Cottage

I Covered My Bathroom Floor with Tile Stickers. Here’s How It Went.

March 17, 2026 by Bre 1 Comment

The floor tile in my cottage’s loft bathroom and laundry room was in great shape, and it wasn’t ugly. But . . . it needed a little something.

The room was essentially a white box, and I wanted to give it personality without tearing anything out.

Before: an all white bathroom was boring and plain. Tile decal stickers gave it a whole new look. — BEFORE: The loft bathroom and laundry room was almost all white. I painted stripes on the walls and then got to work putting down peel and stick tile decals.

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Having installed peel-and-stick floor tiles in my sister’s kitchen five years earlier, I wondered if that would be an option for this bathroom. But because those were more akin to real tiles with thickness to them, I knew they wouldn’t work on top of the tiles already in this space.

So I settled on waterproof tile stickers, or tile decals, which are very thin and can be placed right on top of the preexisting floor tiles.

Products Used in This Post

Prepare for tile sticker installation

To get the floor ready for installation, I first vacuumed and then cleaned the tiles and grout with Krud Kutter.

Krud Kutter is the cleaner I use before almost all of my painting projects. It does an amazing job and doesn’t leave any residue, so I was confident it would be a good choice before putting down tile stickers.

Mix up the tile stickers

Next, I opened all of the tile sticker packages and mixed up the decals from the various packages. I did this to be sure that if any of the colors varied from package to package, they’d blend in and not stand out in sections of the bathroom.

Start with full tiles

The next part was easy and went quickly. I started with the full tiles where no cutting is required, and placed the tile stickers.

The preexisting floor tiles in this room measured 8″ x 8″, so these tile decals, which were slightly smaller than that, were the perfect size for my tiles in that they didn’t require me to trim them to fit full tiles. It’s good for the decals to be slightly smaller than the preexisting tiles so that they don’t hang off the edges.

I took care to ensure that each sticker made contact with the entire tile. (You don’t want any edges hanging off, or your socks or shoes will snag on the corners.)

My process was removing the paper backing from the tile, placing the sticker on top of the tile, and rolling over it with a brayer to make sure the decal’s adhesive made good contact with the tile.

Cut and place partial tile stickers

Then it came time to cut and place the partial tile decals. For this part, I used white copy paper, a ruler, a pencil, and scissors.

Essentially, I traced a full tile onto a piece of copy paper and cut it to size. Then I laid that paper on top of the partial tile on the floor, and traced along the edges that needed to be cut.

I then cut those parts of the copy paper and traced them onto the front of the tile decal. I cut out the tile decal to shape and placed it just as before.

The copy paper worked great, including around the base of the toilet. But a contour gauge would also be helpful for even more precise lines.

The finished bathroom floor

This took me about five hours from start to finish, and I absolutely adore the charming look these adhesive tile decals gave this space.

Of course, I don’t expect that these tile sticker decals will last forever, but they’re inexpensive and a relatively quick way to update a bathroom, so that’s fine with me.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below, and tell me what you think of this room’s new look! And don’t forget to share this image on Pinterest to share this post with others!

Mirrored Medicine Cabinet and Hollywood Vanity Light Makeover

February 18, 2026 by Bre Leave a Comment

If you have a mirrored medicine cabinet and/or Hollywood vanity light in need of a new look, this easy DIY makeover might do the trick.

Our tiny lake cottage has a super small bathroom and laundry room cleverly packed into the loft. Complete with a very slanted ceiling and an extra small footprint, it is actually one of the main reasons we purchased this cottage.

Most of the properties we looked at only had one bathroom, and if they had laundry machines at all, they were in weird places, like the crawl space.

So, even though some might not view this particular bathroom or laundry room as ideal, I love it!

I recently set out to give it a makeover (more on that soon), and one of the projects was refreshing this existing mirrored medicine cabinet and Hollywood-style vanity light.

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Why not replace them with a new mirror and new light?

Because I know you’re wondering why I didn’t just rip out this medicine cabinet and vanity light, I’ll tell you!

First, with such a small cottage, we need all the storage we can get. A medicine cabinet was a must-have in here.

