Year of the House: Half Bath Update, Number Gazillion

It has been a while since I've updated you with our home improvement projects. And quite frankly, as the Year of the House is coming to an end, we're running out of money to continue our Year of the House renovations. That being said, we've been able to get a lot done this year in order to make our row house our own.

The one project that has been a very slow process has been our half bath on the first floor. After painting it when we first moved in, with plans for putting down earthy brown tiles and wood trim, the half bath looked like this.

After a trip to the flooring store, and nearly buying new tiles to replace the ugly black squares that existed when we moved in, we decided to go with a cork floor instead. In addition, we decided to put in wood paneling in a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired fashion.

After the flooring and panels were installed, we decided that the paint color was too similar to some of the tones in the cork flooring and the maple wood we had used, so we decided to choose a new paint color. We wanted something rich that would bring out the tones in the wood. In addition, we decided to use a very light, natural stain to give the wood paneling a final touch. We decided upon a rich aqua blue paint and are extremely happy with the final result.

We love the final look of the half bath so far, but we have a few more things that we need to finish yet. We'd like to change out the fixtures to something not quite as traditional. We're also going to change out the light fixtures as well to something in the arts and crafts vein. Finally, the mirror that used to hang behind the sink will be framed in maple and stained to match before being rehung. For now though, this half bath project is pretty close to done.

What do think of the final project? What home improvement projects have you been working on lately?