A Fresh Start, and Shower Curtains

So, as many of you know, I moved a few weeks ago!  My new home is Wilmington, NC.  I needed a change in my life, and moving 11 hours away is certainly a big change!  I'm 10 minutes from the beach, which is something I love, and I have a two bedroom apartment.  I have a balcony and a second bedroom for my office and sewing space.

 The best part about a new apartment is having the chance to decorate a new space.  I already own a fair amount of basic furniture (even if most of it is from Ikea).  I am planning to slowly replace a lot of my old Ikea stuff with vintage or handmade furniture.  I've already started some plans to tone down my bright red couch, and I've hung some sheer curtains.  Other than that, I am in planning and unpacking mode.

One of my biggest struggles thus far has been planning the decor of the bathrooms.  It sounds a bit silly, but I've never had a guest bathroom before, so I would really like it to look nice.

My starting point is this loteria card I came across on Pinterest:

La Sirena from "Perroit" Loteria

I love the simple artwork and the bright red with light blue.  As a bonus, I already have red and light blue towels, so that part is easy.  I've got plenty of decor items in the beachy/ocean realm, not to mention red and light blue. My biggest hurdle has been finding a shower curtain.

Ikat shower curtain from World Market.  Wrong colors.

I feel like this should not be so difficult. I'm fighting between my urge to spend as little money as possible (I've been showering with just the clear curtain liner in my own bathroom), and the desire to have something perfect and unique.

Nothing really piqued my interest at Target or Walmart, so I began looking at fabric.  This couldn't be too hard, right?  Fabric for a shower curtain can't be that expensive.

Hah.

I found some great sea life prints at Calico Corners.

Oceana by Thomas Paul in Aqua

Coral Cay in Seafoam.  This also comes in Red!

 The trouble is, at their least expensive, these beautiful, high quality home decor fabrics are 25 dollars a yard.  That would mean a 100 dollar shower curtain.  Sorry guests, I don't like you that much.

So, I shifted my fabric sights to good ole www.fabric.com.   I very quickly wandered away from the home decor section, and went in the direction of quilting cottons.

Lanikai Aquatic Stripe in Blue

Michael Miller Spa Cote D'Azur Sea

Lanikai Ikat in Blue

I have a few good contenders, right?  I should be content to go about my business and order some fabric.  But, alas, I get it into my head that I want an octopus shower curtain.  Enter Spoonflower, and this lovely design.

Rococo and a bottle of rum in blue by Ceanirminger

Mermaids, Octopi and pirate ships.  YES PLEASE.

Now, an additonal struggle has arisen.  Do I want a nice, grown up, pretty shower curtain, or an awesome octopus shower curtain.  I can't decide if it's time to be a reasonable grown up, or awesome and quirky.  What would you do? Is a shower curtain really the best thing to stake one's adulthood on?