Hi!  I’m Jen and I blog over at Twiddler House.  I’m a mama to twin boys and you can usually find me up to my elbows in super heroes, legos, light sabers, race cars and blanket forts.  I find joy in making things pretty – be it my home, a gift for someone special, or just a little something for fun.  I’m so excited to be sharing my ideas with you here at “Or so she says!” I hope you’ll stop by and check out my other projects – and please take the time to say hello!  I love making new friends in the blogging world!

You know how sometimes you finish a project and you’re just so very proud of yourself for A) getting it done in the first place and B) having it turn out as well in real life as it looked in your head?  {Or is that just me?}

Well, that’s how I feel about my new bathroom.

I love it.  I love the color, the fresh, beachy feeling it has, and I especially love all the little details that bring it all together.  {Although I have to admit, there was a moment yesterday when I realized that I had spent all that time and effort making a lovely place to…scrub toilets and wipe bottoms.  Yup, mommyhood marches on.}

Anyway, I thought I’d share a close-up view of a few of the details that really make my heart sing in this bathroom…

First there was our fake-o board and batten treatment.  There are moments in these projects of mine when my husband looks at me as if I might have finally lost it.  Like when our wall looked like this…

He just doesn’t have my vision. 😉


But I had seen enough of these wall treatments around the blog world to know it would all be worth it in the end.  We were both pretty pleased when it turned out looking like this…

Then there’s the towel hooks.  I am so excited about these – and the possibility that we might actually be able to hang up our towels now, instead of leaving them on the floor!  Woo-hoo!

I found these letter hooks at Michael’s a while back, for only $1 each!  And I knew just what to do with them…

I dressed them up with a little Mod-Podge and some cute “oceany” scrapbook paper, layered a bit more Mod-Podge over the top to seal it, and lightly sanded the edges down for a slightly distressed look.  Voila!  Personalized towel hooks!

I took it a step further and made monogram towels for each boy, as well.  {A tip I saw on HowDoesShe a while back.}  I just used a bit of blue fabric and some fusible webbing.  I cut out the letters and ironed them on, then zig-zag stitched around the edges to finish it off. 

We told each boy that he now has his own towel and is own hook, so he can be responsible for making sure the towels go back where they belong, not on the floor.  It’s only been a week, but so far so good! Yay!

And let’s not forget the decorative details.  Like my stenciled burlap sign, which might be my very favorite thing in this room:

The quote is from “Beach Boy” Dennis Wilson.  I used freezer paper stenciling to paint the burlap, then I dug out and old frame and gave it some primer and a coat of our wall color paint.  When it was done it was just so pretty I wanted to stare at it for hours. 😉  The shells in the vase are ones my boys collected on one of their very first beach trips, and the rocks were treasures they brought home from the ocean as well.

{Funny story:  I had just finished cutting out the stencil and painting the frame when I hopped on the computer while the paint dried.  And what did I see?  My friend Laurie’s sneak peek of her gorgeous burlap subway art.  I about died laughing!  Are we on the same wavelength or what?  I like to think we have some kind of crafty ESP.  Or maybe it’s just that burlap rocks and everyone knows it!  If you haven’t seen it yet, you HAVE to go check it out.  It’s beautiful!  Take that, JoAnn’s ladies!}

We framed out the mirror with baseboard molding, something my grandma had done years ago {before it was cool – haha!} and I had been wanting to do ever since.

We also framed and hung some cute beach pics of the boys.

And remember my wood pallet art project?  I loved it so much, I decided to use some of the leftover wood to make this “driftwood” beach sign:

And yes, the arrow does actually point in the right direction. 😉

So there you have it!  I am absolutely in love with every single detail in this room.  I would say it’s now my favorite room in the house, but that seems like a funny thing to say about a bathroom. 😉

Thanks for taking the tour with me!  Hope you enjoyed it!
~ Jen