The Dappled Willow

Hey-o! If you’re new here, my name is Lydia; I’m a freckled, ginger, mum of 3, finally making my house a home by doing as many DIYs as I can manage.

I’ve been going room by room, slowly but surely, trying to create beautiful spaces for my family on a tight budget. I call it a Budget Room Refresh and I try to spend as little as possible with a maximum spend of $500 per room.

I like to think outside the box and use common materials in unconventional yet stylish ways. I’ve been experimenting and attempting projects way outside my comfort zone lately so I figured WHAT THE HEY, why not take it a step further by being a Guest Participant for the One Room Challenge™!

What is the One Room Challenge™?

If you’re not familiar with the One Room Challenge™, it’s an online interior design event that happens biannually (Spring and Fall). Twenty Featured Designers, as well as countless Guest Participants, will each transform one room over the next 8 weeks. Every Thursday I’ll share an update on the progress of my room here on the blog, but I’ll also be posting video updates on Instagram and Facebook stories too. If you want to watch it all unfold more closely you can follow along there and please help me make some of my design choices! I’m an amateur and need all the help I can get.

THE ROOM:

Our house is a small backsplit with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom up 5 stairs at the back of the house. We have no ensuite and no main floor bathroom. This upstairs bathroom is used by our family of 5 and our guests too. We do have another bathroom in the basement but that is primarily used by our tenant. 

Here is a photo of the bathroom the way it was when we first purchased the home in 2015.

As a redhead pink had never been a favourite of mine. Although I’m sure the stencilling at the top of the walls all the way around the room was a labour of love by the previous owner, it just wasn’t to my taste and the pink had to go.

We painted the room an icy blue before we moved in, put up a shower curtain, hung some towels and called it a day. Here’s what the room looks like now.

THE VISION:

I want something more sophisticated, yet still functional for our family full of little ones. This is where all the potty training, bathing, teeth brushing, etc. happens and since we have to spend quite a bit of time in here I’m over the moon excited to get this project underway!

I want to add more character and make better use of the storage space too. Thankfully this room gets a lot of light and as much as I love bold and moody colour palettes, I want to keep this room bright, airy and fresh.

I don’t think I can quite put my finger on the exact style I have in mind. Some elements could be considered modern while others are more farmhouse. I don’t know if it will all come together but I’m excited to find out!

I plan on keeping the colour palette simple with white, blue, black and brass/gold. I haven’t quite figured out which fixtures should be what finish yet though. And I’m not sure if I want to keep the vanity white or go dark blue. And there are many more things I’m unsure of right now but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. There are just so many options! DECISIONS, DECISIONS.

Here are a couple of inspiration pictures so you can get a sense of what I envision for this space.

THE PLAN:

I’m working with a tight budget (max. $500 CDN) so I’m going to make the most of it and do as much as I can myself. I’ll be trying things I’ve never done before (like PAINTING THE TILE FLOOR!) so here’s hoping I can pull it off. My handsome and handy husband Daniel is supportive of most of my ideas for this space but he’s skeptical of a few things (like PAINTING THE TILE FLOOR!). Hey, he knew I was creative and daring when he married me. This is par for the course. 

I’ll be using items I already have, upcycling materials and buying secondhand as much as possible to keep costs to a minimum.

THE PROJECT LIST:

• Declutter
• Remove medicine cabinet
• Remove mirror
• Remove tile baseboards
• Patch drywall holes
• Spray paint the window (?)
• Paint the walls and ceiling
• Paint tile floors with DIY Stencil
• Install and paint new baseboards
• Mount round mirror (with shelf?)
• Install new light fixture
• Paint vanity countertop
• Install spray painted faucet 
• Paint vanity cabinets
• Spray paint and rehang shower curtain rod
• Build and install floating shelves behind toilet
• New shower curtain
• Install towel hooks and hang new towels
• Add art and accessories

This is a long list and I still have a few ideas I’m keeping to myself for now to surprise you down the road. I don’t know what the future holds, I may not get to all of these projects. But I’m looking forward to giving it a try! 

I’ll be back next week with an update for ya! Until then remember you can follow along on Instagram and Facebook and watch me succeed or fail AS IT HAPPENS! Every Budget Room Refresh I’ve done so far has had ups and downs so I figure I just need to get started to see how it all plays out. Are you with me?

Let’s do this thing!

Cheers,

Lydia

Visit each week of my One Room Challenge™ Here:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 |

Thanks for being here! See what everyone else in this challenge is up to at One Room Challenge™.