We don’t talk much about our hall bathroom. In fact, in 17 months of living here, it’s been the subject of just two posts (knocking down a towel bar and fixing the toilet). And since we later used almost the same color as the inspiration room in our guest bedroom, we’re no longer planning to use that color in here, so we’re kind of back to square one. But we finally made a little lighting progress, as today’s title suggests.
There was nothing especially offensive about the existing fixture – nor anything especially exciting about it. It felt sort of builder basic to us. And kind of “backstage make-up room” to us thanks to the long line of bulbs (long vanity + long mirror + long fixture = lots of long things). So we always told ourselves if we saw something that we liked better (maybe with more height and less width, without looking too pidly and delicate over such a large vanity and mirror) we’d upgrade and then donate the original – since we’re sure someone else might love it more than we do.
We randomly checked out a few home improvement stores over the past year and a half, but nothing really got our figurative motors running. That moment finally came about a month ago while Sherry was on Joss & Main and saw this:
We obviously liked the dark bronze finish and also liked its sort of industrial / outdoor feel. It was mildly reminiscent of both our guest bathroom light (an outdoor fixture we installed inside for that industrial feeling) and our front porch light (which came with the house).
And at $60 (down 40 bucks from the original $100 price) it was less expensive than a lot of the alternatives we hadn’t liked as much at the home improvement store. So we pulled the trigger.
The breaking news is that we finally got around to putting this baby in (first it sat on the counter for a few weeks, taunting us). Thanks to the position of our mirror, I had the pleasure of photographing myself a lot in the process. And thanks to the bathtub being in my way, I also got to play the role of the tripod a few times. Apparently my head isn’t very level…
You guys have probably seen me remove a light before, but if not – after turning off the power to the whole house (our fuse box isn’t labeled carefully enough for us to trust it blindly) I carefully removed all of the glass shades and bulbs (I’m a smidge accident prone around those things) and unscrewed the fixture from the wall.
That revealed this big metal plate that was secured to the wall… along with lots of nasty dust (hence my expression).
When I unscrewed the plate I was left with this imprint of what once was: some unpainted areas, a bit of rust, more dust, and some old paint drips.
After Sherry broke out a lead paint test stick (we got a pack of them from Home Depot about a year ago and they’re still coming in handy) we were relieved to get a negative result so I broke out my cheery little palm sander to smooth out those ridges left by the previous paint job so that our re-paint job will have a better chance of looking seamless. But re-painting’s a future task since we still have to settle on a color for this room (but you know we’ll keep you posted!).
With the old fixture successfully down, we brought in the new guy. Here’s what he looked like out of the box.
I screwed in the mounting bar (a simple task that took longer than usual because the included screws didn’t fit my junction box so we had to run to the hardware store to get different ones).
Then I attached the wires and screwed the new fixture in place. Pretend that giant unpainted spot isn’t there.
Once the metal shades were affixed and the bulbs were back in place, we had our new and improved light ready to go. My head-tripoding skills also appear to have improved.
We’re charmed by the extra bit of character this light brings to the otherwise still-ignored bathroom. Thankfully, the two 100 watt bulbs are more than enough to illuminate our small bathroom, and we’re excited about how the dark color of the fixture balances some of the dark accent tile around the room. We also like that it looks sort of old (like our house and many of the other industrial lights we’ve brought in). We have big plans for framing out the mirror, painting the walls, painting the vanity, getting new vanity hardware, doing something to the window, hanging some art, etc. So although it’s not looking too amazing right now, we’re inching towards something that might look cool someday. We hope. Haha.
We like how our new fixture better fills the space above the mirror (thanks to more height, which balances the ceiling-height shower curtain on the other side of the room). And we’re actually really happy with the quality of this light. It looks a lot more expensive than 60 beans, just because it’s not flimsy and the dark color is really matte and authentic looking if that makes sense. The little distressed areas don’t feel too country for our tastes, but they make it feel less mass produced and more “oh this old thing, we actually inherited it from Uncle Merlin and it has some great story to tell” – even thought that’s totally not the case.
And we already dropped the old light off at our Habitat For Humanity ReStore, so the switcheroo is officially complete. Hopefully we’ll have another update post with a paint color sometime soon-ish. And that giant mirror will look a heckova lot more legit once it’s framed out. But at the rate these hall bathroom posts have been appearing so far (along with posts about the guest bathroom, the playroom, and the sunroom – which are our other virtually untouched spaces thus far), I probably shouldn’t make any promises. We’ll get there someday!