Next, the slant of the ceiling makes it so that a regular-sized mirror and a separate vanity light would not fit. The mirror would be too short.

Finally, I like a challenge. I wanted to see what I could come up with.

So here we are.

Peel and stick mirror trim

The edges of this mirrored medicine cabinet were becoming discolored (getting those black or brown splotches along the bevel). That’s not a huge deal, as desilvering happens to mirrors all the time.

But I found this cool peel-and-stick trim for mirrors and decided to try it out here. It sort of reminded me of my mirror wall makeover, except there I used tape, which was totally flat. This mirror trim has more heft to it and looks more like trim.

It was easy to cut with scissors and press onto the face of the mirror, and it gave it an updated look right off the bat. I chose the matte gold finish, but it comes in other colors, too.

Hollywood light fixture makeover

The next part of this project was giving the dated vanity light a makeover. I had several ideas rolling around my brain, but none was going to work quite right. It took a lot of trial and error, but I eventually came up with this solution, which took into account a couple of important factors:

Any light embellishments did not interfere with the functionality of the medicine cabinet or hit the sloped ceiling, and
The light bulbs could still be incandescent (this fixture would not accept LED lights. Trust me, I tried). Incandescent bulbs are hot, whereas LED are not, so I had to be cautious about heat and starting a fire.

I found glass candle wax catchers (the fancy name for them is “bobeche”) and decided they were exactly what I needed.

I applied Rub n Buff in the shade Gold Leaf around the edges and backs of the bobeches, and super-glued them to the part of the fixture where the light bulbs screw in (which I also applied Rub n Buff to on the outside only).

With new, clear incandescent bulbs, the Hollywood vanity light looked less 1980’s Glamour Shots chic and more, well, cute.

Shop My Mirror & Vanity Light Makeover Supplies

In the end, would I rather have a new mirror and vanity light? Probably. But I’m glad to have come up with a creative solution to work with what I already have. I’d so much rather save the cash!

I’d love to hear what you think about this makeover, so please leave me a comment, share this on Pinterest, or find me on social media @averagebutinspired.

Cozy Cottage Bathroom with Vintage Charm

April 17, 2025 by Bre 2 Comments

A dated lake cottage bathroom gets a cozy makeover with vintage charm.

Although our lake cottage is teeny tiny (around 700 square feet), one of the reasons we chose it is because it has two bathrooms.

Neither is luxurious, but the good thing is that neither was in bad shape or terribly ugly, either!

With some elbow grease, paint, and new accessories, I was able to infuse the main bathroom with some personality and a bit more functionality, too! And it was all on a pretty low budget, which makes it even more impressive (I think).

I’m excited to show it to you and hear what you think!

The Cottage Bathroom Before The Makeover

The main bathroom is right off the living area, and it’s visible from that room.

Its main features were an interesting tile pattern in the shower, a medicine cabinet that was held together with duct tape, and a laminate vanity and over-the-toilet cabinet.

Painting the Builder-Grade Vanity

The vanity was in great shape, but it was not the nicest vanity in the world. The sides were like a sticker – they were not wood veneer like the cabinet fronts.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my disclosure policy. In addition, some items were generously gifted to me by Lowe’s and Moen. Thank you to those companies for their support!

I cleaned the vanity with Krud Kutter (my favorite pre-paint cleaner), scuff sanded it, and then painted it with two coats of my favorite one-step paint.

(In between coats, I started to disassemble the medicine cabinet, too!)

I used Heirloom Traditions in Spruce for this vanity, and I LOVE it. It’s a deep blue green shade that looks really sophisticated.

Because the paint is fast-drying and doesn’t require a topcoat, I was able to finish the vanity in just a few hours.

Color Drenching the Walls, Ceiling, and Trim

Once my husband was able to come down here with me, he finished up the medicine cabinet and vanity light removal.

When he got that down, we found that the light wiring wasn’t actually centered over the vanity. Great. Another project. Womp womp.

I filled the holes left behind by the medicine cabinet, washed the walls, and got to painting.

I chose Wedgewood Gray by Benjamin Moore, but I had it mixed in Behr paint to save some cash.

