Hi everybuddy!

You know, and I know, that whenever you start fixing things or changing things, you are just opening one big can of worms. I thought that I was prepared for just about anything on this powder room update… I had planned, measured, thought about this friggin room WAAAAYYYY too much. But alas, I have opened a big, stinkin’, smelly CAN OF WORMS! (Yes, I’m shouting!! Why am I SHOUTING?!?!)

Here’s what’s going down.

Oh wait!! I have walls. Yay, for walls! Let’s give the walls 5 seconds of love because I learned how to drywall!!! Sometimes, I just wanna do myself.

Now that the walls are all patched up, I’ll need to skim coat the entire room. Fine. Not fun, but fine. Of course, before doing all that, I need to make sure that I like where the current sconces are wired. I don’t. Ooooobbbvviioouussslllyyy. So, I enlisted the advice of my stepdad. And he told me (in a lot of words) that I couldn’t move them more than an inch or two (in any direction) because they were old and sucky and there was no extra wire left.

I brought the vanity in to be sure what position looked best. And that’s when a new situation unfolded. Did the vanity look right this far from the wall? Or should it be shoved all the way to the wall? And if I leave some clearance, how much clearance is too much clearance?

Dizzy yet? I am.

I went right to work looking for inspiration on-line. Yup, most vanities have some clearance to the wall. So, that’s good. But it’s not a lot, looks like just a few inches.

At this point I’ve halted all further work in the room until I can figure out what I’m going to do. If I leave the lights where they currently are, then the vanity (to be centered under them) would be about 10 inches from the wall. It just doesn’t look right to me. It’s like something is missing from that space. In the photo I think it seems ok because the door is blocking a lot, but I dunno, it’s perhaps too many inches.

My next little point of contention, is the height of the lights. Where should my sconces go in relation to the mirror? I feel like because they are pointing upward, they should be at the center. Like so…

You can see in this photo, where I’ve pushed the vanity closer to wall (with about 3-4″ gap), that the sconces would go near the top of the mirror. Wouldn’t they look like little antennae or is that just me?!?!

More inspiration. Hmmm… I’m feeling buggy. Are you?

The easiest thing to do would be to leave the vanity farther from the wall than the ideal. Then I could get a larger mirror to accommodate the sconces. OR I could get different sconces that point downward. It’s an idea.

Right about now you are probably thinking, why don’t you just hire an electrician to have them moved, so that they can be in the perfect spot for the vanity, about 3 inches over, and 2 inches down. Then you can keep the round mirror and the sconces… etc. Well, that’s definitely Option 2. I’m hesitant to do it because the wiring is pretty old and I may need to fork out for a new junction box (more fun stuff) because the existing wire in the walls can’t be moved more than 2 inches in any direction.

And if that weren’t enough… I’m unsure how great the lights will look so close to the edge of the wall. AND when I purchased the mid-century vintage lights THEY DID NOT COME WITH THE MOUNTING HARDWARE!! AND I KINDA THINK THAT MIRROR LOOKS TOO SMALL, ANYWAY!!!!

Phew… There I go shouting again.

There’s a lot going on, to say the least, and yet nothing happening. Is one big old stalemate, can o’worms. So much for an easy, budget friendly refresh. Hahahahahahaaaa! Like those even exist.

Tomorrow the electrician is going to come by and we’ll see. Till then.

Castlewood Builders, Domaine, Atlanta Homes Magazine, Park and Oak, Rejuvenation