What have you guys been hanging in the bathroom? Art? Lighting? Mirrors? Any favorite bathroom paint colors to share? Do you get nervous ordering a light you haven’t seen in person? We must admit we were a little sweaty when we clicked “buy” but we’re glad we took a chance.
kim says
Hi there. Question(s) unrelated to today’s post: I was going to head over to Smock Paper to get some double-sided paper for a nursery project and wanted to go through your page, as I found them thanks to YHL. 1. Does this make a difference to you in terms of measuring sponsor traffic generated through your site to have people use the links on your page versus just going directly to the site? 2. I couldn’t find Smock – are they no longer a sponsor? Any recommendations for sponsor sites with cute, double sided paper?
Thanks!
Kim
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kim! You’re so sweet! The ads all rotate, so Smock is still a sponsor and should show up on one of the tall rectangles under the Sponsor title on our sidebar. Our sponsors all pay a fixed rate (unrelated to the amount of traffic we send) but of course they like seeing people head over from our site! So if you see a little rectangle on the sidebar that animates (it flashes: “share”, “beauty”, “everywhere”, “Smock Paper”) that’s them! It has cute things like rolls of wrapping paper on it.
xo,
s
kim says
Brilliant! Thanks much – the wrapping paper is exactly what I was looking for!
YoungHouseLove says
So glad!
xo,
s
Stephanie says
I love that light!
I’m going to be tackling the lighting in my new space probably pretty soon. Why you say? Because there’s boob lights everywhere. EVERYWHERE! It’s disturbing.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha. Dude, get on that!
xo,
s
Brandy E says
Thats one cool light! Looks a little like one I tried to convince my husband to get for our kitchen.
*tried.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, man. Better luck next time!
xo,
s
Shelley @ Green Eggs and Hamlet says
Love that light fixture. I’m a Joss & Main member (thanks to you guys) but missed that fixture. Darn, because I think it would have looked really good in our hallway bathroom as well.
Can’t wait to see what you guys do in there, especially paint color.
Raylan says
After I read this post, I found the “bridgeview wall sconce” on Wayfair.com for $61.90! Hope this helps :)
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo!
xo,
s
Larissa says
Love it! How long before you can’t stand the paint job behind it?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I guess we’ll see!
xo,
s
Jamie@VTMamateurs says
Looks great- especially with the black and white tile in there. Another great J&M find!
Roxy says
Hoping you’ll frame that big mirror soon — because I have been wanting to do that to my master bath mirror forever. Can’t quite talk the hubs into it, so maybe if I knew how to do it myself, I could “surprise” him. :-) And of course, I was hoping for the best inexpensive way to do it.
Corie says
I can’t wait for you guys to frame out your mirror! We had two huge mirrors in our hall bathroom. We removed one and it’s sitting in the basement for now. The other one remains on the wall. I told my husband I wanted to frame them out and make them look brand new since mirrors are expensive! We haven’t gotten around to it yet and are still a bit unsure of how to go about it. Looking forward to you doing that in the future : )
Aurelie says
hey guys. we just painted our bathroom sherwin williams’ steely grey (or as i like to call it steely dan grey). it’s a nice grey that looks a little blueish as well. well, we first tried moody blue but didn’t like that at all (too aquamarine for our taste). random bathroom question: do you have a recommendation for a good shower curtain liner that won’t get nasty and mildewey after awhile?
YoungHouseLove says
We like white fabric ones like they sell at Bed Bath & Beyond because you can even wash them to keep them clean!
xo,
s
heather says
Agreed. I gave up on plastic. No matter what we did it never could be properly cleaned, and then they have to be replaced. With them being plastic they also use chemicals to make (which then emit into your bathroom). I switched to a single fabric one over a year ago and have never looked back. I bought white so worst case (which I’ve never had to) I can throw it in with some bleach and be done.
heyruthie says
Uncle Merlin. Heh. “Yeah, he’s the Magical Uncle.” John, you are so awesomely random sometimes.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, shucks. Thanks.
-John
Mamaw03T says
Just goes to show ya that you don’t have to do a lot or spend a lot to make great changes. Looks really good!
heyruthie says
here’s hoping that since A) you painted the guest room peacock, and B) it is one of Clara’s faves, that you paint the bathroom the color-wheen complement ORANGE. yes, if anybody can do it, it’s y’all! here’s eye candy:
http://www.google.com/search?q=orange+bathroom&hl=en&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS384US385&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=nn2yT6SlOqGr8AG324S8Bg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBsQ_AUoAQ&biw=1536&bih=718
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that would be fun! We’ll have to see if it’ll look too Halloween with the black tile, but if not we’re totally game!
xo,
s
Myrna says
What is the framed piece on the top of the toilet tank? Could not figure that out.
