Progress has finally been made in the guest bathroom — thank goodness, since Sherry’s mom and stepdad will be here in less than 30 hours. Our first win was finding a shower curtain. After getting burned by pattern choice in our last shower curtain attempt, we picked this one up at Target on Friday for about $20.
The bathroom still looks a bit unfinished — we haven’t painted the walls or hung art yet — but the curtain made a noticeable difference. The larger medallion pattern works better with the small square tile on the walls and floor; unlike the tiny yellow pattern from the previous curtain, these larger shapes don’t compete with the tile. The dark brown adds contrast, helping the yellow tiles and off-white walls from washing out the space. Since our old guest bedding includes brown and white and the guest room walls are blue, the curtain actually helps tie the two rooms together.
After choosing the curtain, and grabbing a cheap white fabric liner from Target to keep it from getting soaked, we focused on a bath mat. We initially brought home a brown mat to match the curtain, but it was far too dark and looked like a big dirty spot on the floor.
Back at Target, we did a quick bath-mat fashion show (Sherry may or may not have cheered “fashion show, fashion show” while we picked). The first mat was a square that almost disappeared against the tile.
It just read as dirty and uninspired, so we moved on. The second option was the opposite: a colorful rectangular rug meant to pick up the blues in the curtain and the deep teal of the guest bedroom.
That one wasn’t bad — it matched the curtain and would add some welcome color to the space. But the third option was the clear winner: crisp, tailored, and not too matchy. The striped pattern complements the curtain’s circles, and the shared white and brown tones create a coordinated, mixed-and-matched feel.
We’re still partial to clean white accents in bathrooms — they pair naturally with the white toilet, sink, and mirror and give a hotel-like, spa-ready look. Since most hotels use plush white towels and robes, we want guests at Casa Petersik to feel similarly welcome. So the striped white-and-brown mat came home with us. We returned the others and put the winner in place.
We also tackled a few hardware updates. The toilet seat needed replacing: the old one had chips on the lid and tears in the soft seat, and we’re not big fans of soft seats anyway. Here’s the least offensive shot that shows some of the chips on the lid — we spared you the more graphic open-lid photos.
Swapping a toilet seat isn’t glamorous, but it’s quick and satisfying. I did my best to enjoy the process and even flashed a thumbs-up for this photo.
The toilet-seat switch reminded me of a ninth-grade science project where I used a toilet seat to illustrate clam anatomy — yes, I really am that dorky. Moving on, we also replaced a rusted shower head. It worked fine, but it looked tired, so we bought the cheapest multi-setting shower head at Target for $14 to freshen things up visually.
After some elbow grease to remove the old fixture, the new shower head went on in under a minute. It’s shiny and clean — I can practically see my reflection in it.
I even took a quick test shower after installing it. I wanted to make sure nothing weird would happen on first use, and happily everything worked perfectly. The water pressure here is actually better than in our bedroom, so guests will be in luck.
One simple, zero-cost improvement was rediscovering towel hooks. After removing the mirror from the inside of the bathroom door, we realized towel hooks were still attached to the back of the door. We’d never closed that particular door since moving in, so they’d been hiding there for two months. I unscrewed them and reattached them where they’re visible and useful; Sherry spackled and painted the leftover holes on the back of the door.
We still need a few finishing touches — towels, maybe some art, and a handful of small accessories — but the guest bathroom is functional and guest-ready for now. We’ll share final photos once Sherry adds a few finishing elements, and we’ll also post an update on the guest room soon.
Have you made any recent bathroom upgrades? Any tips for getting a guest bathroom ready besides supplying shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, fluffy towels, and washcloths (all of which are already on our to-do list)? This is our first time furnishing a dedicated guest bathroom that we don’t use regularly, so any suggestions from experienced hosts would be welcome.