Our main bathroom was calling out for some attention. We did a gut renovation in early 2010, but a quickie refresh was in order. First, a new shower curtain.
The old one was water-stained and snagged, and I was growing tired of it anyway. Changing out a shower curtain is so cheap and easy, there’s no sense in living with something you don’t like anymore.
I found this one at Target for $20. They have so many pretty options right now in their Threshold line, but I loved this all-over floral design the best. We definitely need a white curtain in this bathroom. The window is in the shower and when pulled closed, a white curtain still lets much of the light through. Getting rid of that swath of dark black at the top definitely brightened things up.
Quick change #2 was repainting the register. I feel like this is something I post about all the time. I think I’ve done like three other posts about painting registers (!) so I won’t bore you to death again, but I just love our house’s vintage cast iron registers. Especially in this room, it’s an important period detail that’s very noticeable.
I stripped and repainted it in 2010, but since then a bit of rust had started to peek through the paint. I had even used a rusty metal primer, but I guess the humidity in this room is just too much for even specialty rust products. We have an exhaust fan and use it all the time, and the rust probably would be worse if we didn’t.
I did two thin — almost drybrushed — coats of black latex enamel and called it done. It took three years to start rusting, so I didn’t even bother using another coat of primer. I may come to regret that decision in the future, but I really didn’t want to buy any more paint. (Have you seen my stash??)
I went all black this time instead of two-tone. Looks pretty slick! Definitely an eye catcher. Plus, the black should mask any rust that starts popping through again.
p.s. if anyone in the STL spots a vintage cast iron register like the one above at an antique mall, e-mail me at erin (at) lansdownelife (dot) com or shoot me a message through Facebook. I’m trying to scoop one up for my kitchen, and I’ve seen them from time to time, but of course, now that I’m on the hunt for one, I never ever see them.
