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Looking at a digital photo of our recently made-over bathroom, I was amazed once again at how well the job had turned out. We'd changed the whole appearance on a very limited budget of about $200. The goal was to cover up some garish pink paint and a slightly faded pink print wallpaper that'd been up for so long. There wasn't anything drastically wrong with it - it had just been a long time since we'd done anything to change the room, and I was weary of the look. A whole new color scheme was how we decided to go about sprucing it up.

I knew I wanted some combination of lavender, beige, and a pale green because I planned to keep the shower curtain - a fabric lavender, green, beige, and white floral design that hung on a circular tub enclosure suspended over the claw-foot bathtub. That would be the basis for the new color scheme. The pipes under the antique sink had a matching bed sheet draped and tied around them to hide the plumbing. So the new color scheme would be straightforward without too much hair-pulling indecision.

Our local paint store has a great line of Benjamin Moore paint, which is what we always use in our home. Their Historic Colors interior paint has come in handy for the many areas of our 150+ year-old home. We settled on a light heather lavender for the bottom 1/2 of the room, (there's a chair rail,) and the palest of pale greens for the top. The ceiling is white and was still in fine shape, so we left it alone. I would use a set of light sage curtains - tab top style in a cotton duck material - and a few other items already in the room. There were also dark green mini-blinds from another room to go behind the curtains. I could pick up the remaining finishing touches at Walmart or K-Mart.

We went about the repainting that took about one day. Benjamin Moore covers nicely with one coat in most places. We painted the top half of the walls, then the lower part; then we painted the antique radiator with the pale green color, and the outside of the old claw-foot bathtub, as well. So far, so good. When the painting was finished, we vacuumed the carpet which is a brown/beige tweed and fairly new, and got ready to move the accessories in. The hard work was finished, but I still had to go to the store for a few things.

Curtain rods - I selected a bronzy brushed-metal dowel with swirled end pieces. Very classy. I needed two of these. A set of dark green sink accessories - liquid soap dispenser and small plastic glass to match. I already had a nice soap dish

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