Making a splash in the master bath

Remember our boring master bathroom?  Here's a quick refresher of what it looked like up until recently:

Actually, that was a photo taken right when we moved in -- before we started using the soaker tub as a place to drape clothes and collect dust bunnies.

In an effort to spruce up the bathroom a bit, I bought some vinyl wall lettering at Hobby Lobby back in February (yes, that's right, February). I'd always wanted to see if these things would work on our textured walls, and since it was half off, I figured it was a good time to try it out!

Here's a close-up of our textured walls. The instructions claimed that the "vinyl lettering can be applied to most non-porous smooth or semi-smooth surfaces. You may find some difficulty applying vinyl lettering to ... painted surfaces in which flat paint was used, or heavily textured walls."

My beautification plan also involved having some sort of decorative shelf below the phrase, to give it some weight and fill up the wall more. So I found two super-cheap brackets at a "damaged freight" store that also carried lots of hardware (discontinued, I'm guessing). These wouldn't be my first choice if money was no object, but they were good quality, and they've since grown on me a little.

Then, work got crazy busy and my brackets and vinyl words sat on the edge of the tub until just last week, when I finally had the time and motivation to get this project started (and finished).

After I decided where I wanted the shelf, I drilled the brackets into the wall (with Luke's help). I did use wall anchors, since we didn't hit the studs, and both the brackets and shelf were pretty heavy. We have a bunch of random wood in our garage that we've acquired from various sources, so it was no problem to find a piece for Luke to cut to the size I wanted. I just slapped a few coats of white paint on it (plus a clear gloss coat) and it was ready to go.

Now I just needed my words! So I got out the level, marked up the wall to get the positioning, and proceeded to see if the vinyl letters would stick to the textured surface. The words come with an "applicator," which is essentially a small piece of plastic, to smooth the vinyl over the wall. But it took a little extra work with my fingers to smooth them over and push them into the tiny grooves in the wall. They still don't lay completely flat, but you can't really tell unless you get up close.

The shelf doesn't really serve a functional purpose, so I searched the house for a couple of decorative items to place on it. I ended up with a cylinder vase filled with sand and some shells that Luke brought back from his trip to Europe, a couple of beach chair photo frames with photos from our honeymoon, and some recycled glass tealight holders. I might switch things up every once in awhile, but this works for now.

Lazy Alert: I haven't even screwed the shelf onto the brackets; I just set it on top of them. Aside from being lazy, I figure if I ever want to re-use the shelf for something else, it won't have holes in it. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.

Phoebe approves. And hopefully she doesn't try to jump onto the shelf.

Cost of project:

Vinyl lettering - $12.50

Brackets - $6

Shelf - already had wood on hand

Paint - already had on hand from the guest room furniture

Decorative items - already had on hand

Total - about $18.50

Now when I wake up and go into our bathroom for my morning routine, it's nice being able to look at something besides a blank wall. I think this adds a little bit of fun and whimsy. Who knows, maybe it will even encourage us to actually use our soaker tub for what it was intended for! And if not, hopefully it will at least make me want to keep it nice and clean (sans clothes and dust bunnies).

I'm kind of digging the vinyl wall lettering, too. I might even put another phrase or two somewhere else in our house. Anyone else use these?