...because home doesn't happen overnight.

It’s Feature Friday!  On Fridays, I’ll be featuring one room in my house in its current condition even if there are some things I’d like to change about it.  If I do happen to improve something later, I can always revisit it when the time comes.  Plus, I’d kinda feel dishonest if I only focused on “finished” rooms in my house.  And if what they (the professionals) say is true, a room is never really finished anyways…you’re always tweaking it.  Concentrating on just one room weekly should give me some time to tidy it up a bit, too.  At least, I can throw all the toys into another room!

On the other side of my pantry, lies the only bathroom on the main floor…the powder room.  It’s painted one shade darker than the rest of our downstairs main living space.  I wish it had a window.

I’ve never quite figured out why it’s called a ‘powder room’.  We don’t do any powdering of any kind in here.

I replaced the frameless builder mirror with an oval oak one that I found at a local antique store for $20.  Of course, I painted it white.

I secured a towel hook to the wall at kid-level for the lil’ people in our house.  They really do use it!

The wooden step stool serves double duty.  1) It gives the kids a boost to reach the sink when they wash their hands.  **Key word being when.**  2) It hides up to 3 rolls of toilet paper surplus.

A wall shelf contains typical toiletries:  toothbrushes, toothpaste, fingernail clippers, mouthwash, etc.  And a few atypical ones as well:  sunscreen, bug spray, boys’ hair pomade.

The shelves are necessary storage since the pedestal sink offers none.

I DIY’d this reed diffuser using a 25-cent Goodwill vase, 99-cent chopsticks and vanilla bean scented oil from Wal-Mart.  Everybody asks what smells so good in our powder room.

My dream powder room would have white wainscoting.  I ‘made do’ by painting this border around the room one day while my kids were napping.

I used the end of an empty toilet paper roll tube and the leftover trim paint that the builder gave us.  It cost me $0.

I added pops of pink with the faux orchid vase and orchid print.  You could say I’ve gotta thang for orchids.

So, there you go.  That’s where I’d powder my nose if I did powder my nose.  Which I don’t.  Stay tuned for next week’s tour of another teeny space located outside the powder room.  Then, I promise, onto a bigger room.

48 Comments

Your toilet paper border is sheer genius – it looks wonderful!! I’m feeling a little inspired to try one myself! Thanks for sharing. :)

23.July.2010

good for you for sneaking some pink in to your house full o’ boys!

I like the print, it looks sharp in that frame. It’s hard to tell from the angle, but is there something above the orchid print? I like your paint circles, and it’d be nice not to cover up so much of that sweet (and thrifty) design element.

23.July.2010

Carole – I guess when I hung the print above the toilet I thought it shouldn’t be too high for fear it would look disconnected. I could try holding it up higher and see what it looks like. That’s what I love about comments… people make me see my house in different ways that I never would have thought of because I see it every day. Thanks!

[…] last week, you may have caught a sneak peek at my mini mudroom reflected in the mirror of the powder room.  The catchall mudroom use to be a poor attempt at a hall closet.  Its door was 1 of 3 that […]

06.September.2010

Love the wall border! I’m thinking I might use it as inspiration for a cheap kitchen backsplash! Thanks!

06.September.2010

Sheena – The painted border would look great as a quick and budget-friendly backsplash! I never thought of using it in a kitchen. Good luck and send pics if you think of it.

09.September.2010

You have great ideas and are so creative! Love the color you picked for your bathroom.

13.September.2010

OMG! The gorgeous! I lovity, love, LOVE the border! I am totally stealing that for my guest bath – in an imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery sort of way! So awesome!

Ohhhh My…..Your “Powder Room” looks amazing..I really like the choice of colors, very earthy yet with a pop of color peaking from the orchids. I have that same exact pedestal sin. which offers no storage at all, so I will def consider making a similar wall shelf…What an awesome idea to add storage. Thanks for sharing…

09.November.2010

I have an almost-identical bathroom in my house. I would love a few more details on how you did the stencil. It looks great!

09.November.2010

Harriet – Details on painting the powder room border? Got it. I’ll write up a post in the near future!

10.November.2010

Yes, how you did the border. Thank you!

16.November.2010

I would also like to know the skinny on the border! Thanks so much for sharing!

21.January.2011

Wow! Gorgeous powder room! I of course love the creativity used in the border. Do you remember the paint color of the room? It’s such a warm grey. Thanks for sharing.

21.January.2011

I LOVE the stencil! How innovative…. I will be trying this as soon as I get the new paint on the walls in the guest bath.
Thanks for sharing your room…
Jane (artfully graced)

22.January.2011

laxsupermom – Check out this post for the paint colors used in my home…

https://www.housetweaking.com/2010/09/14/you-asked-for-it-paint-colors/

I love what you did for the border! It is totally gorgeous!

I feature great diy home decor projects on my blog and I would love to feature this if you are interested- you usually get a bunch of new visitors and at least a few new readers! I do feature the post in full, with link to your blog, if you are interested just send an email my way (or reply to this comment might be easiest!)

