When we designed our custom dream home, it was important to us that this not be just another cookie-cutter, builder-boring house. Well, no worries - this house is wild and unique!
But also tasteful and elegant...I think. I hope.
We have 3 bathrooms and each has a one-of-a-kind style. The most bold of all is our guest bathroom, which features a vaulted ceiling so tall that visitors tend to look up and say 'WOW!' when they enter.
Sometimes they laugh. I prefer the wows.
Unique Bathroom: Before Photos
No, our red brick isn't going anywhere.
Over the years, our bathroom decor has become rustic with a little bling mixed in. It turns out that a clawfoot tub and cowhide rug pair beautifully together. This style is perfect for a mountain home in the Southwest.
The dogs are not allowed in here. Biscuit is a rebel.
Our guest bathroom was okay, but the high ceilings left a lot of blank space. We've also had difficulty making the room feel light and bright, despite a wall with 4 windows. You can only add so many mirrors.
Actually, I suppose you technically can add mirrors to every inch of a bathroom. You should only add so many mirrors.
Sometimes you just need to embrace the darkness.
We discussed the idea of wallpapering our guest bathroom. While we agreed the result would look pretty, it wasn't the unique design idea we strive for when decorating our home.
One day, I had a bold idea. In fact, it was such a bold idea that I never thought my husband would go for it in a million years. I told him anyway.
He loved it.
SN postponed everything else and started our big bathroom project that very day.
I was instantly banished from the room, as I was "dangerously in the way." Bah humbug, SN.
Luckily, we had designed the house perfectly for just such an occasion:
We really need to get new bulbs for our light fixtures. These exterior wall sconces were only temporary, by the way. They were coming down the moment we passed our electrical inspection...4 years ago.
Side note: Don't you just love my silver owl with his cozy little sweater? He's from Grandin Road.
Did you notice I distracted you just now? Distraction is super important when someone is painting a room. It takes forever and you just want to be able to see the finished result right this moment. If you look too soon, the paint won't be dry and won't have a sufficient number of coats, which will give you a small anxiety attack.
I learned this the hard way when SN painted the kitchen in our old home. Excited for my Behr Cherry Cobbler red walls, imagine my horror to walk in and see our pink kitchen! Patience is rewarded.
Ta da! We (okay, he) painted the walls Sherwin Williams Naval, which is the exact same dark blue as our interior doors. It was also their 2020 color of the year.
Although it's typically recommended to go with a satin or eggshell finish on textured walls, we embraced semi-gloss to help bounce a little more light around the room. It looks nice, but in hindsight, satin would probably have been a better choice.
You can't miss the imperfections.
Cue my TV announcer voice:
But wait, there's more!
(Sooo much more.)
Don't worry about that stripe of white baseboard. It's going away.
SN took detailed measurements of our bathroom and I sent them off to Photowall. Does the name sound familiar?
Photowall is the same custom wallpaper company we used to create the gorgeous tree mural in our hallway. Everyone loves it and it has held up perfectly, even with a pair of wild grizzlies known as Olive and Bernadette wrestling against it constantly, so we had no hesitation about using Photowall again for our new interior design project.
SN has had enough of my nonsense.
I ordered 3 custom wallpaper murals and they all arrived in less than a week, all the way from Sweden. Amazing!
Photowall has created a foolproof system for wallpaper installation. Here are a few of the things we love about all of the orders we've placed with them so far:
- Each wallpaper panel is numbered, so all you have to do is install your mural in the order listed.
- The image is printed to the exact dimensions of your space, so very little trimming is required and there's almost no waste.
- The paper is high-quality, so you don't have to worry about accidentally creasing or ripping it during the installation.
- Wallpaper paste is included for free.
- Every design is 100% customizable, meaning their choices are literally endless. (More on this later.)
- It's affordable, especially with the exclusive Photowall coupon they agreed to offer readers of Kitty Deschanel. Save 25% on any order + receive free express shipping with promo code 'kittydeschanel25'.
When SN was ready to install our wallpaper murals, he kicked me out of the bathroom again. He even moved the clawfoot tub in front of the guest bedroom door, lest I try to sneak a peek from that direction. (He'd learned while painting.)
Our project required him to be on a ladder 20 feet in the air, so fair enough.
I was still able to spy on his progress, courtesy of our oddly located bathroom/foyer window.
