s “Dewmist Delight” because I promised the property manager I’d pick a neutral color and this is as neutral as I get. It’s not like I’m going to paint the room red, I promised him. We already saw how much it did for the room before.

A couple coats of paint and some new bathroom accessories later…

I give you my new bathroom.

It’s brighter, cleaner, and a lot more organized.

Glass jars, so I don’t have to search for a Q-tip every morning! And a REAL, LIVE PLANT. THAT IS STILL LIVING. Because things want to actually thrive in this room now!

This is the wall opposite the shower. I used an old spice rack to hold my berjillion nail polishes.

We switched out the glass dome for a paper lantern that looks really cool when it’s on but does not photograph well *at all.* It took a lot of fuss to make sure it won’t catch on fire but explaining that would require its own post. Plus, you really don’t want to know.

I read in Real Simple once about a woman who collected hand mirrors and how they were crazy cheap on Ebay. Well, she was right. In two weeks I collected enough to arrange along the wall by the sink, making sure to hang them at different heights for any guest we might have (oh, and please don’t mind the smudges. I had just hung them and it took a few attempts to get them just the way I wanted). I used small plate hangers for most of them and the extra strong Command velcro strips for the two smaller ones.

I scored the shower curtain at World Market and loved it way before I picked out the wall color. Good thing it matched.

The great thing about a husband who is a designer for a print shop is that he can whip up window decals whenever we want. I love natural light but we couldn’t very well keep the blinds open for the world to watch me brush my teeth. These decals let enough light in while keeping everything else out.

Now let’s look at the numbers!

Having never made over a room before I think this is a pretty good deal. And considering the price of my happiness? Priceless.

Now, isn’t that much better? Can’t we all just breathe easier now? The fact that the dang rug stays in place is enough to make me smile.