Progress is underway in the guest bathroom, which is a relief since we’re less than 30 hours away from the arrival of Sherry’s mom and stepdad. The first win was finding the right shower curtain. After our previous pattern misstep, we picked up an affordable option at Target on Friday for about $20 and it instantly improved the space.
The room still needs painting and a few finishing touches like artwork, so it looks a bit unfinished for now, but the new curtain already makes a difference. The larger medallion pattern works better with the small square tile on the walls and floor—the scale doesn’t compete, and the darker brown in the design introduces contrast where the yellow tile and off-white walls were washing everything out. Since our guest room bedding (which we plan to reuse) includes brown and white and the adjoining guest room walls are blue, the curtain helps tie the rooms together.
With the curtain decided and a simple white fabric liner to protect it, we moved on to the bath mat—or more accurately, the search for one. We first tried a brown mat to match the curtain, but it looked too dark and heavy on the floor. A big brown patch in the middle of the bathroom felt uninviting and made the room look less clean.
We went back to Target and brought home three more options to test. The first one nearly blended into the tile and just looked dull—no good. The second was a colorful rectangular mat that picked up the blue tones in the curtain and guest bedroom. It did enliven the space and tied in nicely with the curtain colors, so it was a solid contender.
But the third mat was the clear winner: a crisp, white-striped option that felt tailored without being too matchy. The stripes play nicely against the curtain’s circles, and the shared white and brown tones create a coordinated, mixed look. We tend to favor clean white linens in bathrooms—hotel-style plush white towels and bathrobes always feel spa-like—so this mat fit that aesthetic and helped the bathroom look brighter and fresher. We returned the other two and installed the winner right away.
We also completed a few small hardware upgrades. The old toilet seat showed chips in the lid and tears in the soft seat material, so we replaced it with a simple, durable model. It’s a small change that makes the bathroom feel cleaner and more considered. Replacing a toilet seat is straightforward, but it’s surprising how much of an improvement such a basic fix can be.
Next on the list was the rusted shower head. Although it still worked, the finish was unattractive. We opted for an inexpensive multi-setting replacement from Target—about $14—and after some elbow grease to remove the old unit, the new shower head threaded on in under a minute. It looks shiny and new, and the water pressure is solid. I even took a quick test shower after installation to make sure everything performed well for guests—that way any first-use issues would happen to me, not my mother-in-law. Everything checked out fine.
One zero-cost improvement was discovering and relocating towel hooks that had been hiding on the back of the bathroom door. We had removed a mirror from the inside of the door and noticed the hooks on the back while painting. In two months of living here we never once closed the door and saw them, so I unscrewed the hooks and reattached them to the inside of the door where they’ll actually be visible and useful. Sherry spackled and painted the leftover holes on the less-visible back side of the door.
We still have a few finishing touches to complete—fluffy towels, a few washcloths, toiletries like shampoo and conditioner, and maybe a piece or two of art—but the bathroom is now entirely functional and much more inviting. We’ll share photos after Sherry adds some accessories and finalizes the styling. We’re also making progress in the guest room, which we’ll update you on soon.
Have you made any recent bathroom upgrades? Any tips for getting a guest bathroom ready beyond the basics (towels, toiletries, and a fresh bathmat)? This is our first time furnishing a dedicated guest bathroom that we don’t use regularly, so we welcome any suggestions to make guests feel comfortable and welcome.