When we moved into our home I had no idea how I planned to decorate. Our square footage was double the space we had in our prior townhouse and it felt overwhelming to tackle decorating. What color paint would I use? How did I define my style? What choice of interior colors did I prefer? All of those questions were overwhelming and for months I didn’t have the answers. For me, I decided to decorate each room once I had that “aha!” moment. It wasn’t until we finished our dining space that I knew we were continuing a grand millennial-coastal theme. From there, my powder room ideas began to flow.
Establishing Our Color Scheme
I knew I wanted our powder room to flow with the rest of the house. In our kitchen space, we already had hues of blues, teak wood, and white. I wanted to continue that monochromatic blue in our powder room. I wanted to create a space that was a wow factor for our guests. Joe and I decided to pick a wallpaper to provide our space uniqueness. Wallpaper is always an expensive option and something we generally shy away from to cut costs, however, the square footage in our powder room was small enough to keep us on budget.
Selecting Our Wallpaper
Looking for wallpaper choices? In my opinion, the best place to find wallpaper is on Etsy. You can find an array of unique wallpaper options while supporting a small business. There was once a time wallpaper required paste. I’m happy to say those days are long gone and there are millions of gorgeous peel and stick options. Peel and stick allow anyone to re-apply wallpaper in the event they mess up. If you are a newbie to wallpaper, I highly recommend you find a peel-and-stick wallpaper suitable for your space. We were still slightly intimidated to install ourselves so we hired a contractor to help with our wallpaper installation and board and batten. One of the biggest lessons we learned when purchasing wallpaper is to buy more than what your square footage requires. If you are using a busy pattern similar to the one we bought, you will need additional pieces to ensure it’s giving a seamless look. My recommendation is to buy your square footage amount plus a third extra to be on the safe side. Any additional pieces of wallpaper you can frame in different spaces of your home to provide a seamless look throughout your house. Another idea to use wallpaper is to install it inside bookshelves and cubbies.
For those of you looking for our installed wallpaper, you can find it here.
Selecting Board and Batten Design
Joe and I decided to install a traditional board and batten design below our wallpaper to give our colorful installation a pop. There are many different kinds of board and batten designs. It’s important to get a strong concept of what you’d like done before installing or hiring a contractor. We provided our contractor an image of what we wanted, however, it didn’t help much because the space was not the same as our powder room and he still needed the dimensions to do his job.
For those of you looking to follow our exact design, we purchased 3 1/2 PVC trim from Home Depot. Our board and batten are 18 inches apart in the center. You can find our PVC choice here.
Identifying Hardware
I believe swiping hardware can really elevate your builder-grade home. A great way to swap hardware is by selecting metallics that give your space a pop. For us, we were torn between black hardware and gold. We decided to go with a mixed metal as we already had silver throughout our house. We felt selecting the gold hardware fixtures was a cost-effective decision that would flow with the rest of our space. Swapping out mirrors, faucets, wastebasket, and toilet handles are great ways to swap out hardware and elevate your space.
For those interested in our hardware choices you can find them below.
Mirror | Wastebasket | Toilet Paper Holder | Faucet
Finalizing Your Space with Personal Touches
Finally, adding smaller items of personal touches is a great way to make a space your own and unique. A great way to do this is to add landscape pictures from traveled places or artwork of locations you desire to travel to. Are you not interested in landscape photos? Perhaps faux greenery or florals is more your style. Whatever you do, add small trinkets to tie your space together. Our wallpaper is extremely busy so we opted to not hang artwork. Instead, we purchased some faux greenery. No need to purchase pricey items for this step. My suggestion is to head to your local Target’s Bullseye section and find items that are under $5. Other great places to find lower-end decor are Ikea and The Dollar Store.
I hope our process in designing our powder room is helpful in your selection process. Always feel free to message me on Instagram for questions or guidance. I am always happy to help.
