Jourdan Fairchild — The Girls' Bathroom Reveal!

Before we dive in, a quick reminder of where we began. The house was built in 1946, and the black and white tile in this upstairs hallway bathroom is original and in good condition, so our plan was to leave all existing big features (toilet, sink, shower) and simply breathe new life into the room. Here’s a reminder of what we inherited:

And here’s what she looks like today.

Rather than try to photograph this tight space myself, I hired a local photographer to snap these beautiful photos. They’re moody and feel textured and a bit nostalgic. And unlike last year’s One Room Challenge—which required a ton of construction work and painting and wallpapering and installation of lighting—this makeover was much more pared back and simple. It started with selecting wallpaper and building a mood board, which led me to DIY a shower curtains on a ceiling track, beg my mother-in-law to stitch a sink skirt using fabric my friend Margo let me have, and paint a mirror I found Facebook Marketplace for $35. I painted the outer rim of the mirror black to pull the color visually up into the top half of the room and I love how the curves of the mirror contrast the straight, clean and classic lines of the sconce (a nearly $600 showroom sample I scored for $40 at my local Habitat). I borrowed a piece of vintage art (a painting of flowers) from the girls’ playroom because it pulls the blues and yellow together perfectly. And I love how the wooden frame adds that grounding vintage vibe.

Given that we ripped out original storage too high for our girls to use, we added a simple white rolling cart that holds all of the essentials for a nearly 7-year-old and 3-year-old: hair clips, bows, bath bombs, and band-aids. This will obviously evolve with them and as our needs change. To make use of old towel bars, I bought S hooks and found baskets that look like they’re woven but are, in fact, plastic. Why is this important? They hold toothbrushes that won’t fit in the old toothbrush holder (which is now a makeshift flower holder for faux flowers). I plan to hang a hand towel on a third hook.

In total, I spent a few weeks very slowly piddling about with my projects in here, and in total, about $800. I had to buy two rolls of the wallpaper for pattern matching purposes (arg) but otherwise would’ve spent even less. I say this not to encourage people to do everything themselves like we do (because time is money!), but more to reinforce that you can stretch money a long way if you’re creative and give it time to evolve.