Let there be (bathroom) light and shelves!

Remember when I painted the bathroom... like... over the summer? We had to take down the vanity light and in the process it broke. As in, needed to be replaced.

I made a trip to Home Depot to pick up a third bracket for my kitchen shelf project (for added stability, more on that later) and I decided that having a vanity light would be a good thing since it's dark most of the time I'm home now and I'd like to be able to see my own face on the mornings I put makeup on.

The cheapest light I found was actually a sconce light, but it was the right size for the space so I thought we could give it a go. If we didn't like it, or it just plain didn't work, we could always return it and get something else. I could have gotten the same fixture we had for the same price, but it was really boring and plain. Sometimes that's good, but right now our little bathroom needs some "oomph!"

I really like it actually. It's different from most of the other vanity lights out there and it provides plenty of light to do what I need it to do. For now it's fine the way it is and looks really nice. Once we have a better idea of where we're going with the bathroom's color palette it will be easier.

I've also been thinking more about things we can do to "work with what we have" and make our lives more organized in the process. One option we talked about for quite some time was to try and have the plumbing re-routed so we could move it to the alcove area and make the area it's in now a double sink. I realize that the cost of that would be, well, a lot. Not to mention there would be no place for the cat litter box (very important!) and it would be incredibly expensive.

So, my thought (now) is to take our old vanity out (it's one of the cheap ones and the top is cracked really bad) and install a really nice pedestal sink (which is about the same price as replacing the vanity top). In the weird little cubby area, I'd like to build a built-in linen cabinet that has space under it for the cat box. This would be super helpful because it would store our towels, washcloths and other bathroom supplies.

We also put together some shelves in the bathroom (see I told you it was going to become an obsession!) and overall it looks really nice.

 

I think I might add two more shelves because that middle shelf looks a bit crowded and I'd like to add some decorative stuff too. I also need some storage baskets too... (I think some wire ones with either burlap or white fabric would be nice)

There is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done in there too (crown molding/trim, and the eventual replacement of the tub and a complete redo of the surround that involves actual sheetrock, along with fixing the subfloor and installing new tile), but that will take a lot of time/money and right now it's not a really something to think/worry about. Little things like storage, lighting and artwork are a little more our speed now.