I was never the girl next door...

...I was never the girl next door (Bettie Page)

For about the last 10 years, our larger bathroom has sported a pretty ‘dragonflies and butterflies’ theme, the main colors being lavender and sage green. I chose the theme and colors back then, and painted the walls, the antique mirror and several accessories.

A couple of months ago I was inspired as John repainted the living room walls, even though he chose my least favorite shade of white for the trim. I do love the shade of green (‘It’s olive’ ‘no John, that is spinach!’) he used.

We always get our paint and supplies at Diana’s Paint and Wallpaper in Linton, choosing to SHOW LOVE and SHOP SMALL (you’re welcome, RDL) by spending our money locally. They probably think we’re nuts (hint: we are) because John comes in to buy subtle, muted and soothing colors and I... don’t.

They are always very helpful and soliticious, and I always feel welcome and appreciated there, but I digress.

Catching the redecorating bug from my husband, I began to dream up new themes for the back bathroom.

Penguins? nope, too ‘cutesy’.

All purple everything? I wish, but...nah.

Horror movie? Fun, but we do have the occasional guest, so.........no.

Vintage circus? Hmmmmmmm...almost...

And then, the moment the next idea entered my wizened little brain, I knew it was the WINNER.

I decided to go in a direction that is just about as far from feminine little insects with wings as a person can imagine.

The theme that I settled on is PIN-UP GIRLS!

Yes, Pin-Up Girls. Not the blatant soft-core stripper-on-a-pole type, but the retro rockabilly style of Bettie Page (‘I was never the girl next door’) with some 1940s Betty Grable (‘I have got two reasons for success and I’m standing on both of them’) thrown in. Add a little retro tattoo style, maybe some classic car imagery...

No more lavender and sage, this new theme is matte black (John’s least favorite paint color), matte white and high-gloss candy-apple red!

So far I have all of the walls painted. One wall is exposed brick and looks very punk-rock, so that one is red with a white stripe. The red wraps around to the next wall, which is the entrance wall. Black door and trim. The wall across from the exposed brick is black with a wide red stripe. The far wall, behind the bath tub, is white with the tub shelf black. Sounds weird, huh? It is and I love it.

Moving on, the antique claw-foot tub remains white on the inside but the outside is now glossy red with black feet.

I have a sweet tattoo-style shower curtain, bright red bath mat, red-ruby shower hooks and retro garage towel hooks.

I repurposed an old wooden crate to use as a trash bin. Just painted it white and black is all. Did the same to a larger crate that will serve to hold towels.

Painted the mirror frame, wall shelves and standing shelves. Painted some trinket boxes and used mod-podge to decorate them with pin-up girl images.

Ordered a whole bunch of pin-up wall decals from Shad’s Signs (SHOW LOVE, SHOP SMALL) and now I’m hunting for the perfect kind of vinyl tile with which to replace the flooring.

Wait...what? I don’t know the first thing about flooring...but one of my favorite things in life is learning...wish me luck!