Still, you can only see so much through that little window (thank goodness, what with it looking into the bathroom). I channeled my inner ninja and stealthily snapped a few in-progress shots just for you, my beloved blog readers.
I'm not much of a ninja. It might have been the 'WOW!' I shouted when I saw our bathroom walls. From the top of his 22 foot ladder, SN was not happy.
Unique Bathroom: After Photos
We love the results so far. All 3 murals are from SpaceFrog Designs. The colors are vibrant and the metallic and foil accents look real! Thanks to Photowalls's easy system, wallpapering everything waaay up in the air only took a few hours.
My mom couldn't resist seeing our new bathroom in person. She initially thought SN had painted the mural by hand. Also, she has avoided our house for an entire year due to COVID, including holidays and birthdays - she really wanted to see the murals.
We still need a 4th mural for the remaining wall. SN had originally planned to just paint it blue because our brick wall makes it too difficult and dangerous to position a ladder there. However, he enjoys the 3 other bathroom murals so much that he is now determined to find a way to get up there.
Custom Wallpaper
Remember above when I told you Photowall wallpapers and murals can be customized? The options are endless. You can even upload your own artwork or photo and have it turned into a mural or wallpaper.
For our 4th mural, we wanted to go with another SpaceFrog Designs image so that everything would be cohesive. Although there were many options on the Photowall site to choose from, none were quite what we had in mind.
I emailed a truly ridiculous request to Photowall:
Thank you so much for your help with our wallpaper project. We received the murals from the post office yesterday and have installed them (photos attached). Even with our bathroom nowhere near finished, they're stunning!
We would like to order 1 more mural for the 4th wall of the room. (106 inches wide x 90 inches tall.) We're having difficulty deciding on a design though and wonder if you might have some suggestions. All 3 of our walls are currently from Spacefrog Designs ("Indigo Sea," "Blue Forest Lake," and our favorite, "Moon River.")
It's important that the 4th wall contains similar shades of blue and foil accents so that everything works cohesively. We're not sure how much editing you are able to provide though. Here are the options we are considering:
1. https://www.photowall.com/us/forest-vista-wallpaper (Is it possible to remove the sun and add a bit more blue, similar to the other designs?)
2. https://www.photowall.com/us/summer-sunset-wallpaper (We're not a fan of the pink color scheme. Is there a way to make the colors match our existing walls more closely?)
3. https://www.photowall.com/us/ocean-blue-wallpaper (Is it possible to remove the sun and the solid blue below it, plus have a bit more of the marbled sky at the top?)
We also like these designs from other artists. Is it possible to modify any of them so they look more like the Spacefrog Design murals? It seems like they already have the same gold foil appearance of the others.
1. https://www.photowall.com/us/tender-clouds-with-yellow-swallows-dark-blue-wallpaper (There's probably not much that can be done to this one. It's just hard to know from online photos if the designs will work well together.)
2. https://www.photowall.com/us/golden-birds-wallpaper (Maybe the plain background can be replaced with one of the Spacefrog patterns?)
3. https://www.photowall.com/us/mulberry-dusk-spacefrogdesigns-wallpaper (We just like the birds. Maybe they can be inserted into one of the 5 designs above?)
I'm not sure if any of my modification ideas are possible, so no pressure! We appreciate your insight. Thanks again!
Ridiculous, right? No company offers that level of customer service.
I had a reply from Photowall the very next day. Even better, they had created a unique image for me that is perfect for our bathroom project.
Of course, as it has yet to be installed, you'll have to visit my blog again in a few weeks to see it. 😜
Our Bathroom Decorating Project - What's Next
These murals are just the start. We're going to:
Install stained tongue-and-groove on the vaulted ceiling, similar to what's in our kitchen and living room.
Add elaborate trim to all of the painted areas. New baseboards, chair rail, picture frame moulding - the works.
Increase the impact of our antique vanity by paneling this alcove in wood, hopefully turning it into a special nook in an already special bathroom.
Paint our fake clawfoot tub Sherwin Williams Naval to match our walls. Unless SN gets rid of the clawfoot tub altogether to indulge in his dream of building a bathtub out of concrete. He's weird, right?
Stay tuned!
Exclusive Photowall coupon for readers of Kitty Deschanel:
Free express shipping + save 25% on any wallpaper or mural order with promo code 'kittydeschanel25'
