We were able to turn this kid’s bathroom around pretty quickly because it was more of a redecoration than a renovation. Here are the before and after shots:

Before:

After:

The shower curtain came from Urban Outfitters. I chose these Pottery Barn towels because the dots coordinated with the constellation dots in the shower curtain. We also swapped out the toilet seat to make it match the toilet — the other one was inexplicably beige.

The “So Many Stars” Andy Warhol print has always been one of my favorites.

Before:

After:

All we did here was add a mirror over the sink.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

We used star decals on the wall because they are less permanent than wallpaper. It seemed like a good idea, but spacing them turned out to be a huge pain. We measured the whole wall, planned how to space them appropriately, and set to work– applying the decal, measuring down and across from the center of it, and placing the next star. It was ridiculous. Yes, it looks great, but I think my mom contemplated filicide halfway through this project. So be forewarned if decals seem like a swell idea to you–go random with the pattern or be prepared to hide sharp objects from the person doing the frustrating measurements. They will cut you.

This bathroom is connected to the dinosaur-themed bedroom. Since the bedroom is so firmly rooted in terra firma (what with the green walls and the dino accessories), I decided to go celestial in the bathroom.

I wanted an element in each room that hinted toward the theme in the other. In the bedroom, I chose a star-shaped overhead light, which is one of my favorite things in the house.

And in the bathroom, I went with a toilet dinosaur. (Yes, I’ll explain.) Here’s what you do. Take a standard Apatosaurus toy.

Spray paint it silver.

Add an extra roll of toilet paper to his neck.

And there you have it. Toilet dino.

This was a fairly straightforward redo because we decided to keep the white tile and fixtures. They are still in good shape and, after all, this is a 5-year-old’s room. He doesn’t need a luxe toilet. (You have to be out of diapers for at least 10 years before you qualify for one of those. Thems the rules.)

Step one was bleaching the joint from top to bottom, which made a huge difference. Then we painted the walls (Charlotte Slate by Benjamin Moore) and stained the unstained door to match the doors in the bedroom. (I forgot to take before photos of the door. Just imagine an untreated wood door. Now look at this after shot. Amazing, right?)

Then I wanted to replace the white towel racks so we could go with silver fixtures. This should have been easy. Andy went over one night to work on the house before we moved in, and I received this text:

“Tried to remove the towel rack. This happened. I have to stop now because I have lost my will to live.”

This was one of many projects that should have been a cinch and then turned into a frustrating nightmare. For whatever reason, these towel racks were installed to withstand chin-ups. So then there was a night of patching the hole, followed by a night of repainting. All for a silver towel rack. Worth it? Probably not. But once there are gaping holes in the wall, there’s really no going back.

We designated the bedroom with the ensuite bath for our five-year-old son, using the sound logic that he was our only potty-trained child at the time. This bathroom was added during a previous renovation, probably in the late 1980s. Luckily the fixtures are inoffensively white and in decent shape, but as you can see, everything was in need of a good scrubbing.

Here are the before pics: