Basement bathroom makeover!

When we moved into our house, the basement bathroom was kind of the house's dirty little secret. It was in definite need of some help. The previous owners had done some patching in there and I didn't repaint. On top of that, it had an old claw-foot tub that had been painted a textural pink, the existing wall colour was a soft peach, and the vanity brought back memory of our previous kitchen with it's melamine/oak cabinets. Joe said it was maybe the ugliest bathroom in the history of the world. (But really...did he forget our old bathroom in our old place before we painted it??!)
 

The strangest thing of all might have been the window... or lack thereof. Instead of a window there was a piece of Styrofoam in front of a storm window. For some reason it glowed red. It reminded me of Amsterdam come nighttime. Definitely not the vibe I generally go for in my home.

I didn't think the bathroom was going to be anywhere near the top of my to-do list, but then we got the basement windows replaced and I felt like it wasn't an impossible task. Then, I was going through all of the paints we have (leftovers from previous projects, and paints left by the previous owner) and realized that we could easily improve the look of the bathroom for free. With paint. So I did.

I started by painting the tub with a shiny black that was leftover from a previous project. Then I painted the trim and ceiling with the white I used in our old bathrooms, and the walls with leftover gray from the upstairs bathroom. I also painted the oak trim on the vanity, which hugely improved it's look without needing to replace it quite yet.

I put up some art we had and some matching hand towels, and voilà! It actually looks decent. 

Of course, if I actually want it to be a nice washroom I would still need to replace the yellowed floors, the vanity and the old toilet, but for now it is just right!