The powder room is often the most overlooked room in the house when homeowners are considering home improvements or renovations. That’s completely understandable considering your half bath isn’t necessarily going to translate into dollars when you sell your home. In fact, bathrooms are often the least likely rooms to add value to a home.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should completely neglect that downstairs lavatory when freshening your home. Instead, it means that you have to get creative so you can provide a welcoming space for you and your guests. The good thing about these DIY decor ideas is that they won’t force you to break open your piggy bank and they are all easily undone if you change your mind (or decide to sell your home and want to create a more neutral space)!

7 Powder Room DIY Decor Ideas

1. Paint the Ceiling

One super easy (and cheap) way to pump up the volume on your decor in the bathroom is to paint the ceiling a bold color. For extra points, paint wide stripes to make a smaller room appear larger.

2. Metallic Touches

Metallic accents can easily add visual interest to a drab powder room. Some simple ways to add metallic flourishes include adding metal accessories (like metal baskets and curio shelves), stenciling metallic designs on the walls, or creating wall art using metallic paints. 

3. Clever Vanity

If you are super handy, visit thrift shops or estate sales to source a cool cabinet to repurpose as a vanity. An antique or vintage cabinet can really add some character to an otherwise boring bathroom.

4. Statement Wallpaper

While statement wallpaper can overwhelm a small half bath, covering one accent wall with a bold-patterned wallpaper can take a room from mundane to insanely awesome in no time (and for very little money).

5. Mirrored Wall

By the same token, create drama that is easily removed if you decide to move, by artfully creating a mirrored wall. Instead of one mirror above the vanity, add mirrors to fill the entire space behind the vanity up to the ceiling.

6. Black and White

What if you rent your home and can’t paint the walls, drill holes in the wall, or make other semi-permanent to permanent changes? Go for a dramatic look and add black and accessories and accents. Why have white towels, when you can go with black ones?

7. Interesting Artwork

Are you a collector of art, knickknacks, and other curios? Consider displaying them in the bathroom. Why display your postcard, snow globe, or art print collection in the living room when you can put them on show in the bathroom? It’s a sure way to make certain your artwork and collections will be noticed.

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The lazy days of summer are ripe with opportunities to engage kids in new and inspiring activities that teach them novel skills in a fun manner. Artterro “Art of the Earth” craft kits, designed for kids ages seven and up, are a collection of 12 open-ended mixed media projects that will encourage and inspire children to unleash their inner artist while slowing down, unplugging, and relaxing to create a unique masterpiece. Kits range from bookmaking and wire and bead art to collage, needle-felting, decoupage and doll-making.

Artterro kits are made by Goodwill Industries in Milwaukee, WI by disable people and by those in need of job training skills. Two moms, Forrest and Jen, are the owners and founders of Arterro, and they started this company to fill a void in the kids crafting market, which lacked sustainably made art kits that produced meaningful, well-made products that could be given as gifts and enjoyed for years to come.

I like that these kits feature minimal packaging, and that all packaging inserts are printed on “100 percent post-consumer waste paper using green printing methods with energy use offset by wind power.” In addition to their commitment to sustainable manufacturing practices, Arterro has also partnered with Project Kids in Cambodia by donating kits to an art program serving orphanages in Cambodia.

As a writer who has a daughter with a brilliant and vivid imagination and amazing storytelling skills, my favorite of the Arterro kits line-up is the Bookmaking Kit. It gives you the opportunity to construct four small books and includes colorful and extravagant 100 percent post-consumer recycled handmade papers, beads, sequins, craft thread, needles and an idea sheet.

Sitting down with a child of any age to capture their thoughts in one of these books, whether in the form of a fantastical story, the recounting of a special event, or as an extended letter to a loved one – or using one of these books to teach an older child how to journal their thoughts, dreams and gratitude, would be a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Artterro art kits cost $17 each.

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