I painted the walls, ceiling, trim, and over-the-toilet cabinet all the same color to make it feel extra cozy in here. The designer-types call this color drenching. And apparently it’s great in a small bathroom- from what they tell me.

At this point, I was sick of painting, and my neck hurt from painting the ceiling, so I decided to put up the new mirror to make me feel better about this bathroom.

Although we need all the storage we can get in here, I couldn’t find a medicine cabinet I love, so I chose a pretty wood mirror instead. I liked the soft wood tone and scalloped corners of this mirror, and when I hung it up, I felt so much better about this space!

Changing the Vanity Light and Adding Cottage-Style Details

We came back another day for my husband to move that light box. We also swapped the shower head and added a towel bar under the over-the-toilet cabinet so we’d have a place to hang hand towels.

Then I decided to add the CUTEST scalloped wood trim to the bottom of the cabinet over the toilet.

I really prefer shelves over a toilet, but we had to keep this cabinet. We need the storage! So I figured I’d at least infuse a little of my love for scallops in here! (Check out the adorable DIY scallop shelf I built for our primary bedroom at the cottage!)

My husband walked me through how to hang the vanity light (spoiler alert: it was much easier than I thought it would be), and it only took me buying three lights to finally settle on this brass two-bulb vanity light.

I love how the brass/gold adds more warmth to contrast the cool paint colors and the chrome fixtures.

Then I did a bunch of little things like adding new mother-of-pearl cabinet knobs, hanging a pretty plaid shower curtain, displaying thrifted art that I’ve been stockpiling, and hanging up cute gingham hand towels (that will only be used for pictures and when we have guests – IYKYK!).

Changing the Faucet

Finally, I had the privilege of partnering with Moen for a video on Instagram, and I changed a faucet for the very first time!

It wasn’t the easiest project, but it wasn’t too awful either. I needed some help from my husband to get the supply lines loosened and then also reconnected at the end. I made a lot of weird faces during the process.

But the swap from that builder-grade faucet to this high-arc chrome stunner actually made a huge difference in here!

The Cozy Cottage Bathroom is Complete

In the end, I’m super happy with how this budget bathroom refresh turned out!

I think I succeeded in giving it some style without going overboard.

Even though all of the “bones” in here are exactly the same, it feels totally different.

Thank you for checking it out and seeing how my hard work came together!

Shop the Bathroom | Items I Used Here

In case it’s helpful, here’s a list of the products I used to bring together this cozy cottage bathroom style.

Thanks for visiting! Be sure to let me know what you think of this makeover or ask me any questions in the comments!

Vintage-Look Green Painted Table for a Cottage Bunk Room

February 20, 2025 by Bre 2 Comments

A hand-me-down table got a new, old look with kelly green paint and distressing.

I love having friends who think of me for their furniture castoffs. I am the designated collector of junk, after all.

Recently my friend, Megan, passed along this little vanity that her daughter no longer used.

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While I have no need for a vanity (let’s just say I’m pretty low maintenance), I did have a need for a small desk at the lake cottage.

Although I really don’t want people working there, I know there will be times someone needs to do homework or send an email. So I decided this piece would become the designated work spot.

And while it was cute with its glossy mint green paint, it wasn’t exactly the look I needed. I felt that a distressed painted finish in a vintage kelly green color was the direction we needed to go.

The Vintage Table Makeover

I started by stripping the gloss paint off with this low-odor paint stripper. Within thirty minutes most of the paint on top was bubbled and ready ready to come right off.

The paint scraped off very easily on the top, but on the legs it was as if the paint stripper had started to freeze!

I brought the table inside and wiped it down with mineral spirits to get the remaining paint stripper off, and then I took the table to the garage to sand it.

Check Out More Of My Furniture Makeovers!

Since I wanted a vintage look, I wasn’t concerned about removing all of the paint. I didn’t expect the table legs to look so awful though! They were definitely paint-grade wood and not meant to be stripped and re-stained.

Oops.

Oh well. I carried on and found the most perfect shade of vintage kelly green chalk paint at Michaels.

