After Her Husband Passed, Her Neighbor Helped Make This Bathroom Feel Like Hers Again
There’s something so special about a neighbor-to-neighbor bond. Neighbors are like a nearby safety net — watering each other’s plants, checking in when the power goes out, or shoveling each other’s walkways in winter. Or, for Holly Saulie-Rohman, giving her neighbor Jackie a ride whenever she needs one. “We support each other in all the neighborly ways,” Holly shares.
But the neighbors’ bond goes beyond helping with admin tasks. When Jackie told Holly that her bedroom and bathroom reminded Jackie too much of her late husband and overwhelmed her, Holly offered to help refresh the bathroom. She wanted to help create a space that her neighbor could use again with a sense of peace while respecting her husband’s memories.
She Wanted to Use Her Interior Design Skills in a Meaningful Way
“I am a big believer in how much our mental health is impacted by the spaces we live in, and so I saw this as an opportunity to use my skill set in a meaningful way,” Holly explains. She started Atrium Interior Design, where she reimagines spaces to promote wellness, and wanted to help Jackie without overstepping.
She Was Mindful When They Packed Up All of Her Husband’s Possessions
Holly was determined to be mindful during the process. When Jackie’s husband first got sick, the primary bedroom and bathroom became his for several years, and the space hadn’t been touched since his passing last year. But luckily, Jackie was excited and ready to move back into the primary bedroom and make the bathroom her own again.
“I got to be there with her, reliving old memories, organizing all his possessions, laughing at random stories, boxing away his old clothes, and jokingly reprimanding him out loud about the little messes he left behind,” Holly says.
But after Holly helped organize and box up his possessions, the bathroom still needed an update. The old linoleum was peeling, and the toilet was too long, which prevented the shower door from fully opening. Jackie had actually removed the shower door completely so that she could use the shower, and was storing it in her closet.
With a short list of must-have updates (the flooring, a new toilet, an updated vanity, and fresh paint), Holly turned to the feeling Jackie wanted to have when she entered the bathroom. “Jackie wanted the space to feel bright and cheery,” especially because her mid-century ranch feels more like an English cottage, thanks to Jackie’s English-garden front yard and eclectic interior decor.
She Tackled the 3 Problem Areas with a Mix of New and Secondhand Upgrades
Holly first removed the existing floor, vanity, and toilet. Because Jackie was drawn to contrasting colors and wanted the space to feel “bright and spacious,” they added Forbo Marmoleum Cocoa Linoleum in “Chocolate Blues” to the floors and Benjamin Moore’s “Capitol White” to the walls.
But laying the marmoleum flooring was the hardest part because the single sheets of material were hard to fit in the small corners — particularly aligning the pieces around the floor vent and toilet. Holly’s brother ended up helping, but it took much longer than they anticipated.
When it came to the vanity, it “was bulky and too low” for Jackie. But after lots of searching for the right vanity that fit the small budget and had the right dimensions, Holly finally found an oak desk on Facebook Marketplace.
The desk had open shelving below, and Holly added a sink skirt she made from thrifted fabric to hide the extra toilet paper and products now stored underneath. “It [was] work, but the character it brings to the space would be lost if I had used a previously owned vanity from a big-box store,” Holly says.
The toilet was also an issue for the bathroom’s functionality, but Holly found a standard-sized toilet from a secondhand home improvement store that was the perfect size for the “shower door to be put back in use,” Holly comments. And because the classic white square ceramic tiles were in good condition and just needed a deep cleaning, the shower was left untouched once the door was reattached.
She Finished the Cheerful Bathroom Refresh with English Cottage Decor
Because Jackie’s house had a definite English cottage style, Holly wanted the same style in the bathroom — with collected, antique, and charming decor. “I wanted to capture that feeling without bringing clutter into the space,” Holly shares.
So once the main problems were solved, Holly began decorating the space to feel more like Jackie. She added a floating shelf above the sink to balance the mirror, and installed a cafe curtain on the original wood window for privacy without blocking the natural light.
The last upgrade Holly made to Jackie’s bathroom was replacing the vanity light fixture. She found a Schoolhouse wall sconce at their local secondhand home improvement store. However, the matte black finish didn’t fit with “the softness of the space,” so Holly painted it the same color as the walls. She also “swapped out the fixture’s original cap nuts with vintage orange ceramic knobs” she found at another reclaim store. “They add color, charm, and make it feel special,” Holly adds.
Now, the bathroom is Jackie’s, and she can use her husband’s bathroom without feeling overwhelmed. The refreshed space makes Jackie happy because of the warm white walls and the sunlit, cheery room.
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