213 Gardenia, Part 5: A feminine touch

With all the leather and wood furniture we have in the living room, it was high time I added a little floral touch to the house to make things a little prettier. Don't get me wrong, I am crazy about our living room! But enough is enough when it comes to masculine stuff everywhere.

Lady Luck was on my side a few months ago when we drove to Cartersville for our niece Katie Anne's birthday party: Carlton's mom bestowed upon me a beautiful blooming orchid plant made of some sort of wax and plastic and silk. Everything about it said "pretty" to me, especially because it wasn't something that needed upkeep (except for a light dusting now and then). I also sorted through a plethora of my leftover college stuff-worth-saving that my parents had in storage in their basement, and I came out with some very sentimental posters (ahem, Chelsea Ray, my antique-ish poster of the map of Paris was re-discovered!!!) as well as some long lost perfumes. I usually stick to one for everyday use (Givenchy Very Irresistable) and one for special occasions (Coco Chanel). But every now and then I like to mix things up a little bit. Hence the pretty bottles I brought back with me to Moultrie.

Fast forward a couple months and that orchid plant has a beautiful spot in our hallway bathroom, along with a lovely glass wall shelf and those very noticeable perfume bottles. The bathroom went from a plain, typical extra bathroom to a feminine floral fancy spot. Well, fancy for me at least.

For now, here's how things went. First, I stood in the doorway of the hallway bathroom and pouted for about five minutes. The towel rack on the wall has been naked for a few months. I asked Carlton to do some laundry. He did a load of "whites"--mostly towels (almost all of our towels are just white) and a few t-shirts. And then he decided to be a doll and toss in the stepping rug from the floor in front of our front door. Which was black, and had never been washed before. So, needless to say, the towels which used to be white (which included my white, beautifully monogrammed towels that were a gift from Grandmama) are now all a sort of mushroom color. But only in large, amoeba shaped splotches. While they are all linen fresh and folded neatly for shower drying off, they're not really fit for display anymore. What a travesty!

Anyway, the hand towels always ended up on the countertop anyway (Carlton), so the towel rack was really only there for show. Sort of like the one remaining half of our toilet paper holder that a sleepover guest so carefully ripped out of the wall, stripped the screws, tore the sheetrock, and left for us to fix. But I'm not bitter or anything.

Anyway, back to the here and the now. Here's the before:

I took down the towel rack. It was useless to us for the most part, and it was taking up some valuable wall real estate. (Vicki, please don't freak out on me... but I tore up one of the pretty gardening books you gifted me a few years ago to create "art" for the walls.)

I found about five or six photos in this decorative coffee table gardening book and tore them out to compare them next to each other. I needed two coordinating 8x10 photos to go into the two frames I had leftover from this wall decorating project in our dining room. (Hmm, it appears I enjoy making framed art by destroying other stuff!) Here are my two choices:

Next, I cut the pages to fit into the frames. I didn't want any matte inside the frame around the pictures, so all I did was cut the paper to fit into the frame. Simple and so incredibly quick.

Then I hung them on the wall that once showcased a naked towel rack. I didn't take the time to fill in the screw holes and smooth out the sheetrock behind the frames. I'll do that when I decide on a paint color for this bathroom. In the meantime, at least I have something feminine and pretty to look at!

Thanks so much, Vicki, for the gardening book and the orchid plant! They have both helped make this hallway bathroom beautiful! I decided to display the brightly colored pink and orange and yellow and purple perfume bottles on a glass shelf that I originally purchased for our master bathroom. It was never hung in there because it's such a tight space and the shelf didn't really create an extra "real" storage. Well, it works perfectly here! It's the perfect display spot for the pretty bottles and it's not bulky or ugly in any way. Finally, something pretty to admire in this hallway bathroom. Ahhhhhh.