04.February.2011

I loved this so much I made it into art! I painted a canvas dark grey and did the tp stamps across it. Then, I painted in a few random circles mustard yellow. I absolutely love it! Thanks for the inspiration!

09.February.2011

I love it! I would so do this in a small room. Maybe my bathroom if I ever get around to doing it…

09.February.2011

Oh…I should probably clarify that I’m referring to your toilet paper roll border! But I love the whole room!

15.February.2011

That border is GENIUS. The entire bathroom is so simple and gorgeous. I love it. I’m really looking forward to looking at your site and other lovely areas of your home.

15.February.2011

I love this better than trim or wainscoting! No one else has this!!!! I just love the way it turned out! I will be doing a feature on it.
Denise
Extreme Personal Measures

16.February.2011

Your border really adds a nice touch and looks awesome. I absolutely loved your home made reed diffuser. Brilliant! I will definitely be stealing that idea!

28.March.2011

I love your powder room! What a great idea- the border, I mean! And it just seems so fresh. Way to go! I’m new to your site and I can’t wait to go and see all your other work! Thanks!!

10.May.2011

I really like the framed orchid print, do you mind sharing where you got it?

thanks for the inspiration on what to do with builder boring bathrooms!

11.May.2011

Valerie – The orchid print is from AllPosters.com Love that site! Here’s the direct link to my orchid print…

http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=/getposter.asp&APNum=2879883&CID=FCA7C1C1DCEA4C02A44EC656C2A68D59&PPID=1&Search=orchid&f=t&FindID=0&P=1&PP=124&sortby=PD&c=c&page=1

Have a great day!

24.May.2011

love your handpainted border!! looks awesome!!
Amy
http://www.sistersofthewildwest.blogspot.com

16.June.2011

I love the border in your powder room, I may use this idea for my new powder room. Also, the the term “powder room” came from the room in some people’s homes or businesses in the 18th century where a visitors wig (many men wore white wigs to signify wealth and power) would be taken by the servant(s) to a little room where it would be re-powdered after a long journey. I’m not certain on this part, but can speculate that when WC’s became popular the “power room” then became the WC because it was a small room with a door for privacy.

18.June.2011

Holly – Thanks for the interesting history on the term ‘powder room.’ I just assumed it was a little bathroom {minus shower/bath} for ladies to powder their noses.

[…] just paint the bottom with Swiss Coffee and add border to transition from white to green like what House Tweaking did in her powder room (she uses paper toilet rolls, talk about recycling, note I have a similar […]

25.July.2011

I love this! Our powder room is on the larger side and needs a little “umph” to it. Did you do any kind of leveling or measuring at all to keep the border straight going all the way around? Thank you!!

27.July.2011

Christina – All about how I painted the powder room border here….

https://www.housetweaking.com/2010/11/18/diy-painted-circles-border/

Hope that helps!

27.October.2011

What a great idea! was beautiful! congratulations!

Love this room. It’s beautiful. I want to stencil my bathroom like this!

Also, I meant to ask, did you ever do a tutorial on your bathroom stencil? I’m thinking I’d use one of the new Martha Stewart stencils from Michaels, but I’d like to know the details of how you did it.

17.November.2011

Lila – All about the powder room’s DIY circles border here…

https://www.housetweaking.com/2010/11/18/diy-painted-circles-border/

25.February.2012

Hi There! I love this!! Can you tell me where you got the wall shelf? Thanks!

27.February.2012

Mindy – Oh my, that wall shelf is probably nearly 10 years old. I bought it when HH and I first got married from a place in IL called K’s Merchandise. They’ve since gone out of business. I’ve seen similar shelves at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

02.March.2012

I just pinned this! So glad I found your blog!

27.March.2012

I just found your blog. You have such amazing ideas! I am looking to completely redo my powder room which includes knocking down a wall. Right now the powder room is huge (a complete waste of space), and the laundry room right next door is so tiny I can barely walk through to get my laundry out of the washer and dryer (super challenging when I was pregnant!). We decided to make a smaller powder room and use the space to make a larger laundry room/mudroom. Anyhow, I was wondering what size your powder room is. It looks to be the perfect size for what I want to achieve. Thanks!

02.April.2012

Beautiful! We’ve got the pedestal sink/oval mirror combo and this inspired me for how to finish the bathroom to look classy and not messy!

31.July.2012

BEAUTIFUL powder room!
Can I ask what the name of the colour is on the walls and who its by?

31.July.2012
10.May.2013

Can you please tell me where you bought the step stool and shelf. I’ve tried to find a similar step stool but can’t find it anywhere! Thanks!!

10.May.2013

Oooh, those were long ago purchases. I think they were both from Target way back when.

[…] idea (after a couple of glasses of wine) to “stencil” our downstairs bathroom wall like this from the blog House Tweaking. Well it did not work as well as I thought and when the husband got […]

21.June.2013

Your Toilet roll trick is classy and more creative than any wainscoting. What an awesome idea.

[…] decided to do a little accent painting on the walls. I saw it first on House Tweaking. Dana used toilet paper rolls to paint circles on her bathroom walls. I did a little test and […]