YoungHouseLove says
It’s just an empty frame from a thrift store- no art yet, and it’s just oddly leaning. Haha.
xo,
s
Rachel Chadwick says
Love that fixture! When we bought our house 17 months ago, we inherited a guest bath that has the fuse box located right above the bath tub. Yuck! Since we can’t put a shower in there the room has alot of empty wall space. A couple of weeks ago I put this up to help “fill it out.”
http://lifeonlankford.blogspot.com/2012/04/guest-bath-gets-decorpart-2.html
YoungHouseLove says
So charming! I love those happy colors!
xo,
s
Ty Lee says
I lurve that light fixture. I lurve it hard.
I’m hoping to add a little industrial chic to my new house, but don’t want to overdo it (it’s a craftsman, and too much would be out of character for the style of home it is). But I have been eying different light fixtures, and a lot of them that are similar to that! Actually being able to SEE it in a bathroom seals the deal for me, and I am so going to put something like that in my own bathrooms!
bekah says
I like it! Ill be honest, after the first picture of the lights original listing I thought it was a weird fit for what I have seen of your house, but once again…it totally works!
I actually just hung a shelf in our bathroom yesterday, and switched out the shower curtain. My two yr old happened to see a colorful elephant curtain on clearance and starting shouting about it…and you know, I just couldnt resist. He was so excited. Sure, its a little funky for a bathroom that adults use too, but oh well! Hes happy, so we are happy too!
Lynn @ SafeBeauty says
That light switch out made my eyes go all ‘aaaaooooogaaaaahhhh’. We are going to tackle our guest bathroom one day soon too and have been dipping in and out of our local lighting showrooms all over town. Michael really wants it to be industrial and we have seen so many good cagey looking lights that we love but nothing for under $100 so your find at that price is awesome. Good hawkeye Sherry! The light looks awesome.
My best, Lynn
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, so glad! Someone shared a link to it on wayfair.com if you’d like! It’s $61 there, so still very good!
xo,
s
Adam says
That is a purdy fixture. Looking forward to seeing what you do w/ the mirror as we have similar ones that could be nice to frame.
Quasi-related question. I noticed it looks like your sander is one of those sucks-the-dust varieties. How efficient are those things at it? I live in a townhouse with no garage so workspace is erm… limited.
YoungHouseLove says
It’s definitely better than one without it, so although we still get some dust to clean, it’s helpful!
xo,
s
erin says
i love the light!! we have some old school 80’s style “column” lights on either side of our medicine cabinet and i absolutely hate them! it’ll be a while before we change them out though. first we need to replace our toilet. how are you liking your new toilet? that’s the one we’ve been thinking about getting and was hoping you weren’t disappointed with your purchase.
YoungHouseLove says
We love it very much! As some folks have mentioned, the seat is a little thin/flimsy, so we might replace that down the line but the toilet itself (flush-power, height, tank, etc) is awesome!
xo,
s
erin says
as a reply to your reply: i have heard that the seats can be flimsy which seems pretty common with a lot of toilets! we actually recently bought a new seat for our current toilet. it is a bemis next step toilet with a built in child’s seat. it’s held up by a magnet, so when you put the lid down, the magnet snaps up the child’s seat and holds it up! the lid is also soft closing, so there is no worry about little fingers or other little parts getting shut in the lid. of course, our daughter doesn’t want to have anything to do with potty training now, but i think it’ll be perfect when she is!
YoungHouseLove says
So cool!
xo,
s
Jeanna Walton says
I love it! Fresh looking, with lots of character. I was wondering though, did you ever manage to clean up your work area? After your post about how messy it was, I thougt by now you might have gotten busy!
YoungHouseLove says
We actually cleared out some of the basement in order to make Clara’s birthday dollhouse, so it’s not as bad but still eons away from where we want it to be someday!
xo,
s
Sherry from BC says
Love the new light. So much more personality than the original. Can’t wait to see the colour and artwork you choose.
Kristen says
I’ll admit, I was a little dubious about how the new fixture would look – but I love it now! I can’t wait to see what you all do with the mirror. We had two large mirrors like that in our bathrooms and we actually took them down and replaced them with cool mirrored medicine cabinets, but I’d love to see what they look like framed out.
Amy Ghelli says
My mom’s very close friend is an artist, she helped us pick colors for some of the main rooms in our house. I think our living room color, BM Pikes Peak Grey would look great in your bathroom. I just think it would look great anywhere actually. I love the fixture.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Amy!
xo,
s
Jan at A Life Remodeled says
Great light – glad you went with a dark color – it really pops! I had to laugh when I read that this was your “small” bathroom – it looks bigger than any of the ones in my house. Can’t wait to see what color you end up painting it!
