If you’ve read The Inspired Room for a while, you might remember this vintage mint green and pink bathroom in our Seattle home! Over the six years of living here, I only mentioned this bathroom a handful of times. Yet many of you have asked me if we ever renovated it or made any changes to the space, so I wanted to share an update on what we decided to do.
Through the years, we did many big projects in this home– from replacing a sewer to new driveways, outdoor patios, and decks to a full kitchen renovation. But we also did many small updates around the house on a minimal budget of time and resources (you can see many of our befores and afters here). These simple changes including the refresh to this bathroom may not have been impressive by social media makeover standards, and some not even noticeable to anyone else, but they greatly improved our experience in the rooms.
Not every home improvement project has to be an HGTV-sized makeover to be enjoyed by the people living there! Let’s redefine Home Goals.
We had dreamed of many ideas for future updates to this bathroom — including a full renovation or a simpler and more cost-effective approach to keeping the vintage charm. There had even been the possibility we’d want to make changes someday that would involve rearranging our bedroom and bathroom floor plan, so this room remained on the back burner until the time was right or more confident decisions could be made.
As it turned out, a significant bathroom project was never elevated as a priority, and we opted instead to keep it clean and cared for.
Does anyone else ever choose clean and cared for these days? A clean and cared home is nothing to be ashamed of, friends. Sometimes, it’s the best decision for your home, family and future.
Renovations may be required or a smart way to increase a home’s value or enjoyment, but they are not always as necessary as Instagram makeovers might make us think they are.
I’m glad we didn’t jump into a big bathroom renovation project that would have proven more expensive or unnecessary in the long run. We ended up selling the home at top value, so in this case, waiting was our best decision.
This bathroom had some original charm and character that buyers may love or loathe! Sometimes, buyers might wish you hadn’t done a renovation or that you had done the opposite of whatever you chose to do. Not renovating this bathroom allowed new owners to decide if they wanted to update it, and they could do so with their preferences, style, and needs in mind.
This is what it looked like when we bought the home. As you can see by the image at the top of this post, it looked nearly the same when we bought it as when we left it! It was clean, functional, and mostly well cared for, which really are the most important things in a sale (as well as for life, right?).
As we lived in the home, some of the updates the previous owner had done to clean it up before we bought the home began to show wear and tear. And some things she hadn’t taken care of were fixed by us. That’s how it is with any home, old or new; whether you renovate or not, you’ll have an ongoing project to keep it clean and well cared for. Clean and cared for is always a wise investment.
Here are seven simple updates we made to our mint green and pink bathroom!
- Repainted the bathroom walls and ceiling with a fresh coat of white paint (Simply White by Benjamin Moore).
- Replaced hardware (we added black knobs on the vanity and new black doorknob to coordinate the look with the rest of the home)
- Swapped the vanity lights (the existing fixture was broken and not original to the house, so we found a replacement that complimented the style of lighting in the adjoining hall and a size and shape that would work with the existing wiring to make it easy for us to install). The lights were from Barn Light Electric.
- Fixed broken things such as the light, these mirror screws/covers and caulking around sink.
- Put up this new shower curtain in black and white.
- Added a small throw rug to cozy up the tile floors.
- Brought warmth through texture in bamboo blinds, wood stool, basket for towels, greenery and a window shutter for privacy and exterior style consistency.
What more could we have done had we decided to stay in the home longer? Even without choosing a full renovation, we likely would have continued to complete simple updates like switching out faucets, replacing the large mirror, surfacing the pink tub, and replacing the vanity! Perhaps adding a fun wallpaper. The tile on the floor wasn’t in perfect shape, so perhaps some more repair there, or replacing it in time would’ve been another project we would have considered.
Slow and steady, clean and cared for. Those are inspiring home GOALS, too!
This is where our story of the pink and green bathroom ended. While I didn’t choose to update this bathroom more extensively, I have no regrets.
We made the best decisions we could for our family while owning this home, and selling it when we did brought us to where we are today, where we truly believe we are meant to be in this season of our lives. (You can read the 3 part story of our move here).
I hope the tale of this bathroom inspires you to consider your own home goals. Perhaps it will help you to consider the possibility that, at times, doing less might be more. Choosing clean and fresh rather than all new is not a decision to be embarrassed by if it is the right choice for you. And to remember that slow and steady updates make progress doable, affordable and practical.
