Stunning Powder Room Makeovers

Your guest bathroom, or powder room, offers a great place to start with a home makeover. This small room takes less money and effort to redecorate than your larger rooms. You get a chance to develop you personal home interior design skills without committing to a huge project.

Because guests view this little space privately, they take more time to notice the interior design details. For this reason, you want to showcase great design to make a good impression. Also, hospitality shines in a well-appointed guest bath where it takes just a couple of splurges on extravagant fixtures to make a huge impact that your guests will remember. Guests may not remember your living room walls because they're focusing on the people in the space, but they will remember your powder room.

What if you don't have a powder room and guests use your children's bathroom?

Don't use juvenile-patterned wallpaper or accessories. Children appreciate being treated as adults and don't need a kiddy bathroom. Keep bathtub toys in the bathtub (in one of those plastic-coated wire baskets) and hang a ceiling to floor curtain in front of the bathtub. This curtain can be hung in front of the normal plastic liner from the ceiling. For small bathrooms, where the daylight comes in over the bathtub, use white or another light-emitting fabric. A curtain made of soft gauze or cotton does double duty; it softens the space with fabric while masking the bathtub, which is not a guest bath feature.

To finish any proper powder room, you need a great sink, faucet, and cabinet with a large mirror, plus the toilet.

* If you're working on a budget, look for sinks on sale at a warehouse store or at Habitat for Humanity's thrift store, ReStore.

* Don't buy a cheap cabinet, look for an antique dresser or buffet that spans the wall nicely.

* Stunning powder rooms highlight unusual mirrors; you may be tempted to keep the ugly wall mounted medicine cabinet, but if you truly want an impressive guest bath, try to store toothbrushes and other necessities in the cabinet below and move medicines to the kitchen, out of children's reach.

* For stubborn-stained toilets, you can use the swimming pool chemical muractic acid, with a lot of ventilation. If you need to replace the toilet, which only needs to be functional because the other details will outshine it, look for a toilet which blends in with your home's style.

Besides the fixtures, your flooring, walls, and ceiling offer the most economical home makeover opportunities.

* Because of the small area, you can use large ceramic tiles that mimic stone, marble, or even wood. Also, linoleum comes in a multitude of interesting patterns and has the benefit of being warmer to bare feet than tile.

The area that makes the greatest impact, the walls and ceiling, gives the best place to have fun with your home makeover.

* Decorative paint finishes, like subtle layering of glazes, add the designer's touch without the expense. Choose colors that harmonize with the rest of your home to reinforce your color theme. Use color psychology to make your powder room present a cooling oasis or a warming shelter.

Because people fee more comfortable in smaller bathrooms which offer privacy, a small bathroom offers the perfect place to practice your design skills.

Copyright (c) 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher
For more information on feelings in home makeovers, see http://designpsych.com/ Jeanette's business website: Joy to the Home