Lauren@FilingJointly says
“Apparently my head isn’t very level…” made me laugh because yesterday I was at a new optometrist and the person fitting my glasses there said “Hey! Your ears aren’t level. The left one is like an inch higher than the right one!”
Which I totally already knew from, you know, looking in the mirror at myself every single day. But who says that?
Also, it’s not an INCH higher. It’s like 3/5 of an inch max.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh, that is both hilarious and maddening. I hope you mentally noted something uneven about her. Haha. I have looked at your photos a million times and only think about what a gorgie bride you made, no ear things ever came up. Haha.
xo,
s
Shannon says
I like the light! My husband and I just tore our bathroom apart. It had some fake tile paneling for walls(and a couple other layers of another kind under it!), some funky hanging shelves, a strange homemade corner sink cabinet, along with other crazy stuff. We took out the shower and replaced it with a bathtub. New flooring, sheetrock(painted Wet Dock), lighting, the whole shebang. We just have a few more things to do: put up trim, paint the door, add some shelves above the toilet area, and touch up some paint. I can’t wait until it’s ready to share!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! Good luck Shannon! Sounds like you guys have been busy!
xo,
s
Lisa says
Hello! n Love the light. I’m big on replacing light fixtures. Makes so much difference. I thought you guys were leaning towards Benjamin Moore’s Teal Ocean for the paint? That would love so beautiful and make a huge impact!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, as we mentioned in the first paragraph, we went with a really similar color in the guest room, which is one door away from this bathroom, so we didn’t want it to be dark teal overkill! Haha.
xo,
s
Lisa says
Whoops, sorry, you did say that!
YoungHouseLove says
No worries at all! We babble, so it’s easy to miss stuff! Haha.
xo,
s
Ashley says
I didn’t even see the darker tile accents in the bathroom until the “after” photo with the light up – They jumped right out at me. Amazing how the switch of something relatively small just pulled the whole thing together! So great, and so inspiring for some of the rooms I’ve been waiting on thinking I needed to do a total overhaul to make any difference at all.
gemma@thesweetestdigs says
Oooh love this!! It looks SO much better. That bathroom is going to look great – I’m looking forward to seeing what colour you go with :)
We just finished a full bathroom reno ourselves. It’s a small space, but we love it! http://thesweetestdigs.com/2012/05/01/project-bathroom-the-reveal/
YoungHouseLove says
Gorgeous! The tile! The shower curtain! The floor! Amazing.
xo,
s
Lisa in Seattle says
What a cute light! Now I’m trying to think of places to put it in my house…
Do you think that is a *lot* of vanity and mirror, especially for a one-sink unit? I see you plan to paint the vanity and change the hardware, but had you played with the idea of yanking that vanity out altogether and doing something different (like vintage tables and dressers with sinks that we were seeing for a while)? I don’t know what you’d do with the reclaimed space, but gosh, what a long vanity. Maybe I’m just jealous because ours is so short. Great – I’ve got vanity envy.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, it’s good for storage and stuff, but we’d never rule out replacing it with something else down the line if we found something we thought would work better! Should be fun to see where we end up!
xo,
s
Raylan says
Thank you! I have been searching high and low for a very similar fixture. I immediately googled “bridgeview wall sconce” and found it on Wayfair for $61.90! Thanks S&J. The light is now en route to mi casa!!
YoungHouseLove says
So glad!
xo
s
Ashley @ sunnysideshlee.com says
<3 it!
gina says
I love it, and ….. John is so cute SeXaaaY CUTE!!
Maria at inredningsvis.se says
GREAT POST:) I really like your blog and I follow..I hope you will like and follow me back:)
Have a great week.
LOVE Maria at inredningsvis.se
(Sweden)
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
Love the new light! It looks wonderful in the bathroom!
Erin says
When decorating for my first apartment, I came across a photo of me and my sister from when we were younger being silly in the bathtub making soap beards and such. My mom had tons of these kinds of photos of my brothers and sisters throughout the years. I thought it would be cute to frame some of my favorites and use them as art in my bathroom.
I never really thought anything of it until I had a party and a guest of a guest said “I think it’s kinda creepy that you have photos of naked kids in your bathroom”. I tried to explain that they were photos of my brothers and sisters, my nieces and nephews but the more I tried to explain it, the more I sounded like a pedophile. Needless to say, they were quickly replaced with more non descript powder room art!
