By Elizabeth Yeager Cross
WV Design Team

 

In August 2016, during a very chaotic time in our family’s life, my husband and I ended a yearlong search for our new home. From what I hear, there is never a convenient time to move, and boy was that right.

I am what my family lovingly refers to as a perfectionist, so having to pack up every single thing we own and then unpack it in a new space was somewhat challenging for me as a designer, mother and wife.

The mother in me wanted everything organized and in its place so I could make our transition into a new home seamless and comfortable. The wife in me wanted to cut my husband a break and not have to be so perfect. But the designer in me, well, let’s just say she was in a total tailspin.

Although our new home was in like-new condition and twice the size of our previous home, it lacked the personal touches and choices I would have made had we done a new build. Trying to compartmentalize each area of our new-to-us home was a task I had to do to keep my family and myself sane. I told myself to move our furniture and possessions in and then make detailed lists for the future plans of each new area.

Which brings me to this article. I am going to bring you a series on how we moved into our new home and how I surprisingly didn’t get locked in a mental hospital while doing so.

More seriously though, hopefully by sharing my journey, you may find bits of inspiration along the way to use yourself. Today’s article will cover the master bath and how we personalized and modernized it to suit our needs — my husband’s, but mostly mine.

This master suite was beautiful when we bought the house, but it just didn’t feel like us. So with the help of a little Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan, some touches of gold and a handy husband, our space is personalized, and we enjoy using it every day.

First of all, I have to say how thankful I was to have a master bathroom of this size. Having two children under 5 means all four of us use this space and basically pretend there aren’t two other full bathrooms upstairs. Every bubble bath, shower, teeth-brushing, potty-training and grooming moment of our lives is spent together.

As I’m sure you could guess, my designer fingers were itching and ready to tweak this space. First and foremost, I had the entire house painted by my good friends at Mountain State Painting. I chose my signature Yeager Design Grey to give the room a more modern tone and help combat the whole bowl-of -oatmeal, ivory-and-cream look it had going on.

The next area of paint to address was the double vanity. While there are many people who prefer wood-toned cabinetry, I am not always one of them. Every piece of trim, every door and cabinet in our new home was the same cherry stain, and I decided this was one area I could easily and affordably change. Also, by painting the cabinetry, it would bring out the gray tones in the acrylic countertop and help make a connection to the new wall color.

Since Yeager Design and Interiors carries Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan, this was a no-brainer for me. In one evening, I had the existing hardware removed and the entire vanity double coated in Old White. By the next evening, it was entirely clear waxed. I chose not to do any distressing or sanding to help keep it more contemporary and have clean lines.

Next, my sweet husband was tasked with helping me incorporate my signature gold accents. He easily installed the new gold bar hardware to replace the existing traditional leaf-shaped ones, which made for an instant and dramatic change.

To carry the mixing of metals even further, I chose to replace the light fixtures with contemporary gold ones that tied the hardware together perfectly.

I have to give Brett, my husband, honorable mention as well for installing his first ever light fixture. A few YouTube videos and an instruction manual can turn any husband into the handyman of your dreams.

Don’t overlook areas in your home that could be made more special with an arrangement of flowers and a painting you love.

 

One of the biggest design decisions we made for the new bathroom was to get rid of the too-small oval mirrors above each sink. I contacted my buddy Jaime with Glass Guyz, in Hurricane, and, within two days, he had installed a mirror that spanned the entire length of the vanity and trimmed it professionally with beveled mirror trim.

I absolutely loved this change. It not only made room for all four of us to get a look at ourselves, but it also made the space look even larger and more custom-finished.

To truly make the master bath more personalized for our little family, small accents and accessories were needed here and there to create warmth and a sense of home. Plush white bath towels and floor mats, gold and glass soap dispensers, and a sweet tea scented candle from our old house welcomed every sense and created a cozy space to get clean.

Perhaps my favorite accent of all was the art I hung over the bathtub wall. My children take about a thousand bubble baths a week, and as I wash their little bodies and try not to blink as time flies by, I get to glance up and see our golden framed art that says, “I love us.”

So, no matter how hectic the week has been, no matter how long my to-do lists grow, I am reminded of how precious our time together is and to enjoy my family in this space.

A couple coats of Old White Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan, and this vanity is transformed into a light and bright beautiful row of cabinetry. It even made the countertops look a different color by pulling out the lighter and cooler tones in the acrylic rather than the browns.

I hope you have enjoyed the first installment of the Edgewood series. Stay tuned to see how my family and I are personalizing our new home in cost-efficient and manageable ways that will hopefully help you to do the same in your homes.

Whether you have just moved into a new home or need some revamping in your older home, keep your wits about yourself, tackle one space at a time, make lists and budgets and enlist a designer to help if you get too overwhelmed.

We’re in this thing called life together, so let’s learn from each other and share what we can to help one another grow and change along the way —and avoid the loony bin if at all possible.

 

 

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