Antique wood in the bath...

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share some changes in one of our bathrooms.

Below are some before photos of a couple different looks I have tried...

This was several years ago before I replaced the faucet with a new one from Overstock.com.

So here's what we did. I found these tongue and groove boards from one of the old houses here stored away and really wanted to use them. According to my dad, because these have been painted, they were probably in the "little" house they stayed in in the winter. It was across from the "big" house and much smaller, which meant easier to heat in the cold, mountain winters.

Luis put the boards up for me after installing a reclaimed baseboard from the "big" house. Using old wood is not that easy. It is usually not straight, or level or anything so it takes some planning and adjusting to make it work. Just ask my husband. I told him he should be glad he's not making these boards from a tree, like I have asked him to do in the past;-)

We then added some crown moulding also from the old house and a rail made from walnut, which he did make from a tree that my dad had cut many years ago. When I say I recycle and reclaim, I really mean that. After cleaning this wood, I finished it with a coat of light Minwax finishing wax. Oh how I love it.

I then decided that the white doors and trim didn't work, so I painted the doors and the rest of the trim "Espresso" by American Accents. There are old doors stored away, but I cannot get to them -- yet.

This was what we ended up with. I just added some artwork I had here.

I made the shower curtain several weeks ago after making the ruffled sink curtain for the kitchen. I added another layer and a Waverly print to this one. It kind of has a Bohemian look to me.

I used curtain hooks to hang it. You would think I could straighten out the hooks before taking a photo! I only gathered the second layer because it would have been huge at the bottom. This way it still has a ruffled look without so much fabric.

Then we trimmed out the bland mirror with wormy chestnut trim.

This is the only bathroom with satin nickel fixtures. I had planned on bronze, but after finding this faucet and then the light fixture with the same shape, I decided on this. Now that I have all the darker wood, I'm glad I have lighter, more modern fixtures. It kind of balances the old and dark elements. I love old, but not too much of it in one place.

This is a small room but it feels so much larger now.

I thought I was finished.

Then I kept imagining another window from the old house, so off to my dad's garage I went. He had actually gotten one ready for me several months ago that I had not used. Then I felt the call to go shopping in my parent's basement and found this chalk drawing from 1916.

After doing some research, I found the artist, Louis Rowell, had been in Western NC mostly painting watercolors in the early 1900s. This chalk drawing was done near my great grandmother's house and is of Doubletop Mountain here.