Our Mother's Half Bath Makeover: The Perfume Picture

Erin and I are busy, and we suck as bloggers.

It had to be said.

Yes, we finish projects.  Yes, sometimes we forget to take pictures.  And yes, we even forget to blog about it.  Ergo, we suck as bloggers.  Good thing we write this blog just to keep a record of our work, even if it is an incomplete record, and no one is waiting to read our random posts.  I am relieved we aren’t making anyone mad. Anyhoo, we have a bit of catching up to do, so if you just happened to stumble in, welcome!

Perfume Art Detail

Today I am doing the first of a couple posts on the makeover happening to our mother’s half bathroom.  Our parents home is older than both of us, and some of the original linoleum, wood paneling, and counter tops remain.  They are so old they are almost back in fashion, if harvest gold or rust orange ever do come back. (I hope not.)  Erin and I are limited by funds, time, and our father, in how much we can actually do to improve upon their house. Ego, you know.  So we are starting small – the half bath.

The Half Bathroom - "Before" Picture

Here is the bathroom before we started.  The mirror, which has a cheap plastic frame, and the wicker shelf have been spray painted a variety of colors over the years.  A couple of months ago we painted them the color you see here, as a surprise for our mother.  She asked me to make her some sort of art to hang on a wall as well.  That is how the perfume picture was born.

First, I called up Erin to go shopping.  We found a cheap frame at Big Lots for our art.  We also happened to stumble upon a mirror we loved at Hobby Lobby for 50% off!  Since the last time the old mirror was painted I had to put it back together in full Alaskan-gerry-rig style, it seemed like a good – and safe – bet to replace the old mirror too.  Then we decided that Mom deserved more than art, she deserved a full half bathroom makeover!  We really do like to make everything bigger, and more difficult better.

New mirror on the left, cheap frame on the right before we gutted it.

We took apart the cheap frame from Big Lots, discarded the plastic matting, and turned over the cardboard print.  On the back of the cardboard we pasted 4″ square pieces of scrapbook paper.  We laid them out a couple of times until we had a pattern that was pleasing before pasting them down.

Laying out paper to find a pleasing pattern.

I downloaded the three Victorian perfume bottles from The Graphics Fairy. (Awesome website. Thank you, Karen!)  I opened the files in Photoshop Elements and tried to change the black to a dark brown.  Yeah, I still don’t know how to use the software.  The bottles were then printed on vellum paper, cut out, and glued over the scrapbook paper.

The finished piece.

Too bad I didn’t pay attention to any of those blogs I have read where they mention how ink jet prints will smear.  While gluing the paper down the glue must have wet the ink and it made a mess. Note to future self:  spray clear acrylic over the paper to seal the ink in before making big yucky mess.

Area where ink smeared and removing ink messed up paper

The last part was gluing on a little rhinestone bling.  Our mother likes bling!  And now that I am looking at this picture I realize there is some fuzzy or crafting shrapnel stuck in the frame.  Maybe no one else will notice. Shhhhh!

Next up: repainting the walls and hanging a cabinet.  Check back in a couple of months for it! 

~Amy

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