Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A Simple Makeover

Nautical light 'before'

I continue to drag my feet on starting my master bathroom update. Part of the problem is that when I do it, I want to knock everything out at more or less the same time. Sounds logical, right? The problem is, I'm still on a quest to find the 'right' vintage sconces, for a price I can afford. The key to that statement is the price; I've found zillions of great fixtures on Ebay, but the prices of the best ones have been routinely been near or above the $300 mark. I'm determined to stay below that number, so...the quest continues.

In the mean time, I thought I'd show you some pictures of a quick spruce up I did in our guest bath. It's a full bathroom, but it's a tiny space. There's nothing functionally wrong with it, it's just been a bit dull.

You may remember this light, and some talk about pinup girls...
Nautical light 'after'

Well we've got 'em now!


I found the brass anchor mirror on Ebay, and some of the girls were simply cut out of a brand new calendar and framed. The girl above the mirror is a picture that I found at a local thrift store.

Since the anchor mirror is a lovely, old-looking antiqued brass, I decided to add some brass accents to the ceiling light to tie it all together. So I changed out the finial for one with an antique brass finish, and I painted the spokes and frame of the wheel with a metallic, antique brass colored paint. I'm hoping to rewire the light fixture and hang it this weekend - cross your fingers.

As a last bit of near-overkill, I changed out the switch plate on the wall, antique brass again, since it was going to be seen so close to the mirror. And I put some brass-toned cabinet pulls on the medicine cabinet and vanity cabinet.

I went really budget friendly on all the items, and landed good deals for the light and anchor mirror on Ebay. So my approximate costs for the whole thing including thrift store print/calendar images, Ebay light, Ebay anchor mirror, frames, lighting finial, switch plate, and cabinet knobs came in around $115 to $120! I'm going to try my hand at rewiring the light, and hopefully my dad can help me install it, so I'll save on those costs too.

It was great to do a simple spruce up on a modest budget, but really, best of all, the whole saucy sailor girl thing combined with the silly light cracks me up and makes me happy!

3 comments:

Miss Janey said...

Looks Fab, Great Dame. Kudos on the budget AND teh look.

Silly Monkey said...

It looks great! I'm also using my calender for the ones I'll be putting in my laundry room. The two you picked out are two of my choices. I think we need to move in together. :)

The Woodshedder said...

LOL! Yeah, we have similar tastes. And actually, I'm taking inspiration from you and putting up a couple more girls from the calendar in MY laundry area.