I applied a coat with a round paintbrush and then used my orbital sander with 220-grit sandpaper to remove some of that first coat of paint.

I took off a little too much paint, so I dry brushed on another coat of green. Once I that second coat of paint dried, I applied a thin layer of clear wax to the table to help protect the new paint job.

This wax isn’t my favorite furniture wax, but it’s pretty good. I like to use it when I’m working indoors because it has no odor at all.

I then added new hardware to the drawer (it was actually the hardware from a 1927 window in our old home), and blue gingham cardstock to line the drawer.

The Vintage-Look Green Painted Table

This newly-made over desk or table fit perfectly in front of the window in one of the cottage bedrooms.

The distressing on the finish is just what this piece needed.

And the kelly green reminds me of a color you’d see used in an old cabin. I think it’s so charming!

I love how it turned out and I’m thankful it was the perfect size for this cozy cottage bedroom.

What do you think of it’s new look? Can it pass for an old table?

DIY Headboard: Repurpose Cabinet Doors

January 6, 2025 by Bre 4 Comments

If you’re looking for a creative way to upcycle cabinet doors, look no further! This DIY headboard is a great way to repurpose cabinet doors in a stylish way.

The stack of cabinet doors sat in my basement for almost five years.

And about every six months my husband would ask, “do we really need to hang onto these doors?”

I had removed them back in 2020 when I refinished our built-in china cabinet and replaced them with an updated style. But I hung onto them “just in case.”

I promised him I’d think of something to use those old doors for . . . I just didn’t say when.

Well . . . finally . . . at the end of 2024 I had an idea for two of them. I would turn them into a wall-mounted twin headboard for the loft space at our cottage!

I loved this idea because it would help “furnish” a really tricky spot in the cottage (low and slanted ceiling), and hardly cost a thing!

Supplies Used to Create an Upcycled Cabinet Door Headboard

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Cabinet doors (you can find these at Habitat for Humanity ReStores or salvage shops)
1×2 pine board
Wood glue
Wood filler
Clamps
Mending braces
D-ring hangers
Paint
Screws
Electric sander (220 grit sandpaper)
Drill
Circular saw (or hand saw and miter box)

How I Made a DIY Headboard from Cabinet Doors

I started by cleaning and lightly sanding the cabinet doors with my electric sander and 220-grit sandpaper. I did this to scuff up the existing finish so that the doors would be better prepared for paint.

Next, I figured out that a standard twin-sized headboard is 41″ wide. Two of my cabinet doors together were a little over 39″ wide. So, I put a scrap 1×2 in between them and cut it down to the same height as the doors.

Since I only had this one piece of wood and I was nervous about making a jagged cut with my circular saw, I went the old-fashioned route and cut it by hand with a saw and miter box. It wasn’t the most efficient, but I got a clean cut!

Next, I ran a thin line of wood glue on each side of the 1×2, and pressed it between the cabinet doors. I then clamped it all together in two places.

I also put wood filler in the hardware holes.

Once everything was dry, I flipped it over and attached five-inch mending braces to the back. I’m not sure if this was truly necessary, but I figured it couldn’t hurt in holding everything together.

I should have bought longer braces so that they could be screwed into both sides of the cabinet and the 1×2. Because these were too short to do that, I staggered them, with each being fastened into one cabinet door and the 1×2.

I also attached two large D-ring hangers on the upper back corners. This would allow me to hang the headboard on the wall.

Finally, I flipped the piece back over and painted it with one-step paint that was left over from my kids’ bathroom vanity makeover. With two coats of paint, it was ready to go.

The Finished Cabinet Doors Headboard

I installed anchors in the wall and hung the headboard at the perfect height for this loft bed that rests on a 3″ bed frame. (Can you believe they make bed frames that are so low to the ground?)

I mean, come on! Tell me that is not cute!

I am so glad I saved those cabinet doors all those years. It was definitely worth it (to me, at least – ha!).

Watch Me Build This Headboard! See The DIY Cabinet Doors Headboard Video on YouTube.

This DIY headboard project could easily be modified to accommodate any size bed: with the addition of more cabinet doors and/or wider wood pieces, you could make even a King-size headboard!

