Before & After: The Haunted Mansion Bathroom of Your Disney Dreams
Carrie, a serious Disney fan, has always fancied living Disney’s Haunted Mansion After trying to fix up her small bathroom she finally decided to let it go and follow her dream (which is a wish your heart makes) of a Disneyland-inspired bathroom. With a lucky wallpaper find (definitely not a poor unfortunate soul) and some smart internet shopping that let her remain one jump ahead of the design, even the bare necessities were on brand. She was able to take her bathroom from zero to hero and create a bathroom that just screams, ‘be our guest!’
From Carrie: In honor of Halloween, I thought I’d share this home make-over-the-top: Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Bathroom!
We have a tiny three-quarters bath that looked like a gas station restroom when we moved in. No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t make it look nice. So, huge Disneyland fan that I am, I decided the only thing to do was to turn it into a replica of the foyer in the Haunted Mansion. Or at least what the powder room off that foyer would look like if there were one!
Rather than just stock the place with a bunch of Disney souvenirs emblazoned with the Haunted Mansion logo, we attempted to replicate the look and feel of the attraction’s foyer. The wallpaper Disney used is still in production, and I managed to track down the same sheer curtain fabric. On Craigslist I found a chandelier of the same era, with identical acanthus leaves sprouting from the top and a similar base, but scaled down to fit our room.
I designed a simplified version of the Haunted Mansion’s ceiling molding for the narrow space, but installing real molding would have costs thousands. Instead, my husband painted a trompe l’oeil version, and we added 3-D medallions in the corners to mimic those in the park. I found a seamstress to replicate the old-fashioned window swags and make a sink skirt to match.
For those features that had no precedent, like the toilet paper holder, I sought out the creepiest Victorian-looking version I could find. These include a gaudy swan (sea serpent?) faucet from Amazon and a “poison” bottle for a soap dispenser. I even found an acanthus leaf flush handle for the toilet!
Carrie will show you the whole new world of her bathroom on her blog Disney Travel Babble.
Thank you, Carrie!