Mirror, Mirror

The half bathroom in our house is my bathroom -- meaning it's where I get ready and keep my curlers, make up, nail polish, all the junk that goes along with being a girl so that Sam can keep the full bath clean. We have been told that separate bathrooms save marriages and after living with someone now, I can see why they would say that (especially if one person is tidier than the other who is always in a rush and leaves things out).

So the half bath has been through some transformations (I will eventually dig out the old pictures of when it was colonial blue when Sam bought the house), but the most recent transformation was inexpensive (yay!) and made a BIG difference (bigger yay!).

It was a new mirror. The bathroom is tricky because the wall the mirror is one is only 22" wide because it's kinda in an alcove. So it's really hard to find mirrors to fit that space that are "pretty". Lowe's had some that were just a few inches wider but we didn't want to break the frame off, and they were $100+ so that was out of the question. We like the look for less. The original white mirror looked great when there was a white pedestal sink under it, but after Sam put in the vanity, I decided I was going to paint it, or try to find one that matched the vanity.

Yesterday I was at Hobby Lobby with my friend helping her pick out baby blanket materials and it was POURING. So we decided to kill time in HL before getting lunch. We wandered over to the mirrors and there it was. A beautifully framed, oval mirror, in black with brown brushed look, right next to those glorious 50% off signs. I looked at the measurements and it was 21" wide. A miracle, for sure. So I bought it. for $35. Yes people, Hobby Lobby is amazing.

This morning Sam got wire on his way home from work, and hung it for me after breakfast. Check out the transformation (sorry, iPhone pics):



I feel like the pictures don't really do it justice -- it just looks so finished, fancy, and elegant now! It's amazing what a difference a matching (and inexpensive) mirror can make!

And what happened to the old mirror? It found a new home in the dressing room! :)

So blessed to find such a great bargain when I wasn't really looking for it! :)

New Front Door

Since Sam and I had been dating, he had always talked about getting a new front door on the house. He originally was going to buy one from a friend, then once we got married, we get serious about it.

We knew we wanted glass in it, possible storm door, wood color, and pretty. Anything was better than the 1950's door we had though.

We quickly axed the storm door idea because our front door has to swing to the right due to the fact that when you walk in it, you will walk straight into the chimney wall. So the storm door would swing left to lay against the house. And that would be ridiculous. I could see myself being lat for work and getting stuck between the two doors...

I had a door with cut glass in the home I grew up in and LOVED it. Sam thought they were pretty, but not private. We kept looking (and I kept praying we would find one we both liked) and we settled on 3/4 glass with craftsman class.

We went to Lowe's to order it, they sent a guy to measure our door, and he told us we were going to have to replace all of the fluted trim that is around the door and that our opening was a weird size AND That it was going to cost us A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY TO GET SAID DOOR and we didn't love the color. Um, no thanks.

We were referred to a wonderful, Christian-owned company, called Aluma in Chattanooga. We went and picked out a fiberglass door, with the SAME glass, with woodgrain, for 1/4 of what Lowe's was going to charge.

We waited three weeks, picked up the door and got help drilling the holes for the handle and deadbolt that we got at Lowe's with some of our wedding gift cards (thank you!!).

We then bought a gel stain and polyurethane top coat to stain the fiberglass door with wood grain "pattern". It seriously looks just like a real wood door but is more energy efficient. It took two coats of stain to get it the deep brown color we liked, and two coats of gloss, just like a wood door. This took patience and I couldn't wait to get that thing hung!

Then Sam had a friend come help him hang it. And I came home from work to find this beautiful "after"!!!




We LOVE it. The door itself, the hardware is gorgeous and the glass is, too. The only completely clear parts of the glass are the three little squares that are high up. The other parts of the door are "blurry" and you can't hardly make out shapes in them unless it's really dark outside and super bright inside -- but you can't see details. It's perfect.

Next up on the front porch? Bright cushions for those cute rocking chairs you see in the reflection of the new door.