Bathroom Refresh

We love our house, we really do.  Hence the reason we bought it, obviously!  But every house comes with it's own challenges, and the one that we struggle with is storage.  There just aren't any closets for....stuff!  I know, I know....if you haven't used it recently, toss it, right?  I don't mean superfluous stuff, I mean the stuff we use day to day.  We have one, tiny coat closet by the front door, and nothing by door for the garage...

As you can see.  That forward facing door is to the garage, the left doorway goes into the basement where the kids sleep (relax, it's finished!), and the door on the right is for the half bath and laundry room.  I don't even have wall space close by for hooks and anything!

I knew in the fall that because of this storage issue, I would be dealing with jackets thrown over the back of the couch (the next nearest flat surface)...and that's been exactly the case...much to my chagrin.  I hemmed and hawed over how to find a solution to this, and Kristoffer and I *finally* decided on using the empty wall space in our half bath for hooks.  I had only hesitated because I was worried I would catch my hip on those hooks, ouch!  I got over it.

So here is that empty wall in our half bath.  It was all completely white to begin with, kind of a nice blank slate in my opinion.

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 A closer look at it's white plainness...

I wanted to put up some board and batten, just to try it out and see how I liked it, so here's the boards in place.  It was actually super easy to do...really.  The only part we struggled with was finding those blasted studs.  And you can see there are two sample colors on the wall.

And here is the wall TODAY!!  Wohoo!!  I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out, in my mind, it's gorgeous, and I love the way the board and batten makes it look and feel.

I know the pictures are big, I can't help it.  We bought some black/iron colored tri hooks at Home Depot and hung the center one lower...obviously since there was an outlet in the way, but also, so Owen could reach his own hook.

The pictures belonged to Trine, Kristoffer's mom, she is always getting rid of the best stuff, and I am always graciously willing to take it off her hands!

And the hooks.  We used a new board on the bottom, but ended up putting the baseboard on top of that one, we just liked the way it popped out and made it look finished.

A view from the opposite side, standing in the laundry room.

We atill have a few things we'd like to  do with this bathroom: replace the 500 year old toilet, new vanity, and new floors.  Those things are going to require some extra fundage, so we're holding off for later.

 The sink/toilet side.  I am so happy to have somewhere to put jackets and backpacks now, this storage solution makes my inner crazy-organized mama smile. 

Ooooh, and take a look at this!  This is the stone backsplash we bought last night that we're putting in the kitchen!  It's so pretty, and I'm so excited!!

 See my ripped off backsplash I've had all winter long.  Blaaaaaaahh!  Hopefully we can figure out how to do it, neither of us have put one in before.  So, I'm hoping next weekend we can get most of it done!