Now, let me tell you why this bathroom cabinet of ours has me jumping out of my skin with excitement, if it isn’t already obvious.
The wood came from this barn behind our house. It just fell right off and Chris picked it up off the ground and made it into something useful.
This corner of our bathroom used to look like this a few weeks ago. Now you know why you’ve never seen it before! I was originally going to paint this old laminate cabinet white, get some new hardware and call it done. Then I asked Chris if he would mind maybe, possibly, cutting me a piece of barnwood to go in the back of the shelf, just to make it extra pretty. He suggested he just build me a whole new one out of barnwood. OK!
It didn’t hurt that I asked for help on a weekend night when Kennedy was away on a sleepover. If she’s sleeping at a friend’s house, Chris will do just about any DIY project for me for some reason. I don’t get it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t take advantage of it! DIY party at our place!
So Chris took the old one apart and reused all of the hardware (hinges, brackets, etc.) to make the new one!
He literally threw it together in about 20 minutes.
I love that the chippy red paint says “I came from a barn”, but doesn’t say “This is a red bathroom”. Well, you don’t know that because I haven’t let you see the rest of the bathroom yet, but trust me on this. (It’s done, we just have a few finishing touches to do before it’s ready to show off!)
I used mis-matched metals on the hardware and it totally makes the piece. I was worried it would be weird, but really I think it would feel weird if we had this cabinet all full of character and then all of a sudden we had this pristine-looking matchy matchy hardware. The knobs are brushed nickel and the hooks underneath are polished chrome and it just works.
So what do you think? Do you like our rustic country version of this corner of the bathroom or should we put the butterfly wallpaper back up? I think I found a couple of rolls in the basement, so I can make it happen if I need to!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.