Kitchen and Bath Makeovers Magazine Photo Shoot!!

I still can't believe this really happened.  On Wednesday, Better Homes and Gardens Kitchen and Bath Makeovers magazine came to do a photo shoot for a feature on our DIY Master Bathroom.     

For weeks before, I was a nervous wreck.  A professional stylist and photographer coming to our humble home??  It didn't seem possible!  We rushed to complete our Master Bedroom redo because I couldn't imagine bringing those professionals upstairs to that 80s shag carpet.  I kept expecting to get a call saying they were sorry for the mistake, wrong blog, nope, not coming to your house.  We deep cleaned every room in our home.  3 kids and 2 dogs make messes.  I kept telling myself it needed the cleaning anyway, so even if they didn't show up, it was worth it.  But the day arrived and they actually came.  

We scrubbed and polished every inch of our bathroom.  It looked naked the morning they arrived.  All of our accessories were put away.  I was excited to see what a professional stylist would do with this space...

The stylist and the photographer (with his 2 assistants) showed up right on time and they put us at ease right away.  They were friendly, down to earth and complimentary about our modest bathroom.  They brought in LOTS of stuff.  The stylist brought fresh flowers and soaps among other things.  He ended up using a mix of my things and his and my bathroom built-ins never looked better!  I have never seen so much photography equipment in my life.  It was impressive.  In the picture below, you can see that they needed to block the light from our bedroom.

I think the thing we were most amazed with was how much work they put into getting that perfect shot.  It's no wonder things look so beautiful in magazines.  They let us preview the pictures and I was amazed.  I cannot wait to see the magazine!

My mom came to give me some moral support.  We went upstairs every so often to see how things were going, but mostly we stayed out of their way and chatted downstairs.

After they left, my mom and I went upstairs to check things out.  They left us some beautiful flowers and as I remarked to my mom that I liked the vase, I realized it was actually MY candle holder from the bookshelf in my bedroom.  We laughed.  He had shopped my house just like I do.  Even a candle holder looks nicer when someone else styles it!

We also noticed that a couple of shampoo bottles were left in the shower.  They looked so pretty in the shower niche.  I wondered where the stylist got those bottles.  

Turns out, they were just regular old shampoo bottles with their back labels removed.  The $1.79 price tag was still on one.  Great idea and one I will definitely be using in the future.

After they left, it was time to move back in.  This was all the bathroom stuff that we had packed away.

And then I took a relaxing bath with the bath salts they left behind.  The hardest part now is the wait until the issue comes out.   The fact that this day truly happened still feels surreal to me.  I am so grateful to the editors, stylist, and photographer that made this happen.