Napoleon's Throne Room

Here's the thing. Some of you are gonna love this makeover. Some of you are gonna completely, unabashedly HATE it. And that's ok, and that's good. We're not all supposed to like the same things. But, what I hope you'll all appreciate is that this is not a story of delicious versus disgusting. This is an underdog story. And, I think, most of us love underdogs.
Stature, you see, is not something I'm blessed with. I'm short. Short and sweet. Well, mostly just short. And generally sweet. You know who else was short?
Napoleon. And I had Napoleon in mind when we designed this bathroom here at The Heathered Nest.
This bathroom is in our basement. And when we moved into this house out in the country, this is what it looked like down there. See that hint of leopard shower curtain on the left? That's the doorway to the old bathroom. As you can probably tell, this project was going to be a very TALL order.
Fortunately, I've never been afraid of a challenge, despite my height. In fact, I think my smallness has only fueled my drive to take on big things.
Little "woman" syndrome? Sure. A "Napoleon" complex? Definitely. You see, I think that anyone can do just about anything, if they have enough compunction and drive to do it. My Mom (who's even shorter than me) would always say "good things come in small packages". I wholeheartedly agree.


Take this little bathroom, for example. When we bought the house, the footprint for this space was ENORMOUS. You walked in there and thought...pass me the 10 lb. ball and lemme lace up my bowlers cause I'm gonna knock those pins flat at the other end of this bathroom. It was ridiculously large...especially for a basement bath which undoubtedly won't get a ton of use. So we changed to floor plan, opened up some walls, etc.


And here's a bit of a glimpse of the finished space...
See, I don't think that something little need not be devoid of power, or style. Take Napoleon, for example. Sure, he was small (at least per the legend), but definitely not lacking in guts or gusto! An Emperor, and one of the greatest military commanders in history.


And I'd like to think Napoleon would dig this throne room. I mean, we've got the French toile...and toilette! And all kinds of other details I think he would dig, like the french country barn board ceilings.


More how-to and all SOURCE details HERE


To me, small spaces just crave big patterns and bold choices because they want to stand out. If you’ve got a small bathroom you don’t know how to dress up, I suggest GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Heathered Nest
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  • Donna Aldridge Donna Aldridge on Jan 18, 2018

    This looks like a finished crawlspace. It could be because I'm 6'2" & my husband is 6'7". You have just reduced the value of your home.

  • Jenny Jenny on Jan 25, 2018

    I liked it. Having said that, I would change the ceiling and the distressed door. I would paint that door either a bright color or white.

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