Create a Country Garden in a Basement Bathroom

It's dark, it's scary, and it's an eye sore. It's in your home, and you hate dealing with it: it's . . . your basement bathroom! I know the feeling. When I moved into our home in 2000, the basement bathroom was all of the above. My husband and I fixed it up when we were able to work the project into our limited budget. It went from being a scary, outdated eye sore to a pleasant, new gem of a room - and we did it all ourselves! We chose a garden theme for our basement bathroom. I will explain how we did it and where we found the décor to turn our outdated basement bathroom into a new country garden themed space so that you can do it, too!

First, we had to remove the old deteriorating wall paper. While the bathroom was small and did not even have a sink, (it still doesn't) removing the wall paper was quite a challenge! We peeled away and used sponges soaked in hot sudsy water to loosen decades old stubborn paper pieces. We scraped the walls down and cleaned them again -- and again.

After the walls dried completely, we installed white Marlite, from The Home Depot, instead of using wall paper. (We deliberately chose white to maximize the light in this dark space and highlight the beauty of the artwork that we chose to use.) We replaced the old ceiling light with more energy efficient bulbs and a new cover. My husband and I tore up the flooring that was falling apart and added tiles that we found on sale. (The new tiles appear white and have a faint greenish tinge that we really like.) My husband replaced the tiny cracked window with one that could open. He installed a small window shelve, too. (All of these items were purchased from The Home Depot.)

Once the construction was completed, the fun part came next: decorating! I chose a country garden theme because of our love of flower gardens. I also knew finding accents for this theme would be easy to do on limited funds. I knew, too, that some of them I could make myself from repurposed items.