Alright, so the big question now is what should I make with the four remaining cabinet doors? Tell me in the comments!

DIY Scalloped Shelf with Hooks

November 5, 2024 by Bre 3 Comments

Learn how to make the cutest wall shelf with hooks! This DIY scalloped shelf with hooks is functional and adorable.

When it comes to home decor, nothing is as sweet as scallops! While I, personally, love scalloped detailing on any piece, I have to use it sparingly. My husband is less of a fan – lol!

That didn’t stop me from making this totally adorable scalloped shelf with hooks for our lake cottage, however.

I knew that this was going to add a much-needed place to hang bags, hats, etc., and it would look perfect in our bedroom.

So I got to work making this piece from scrap wood, and I’m happy to fill you in on how to do it, too!

DIY Scalloped Shelf Supplies

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

1×8 pine board
1×4 pine board
circular object (I used a 6″ round wood cutout)
jigsaw
circular saw
large clamps
brad nailer
1″ brad nails
drill
electric sander
80-grit sandpaper
wood glue
wall hooks & screws (these gold flower wall hooks are the ones shown in this post)
wood stain in color of your choice
tape measure
pencil
Optional: hanging hardware like d-ring hangers

How to Make a DIY Scalloped Shelf with Hooks

You can put together this scalloped wall shelf with hooks in an afternoon! It’s a quick project that goes together easily.

Cut Boards to Size

I wanted this shelf to be 30″ long, so I cut a 1×8 pine board to size with my circular saw.

This board was left over from the DIY floating shelves I hung over the basement dry bar I built earlier this year! I stained it at that time with water-based walnut stain.

Then, I cut down the 1×4 pine board to the same length with the circular saw.

Create the Scallop Edge Detail

On the 1×8 pine board, I used a 6″ round wood cutout to trace semi-circles at the bottom of the board.

I found the center of the board (in this case, 15″) and aligned the left edge of the circle at that 15″ mark. Doing this meant that the center of the board had the upper edge of a scallop.

I then traced to the right of that semi-circle. That gave me another full scallop. And then one more time, which gave me a partial scallop at the end of the board.

I repeated this to the left of center, too.

Once I had the scallops drawn on the board, I set the jigsaw to the maximum depth and cut along that edge to create the scallops on the shelf board.

This looked totally awesome (go me!), but to smooth out the scallops a bit, I used my small electric sander with 80-grit sandpaper to make them even more rounded.

Attach Hanging Hardware (if Using)

I decided to attach d-ring hangers to the back of the wall hook board so that I could hang this on the wall without removing any of the wall hooks (more on that below).

BUT . . . I feel like the d-ring hangers aren’t the ideal method of hanging. When hanging objects on the hooks, the backer board moves around more on the wall than I’d like it to. And since I display things on the top shelf, that’s not ideal.

So, I’m going to re-hang this by removing two hooks, putting wall anchors into the wall where two of the hooks go, and attaching the hooks through the wood backer board into the wall.

If that sounds like too much work, then you could use picture hanging hardware like I did.

Attach the Shelf to the Wall Hooks Board

Next up, attaching the shelf to that hook backer board was easy!

I ran a line of wood glue along the top edge of the hook backer board and I put the 1×4 onto that.

I clamped the pieces together to get that glue to bond well, and then I put about six 1″ brad nails in for extra hold.

Put the Hooks Onto the Backer Board

Finally, I measured where I wanted each of the hooks and drilled pilot holes into the wood.

The adorable gold flower coat hooks I used did not come with mounting hardware, so I found screws that fit their openings and screwed those into the pilot holes.

Then I attached the hooks (kind of like how you attach curtain rod hardware to the wall) and finished this project!

The Finished Scalloped Wall Hooks Shelf

I hung up this shelf in one of the cottage bedrooms and I am in love!

The shelf is the perfect spot to display some decor, and the hooks are a wonderful extra bit of storage for this small room!

Even though it has a lot of femininity to it, I think the stained wood finish helps give it a tiny bit of masculinity, too. (Maybe. Maybe not.)

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think of it! And, don’t hesitate to ask any questions, too!