Maura and Mama's Bathroom

...otherwise entitled photos of a room in our house that has never graced this blog before:)

We haven't really touched either of our upstairs bathrooms since we moved in six years ago. The master bath is fine enough for now, plus only Paul really uses it...a trend that started way back when I had to get up earlier than him for work, so I would go down the hall to the guest bath to shower and get ready so as not to wake him. Thus, our guest/kids bathroom became both mine and Maura's. It's pretty pathetic that I/we've been using it for so long in such a sad state, but the truth is that its so terrible it needs a complete re-do and I haven't even felt like giving it any effort cause it is that bad!

Case in point, here's some real before pics, from like when we moved in (these photos are bad in and of themselves, but its not even worth taking better pics!!!):

{Bad laminate counter top, its like pink and gray speckles! I also hate this sink hardware.}

{I like having a shower/tub combo...its just old by now, with more bad hardware. Don't forget the blue plastic shower curtain rod that matches the walls exactly! I now have a plain white shower curtain here, but not for long.}

{Gah! I love blue, but this is way too blue!!! I suppose I coulda repainted 6 years ago, but I didn't.}

{One thing I do like about this bathroom is that our laundry is here, behind those bi-fold doors. Easy and convenient.}

So, yeah...yikes!! The complete redo of this room is not going to happen anytime soon. I figure though that Maura deserves a better place to have a tubbie in. And there's our guests to think about. Maybe its about time I do something about it. I mean, like a little something, but something. We all know I work better with deadlines though, so I have the perfect motivation to do a little mini, mini, cheap make-over in here...my sister is coming in from London (with her British boyfriend who we haven't met yet) to stay for a week at the end of August. Bingo!! We all win...me, Maura and the Brit:)

First up is a new shower curtain. I figure since I'm too lazy to do anything about the over-the-top blue walls, I'll just embrace them. And try to distract your eye away from them! I went to Target with the goal of finding a shower curtain that would coordinate with the blue and maybe give me some other inspiration to work with. I immediately stumbled on this pretty blue bird floral one for $19.99.

Yay! It's got bright blue in it, as well as some other decent colors. I like birds. Maura likes birds. I wonder if my sister's boyfriend likes birds?

I also stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond and snagged (with 20% off coupons) a "chrome" shower curtain rod to replace the plastic blue one and a new shower curtain liner (I swear, I change these out frequently). Although small, I think it'll hopefully make a big improvement.

Other than that, I'm going to try and make a little gallery wall above the towel bar (to the right of the shower). I plan to not spend any money here, just use frames I already have and downloadable art or calendar pages, stuff I make, etc.

Any other cheap, easy ideas? I really know nothing about bathroom materials and haven't ever collected much bathroom inspiration, so I'm actually quite intimidated to think about renovating this space for real! Any ideas for down the line when we do it right?