Getting things together upstairs

Over the weekend hubs and I decided to tackle the master bathroom.  Since our first walk through I have wanted to paint this room.  No offense to the previous owners, but it was clear that this room was heavily neglected.  It wasn't even featured in the photos on the real estate website, despite the lovely soaker tub, standing shower, and double vanities.  That was likely because of the original brass-ish hardware, filthy grout, chipping paint.  Yargh.

But, thankfully, no more!  We started with a full paint job, covering the yellow faux finish with a nice coat of Sparkling Brook by Martha Stewart.  Then, as we painted we noticed that the towel bar near the shower was held up with, wait for it...Scotch. Tape.  Yup, you read that correctly, it was held up with scotch tape.  Needless to say, that prompted us to add "install a new towel bar" to the list of weekend projects.  After the hubs successfully added new quality hardware in brushed nickel, double so that we can share the prime real estate, it felt much, much better in there.

Then I got to play with the details, noticing that the Monet print that has graced all of my bathrooms since my first apartment was rather muddy with the new bright blue walls.  So I slapped some scrapbook paper in the Monet's white frame (after hubs suggested something graphic instead of a photo) and came up with something perfect for 60 cents, score!  Add that to the fun new bathmats and acrylic accessories, and it's darn near a spa in there, at least to me.  Love it.

The second project I tackled upstairs was styling the black bookshelf at the top of the stairs.  I saw a pin on Pinterest featuring black and white wallpaper in a black hutch, and I absolutely loved it.  Same idea as the blue shelves in the living room, only with paper instead of paint.  After racking my brain for the easiest way of adding paper, I decided on contact paper (cheap, self sticking, small amount on the roll).  I ordered some on Amazon and was actually able to cover the backing in about 30 minutes with minimal problems.  Then I got to style the bookshelves and grabbed some random sentimental objects from around the home, such as my old glasses for the top of the "Girl with Glasses" book and the watch of Jeremy's that I semi-stole our first year together.  I also found an owl for the Harry Potter bookshelf at the local Ross, it was too perfect to pass up :-).  I think it will be a continuous process like the built-ins in the living room, but for now I'm happy.

Slightly closer so that you can appreciate the details