Hello! On Monday, I said I was adding some storage to our teeny tiny bathroom. Two days later, the transformation is complete!
Some newly useful bathroom space
If you had told me before our apartment hunt that we would end up with a smaller bathroom, with less storage, than our previous place, I'd have laughed at you, assuring you that we just wouldn't do something so - borrow Lou's favorite word - silly!
Well, I'd have been wrong. Here are the pretty awesome before shots of our loo. It took us forever to unearth our shower curtain, so that's our duvet cover doing a pretty poor imitation, draped over that cheapo white rod. This bathroom had less storage space that I would have thought possible, with not so much as a towel bar or hook to call it home. Even the medicine cabinet, that recessed mirror, above, has stationary shelves that are too shallow and too short to be of any real use. Though we don't get ready in the bathroom, and are making use of the small hallway nook to hold as much as possible, there's still some stuff the loo's gotta hold, ya' know?
And the lack of storage space was extra puzzling, because there was actually some room for it: you can see in the mirror that small recess, which is above the toilet. Why no cabinet there? Well, where there's no cabinet, I say, build one.
Or at least, install some shelves. We picked up the shelves and towel bar from Ikea on our recent epic trip(s) there, and I hung them over the last couple days. The towels are hung doubly folded here, but I hung the bar high enough that we can double them over after showers to facilitate drying. The baskets are from Target last summer (you may recognize them from our pantry organization in a previous life) and hold hand towels, wash cloths and sponges. I hung a chrome-colored Command hook on the wall for Lou's hooded towel. All in all, we crammed some pretty useful storage into this space above the wall - that's ALL of our towels, so this is pretty much our linen closet. But wait, that's not all.
Here's a fun potty shot. I just love showing you guys my toilet. So anyway, this bathroom didn't even have a toilet paper holder! And I DESPISE those free standing ones that I think have a habit of migrating all over the bathroom floor. The solution? This little guy, which hangs over the back of the toilet. It leaves enough floor clearance for our teeny trash can (it's only 5 liters), and doesn't look cluttered, which I really appreciate. Yes, you do have to do a twisty to get some TP. Yes, it's worth it to me to have this be nice and neat.
Then there's the sink area. The pedestal sink is just as useless as the medicine cabinet in terms of offering storage, but no matter. As long as things look tidy, I can make do. The hand towel is hung on another Command "chrome" hook, designed for the bathroom, and the little kneeling board we use for tubby time (from the dollar store's garden section - please don't buy those insanely expensive ones they market to parents now) is on a clear Command hook. I slid the scale and Lou's folding stool snugly between the sink and these unexplained extra silver water nozzles. The little silver basket holds our mouthwash, toothbrushes and toothpaste. It came with suction cups, but they wouldn't work on the tile, so I'm trying it on two Command hooks. It's not a super elegant solution, but it's a lot better than the giant bottle of mouthwash hanging out on the sink or floor, where it was. I'll let you know if it all crashes and burns. That little toothbrush cup is plastic, just in case.
Finally, I switched out the shower curtain rod for a chrome-ish one. It was $10 (Marshall's) and I thought it was well worth it to lend a little air of class to the joint. I also don't think a nice white shower curtain can be beat for making a bathroom feel a bit more spa-like, no matter how humble the rest of it (the bathroom) is. I think I'll probably still play around in here a tiny bit, by rearranging the shelves and maybe hanging a bit of art. Overall, though, I'd say this room is finished - the first one in the house! Hooray!
And the moral of the story is: You can find storage space anywhere, and can almost certainly cram more into a space than you think. Hope your Wednesday is great!