Building Character - Half Bathroom Style

Apparently home buyers like to buy newer homes that have "character." Well for those of you that don't know, I am getting ready to sell my house to move a little further out from the suburbs, with more land and less neighbors. So I have started trying to build "character" in my 2008 contractor grade single family home.

My house is approximately 2,600 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a family room, a living room, a huge open kitchen, a large sitting room in the front of the house, full dining room, and a view of beautiful (sense the sarcasm) Back River... with a community beach for water access to the Chesapeake Bay. I have lived in this house since March of 2009 and got a really great deal on it as a foreclosure when the market was still in the toilet. I really wanted water access at the time. I didn't know then that I wouldn't even let my dogs swim in beautiful Back River. It looks nice from the deck though.

I am a pretty creative person in general and can build just about anything on the planet, so my house is pretty nice anyway... but I have been reading on the Interwebs little tricks to help build this so called "character." I started a few weeks ago with a half bathroom that most guests use. It was pretty generic looking, and I never got around to doing anything with it.

Before pictures:

These cheap, bright bathroom lights are the bane of my existence in these bathrooms right now. They are so harsh, so ugly, and, so generic looking. The oval mirror is pretty bad as well, however, it had to stay due to the fact that the only plug in the bathroom is right next to it... poor planning Builder, poor planning indeed. 

 I bought these wall decals many years ago just to get rid of the white walls, they were a bad choice.

Painting trim... my favorite part. I have discovered that you can not skimp on an angled brush. It helps so much to have a good, angled brush when painting trim.

 After pictures:

New light from Home Depot ($34.00)

The chair rail... that was fun putting up. I had the molding for the chair rail from an old house that I bought it for, but never got around to putting it up before it became a rental unit/nest egg. So that was free, as well as the white trim paint that was from a different project around my house. 

I do not know how to get good pictures at night time...
 
The pictures on the walls are in some old black IKEA pictures frames that I had. I used some white spray paint to paint them white. (Free) The key is an old steel key from somewhere in my junk room of treasures.

My thrift store find corner stand: ($10)
Weird kitty vase found at the thrift store: ($2.00)
Flowers from Pier 1: ($14.00)

New soap dispenser ($7.00 Target)

Old book I had of pin ups. I cut out the ones that I liked and put them in my IKEA frames that I painted. (Free)

The before and after pictures of my thrift store cabinet find:

Isn't she beautiful with her brass knobs?? She was solid wood, that was all that I cared about.

Here she is in all her glory, beautiful Large Marge:

The back of this is a piece of thick scrapbook paper from Michael's that I had laying around with some modge podge protecting the glitter. 

The knobs on Large Marge came from Michael's a couple years ago. They were $1 each and so beautiful that I had to buy a bunch of them, I just haven't had anything to use them on yet... until Large Marge came into my life. 

Price break down:
Paint (Behr Paint+Primer) in Smockstack Grey: $32.00
Large Marge cabinet: $10.00
New Light: $34.00
Soap Dispenser: $7.00
Kitty Vase: $2.00
Flowers: $14.00

Total:  $99.00 (minus $50 in gift cards from my manager)
Total out of pocket: $49.00 of character building fun... next up, my entry way.

Add $10 to this total as I really need to get a toilet paper holder in there soon, the toilet paper just sits on Marge's lap and is unsightly.

Amanda Hugnkiss