PS – I SWEAR I’m not a pedophile!
Josie says
I can’t believe that you actually took down that really nice light fixture and replaced it with THIS thing! To each his own I guess!
Amy says
I actually had a great-uncle named Merlin, and my husband has an Uncle Merlin. So we’ve always joked that if we had kids we’d name one after them, since it is a family name after all.
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo,
s
Meredith J says
We JUST got the keys to our first HOUSE (!) on Friday and were just planning on painting and cleaning before moving in, but I reallllly hated the old gross PINK toilet and shower in our only bathroom… so my dear hubs and our brother in law decided, aww what the heck lets do it right now at noon on Sunday!! Needless to say, it’s almost a brand-spankin-new bathroom and should be ready for some refreshing clean showers once we finally move in over the weekend. At this point our whole new house is covered in sawdust. :) So excited to start our new home owning adventures!!! :D
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! So excited for you. Happy home-making!
xo,
s
annie says
Totally saw the paint on your hands in the ‘cutting John’s hair’ video. No hiding what you’re up to in that department. :P
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- dollhouse stuff! Details tomorrow!
xo,
s
Laurie says
Hey John,
You’ve mentioned in more than one post recently how your fuse box is poorly labeled. Maybe you should do a post on how to properly and safely label a fuse box for all of us old house owners!
YoungHouseLove says
We figure we could try to find out every outlet and plug in our house and re-label it, but sometimes things are really tricky (ex: our dishwasher runs on a fuse from the basement while the rest of the kitchen runs on a fuse in the laundry room) so the safest thing is always to kill the power to the entire house or use a line tester (from a home improvement store) before doing any electrical work to make sure there’s no power going to something you’re about to work on!
xo,
s
Jenna at Homeslice says
Oo I really like it- especially with your tile, they really work well together!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Jenna!
xo,
s
April says
Uncle Merlin, huh? Must be nice to have a magician for an uncle. ;)
You’ve mentioned your unreliably-labeled fuse box before… have you considered making that a project? Figure out which switch goes where and label them properly. Dull task, but you’ll be happy to have it done once it’s done, I would think.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, we have thought about it, but I think we know our old house is quirky so we’d never fully trust it (one odd plug or switch might not be what we think it is, for example our dishwasher is on a fuse in the basement but what we think is the rest of the kitchen is on a fuse in the laundry room, so if we hadn’t realized that we could have gotten into some trouble when we replaced ours – thankfully we just powered down the whole house!
xo,
s
Natalie says
Love the new lighting!
P.S. I was already thinking you should paint the bathroom yellow, and now that you reminded us of how great the dark fixtures and light look by the front door, I’m sure of it! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s a fun idea!
xo,
s
Julia Fain says
I like it! and agree with some of the above comments, that is a great price!
Sarah S. says
We have large mirrors in our bathrooms, too, and I’m really wanting to add a frame around them. I know there’s a company out there that sells kits for that, but is there a cheaper DIY way to do it? The tricky part looks like routing out the bottom piece of moulding so the mirror clip along the bottom edge fits.
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah, that’s probably the hard part, but using a tool like a dremmel could be an easy way to buzz out a little notch so the molding lays flat from the back!
xo,
s
KarenH. says
Oh, nice! I love that fixture and you really can’t beat that price! I really love the floor tile you have in there, too. It’s so classic, and I’m boring like that :)
No bathroom work for me, beyond making a final decision of where a new bathroom in the basement will go once I have the money for the plumber to excavate one of the “pump it up” holding tanks. That’s all part of my basement project which is still in “get the non sewing stuff out of the sewing machine zone” phase. I started my move into the house in an organized fashion, but by the end I was just shoving everything I didn’t need immediately into the sewing area.
Rich says
well done for donating the old light – Habitat for humanity do an amazing job. That light looks great! Im thinking of redesigning my bathroom. whats the best colour to use? im sick and tired of just white, creamy (boring!) colours!
YoungHouseLove says
I would just bring home a bunch of swatches to see what looks good with the tile/accessories/etc. Maybe a medium tan or gray or even a soft greeny-tan color or a soft blue-gray. I’ve seen celery green or lemon yellow bathrooms – even navy ones that look awesome!
xo,
s
Stacy Moore says
I love it. I had my honey actually install a bathroom light this past Saturday. The previous fixture was a tiny globe light that wouldn’t even take a normal sized light bulb. So you didn’t get much light in the shower. The new fixture houses two bulbs & I can actually see to shave my legs. TMI??? Sorry. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- congrats!!!
xo,
s
bachsbythebeach says
OOove it! you have great taste!