Shower curtain first - all else follows!

Perhaps you remember this post on my personal blog about how I redid the bathroom in our old house in Massachusetts.  Or perhaps you remember it being featured on Fresh Home Blog (yay!)

I have found that the EASIEST way to make a bathroom your own and begin the design process is to pick a shower curtain.  Luckily, there are ridiculously awesome shower curtains to be found everywhere.  I think of a shower curtain as a huge piece of art that I can actually afford and don't have to buy a frame for.  And can get wet.  And folds up nicely.  What could be more fantastic??

We are renting a house now, and inherited this not-so-cute bathroom with peeling striped wallpaper and fabulous (sarcasm here) vanity with that fake marble look.  El gross.  Oh yeah, and a wallpaper border that people seemed to be obsessed with.

The original.  Um...ew.

I'm pretty sure I can sweet talk the landlord into letting me peel and paint at my own expense (hello, makes your bathroom nicer for free!), but wasn't sure where I'd want to go with color.  So, I relied on my "shower curtain first, all else follows" rule to give me an idea of the color scheme I might want to choose.

I picked up this awesome, bright, floral (but not TOO floral - this is the bathroom my husband gets ready in in the morning!) curtain from Room Essentials at Target (on clearance for $10.48!).  I was walking around Target and even though I promised Jon that I wouldn't do any decorating stuff for a few months until we got settled, I saw this on the clearance end-of-aisle shelf and couldn't resist!  Big yellow and black flowers - gorgeous.  It's called "Pineapple flower".

Bathroom "art"

So now the bathroom looks even worse because the flowers and stripes are clashy.  And not in a good "I think I'm a designer" clashy.  BUT, if I waited to post pictures until every room was done....this would be a boring blog.  If I had my way, I would paint the bathroom the dark color - black or navy of whatever it is (haven't decided) but that's probably too dark for the landlord (although he IS in Honduras....).  Neutral is going to have to be the way to go.  Crap....now that I'm typing this, maybe I should have picked a curtain with a more neutral color floating in it.  NO NO, I'm sticking with the flowers.  I'll find something.

Recommendations?  Perhaps just a white on the walls?