So, I did a thing. I know I casually mentioned I was doing it a few weeks or so ago but…
I brought this horribly lit, outdated bathroom…
into 2018 with a little bit of paint and some better lightbulbs.
My photography skills when it comes to rooms with zero natural light are nil so take that blown out light at the top of the room for what you will. In real life, the upper half of the room is not so bright and you can see the stained plastic piece over the medicine cabinet’s light fixture and it’s awful, so I guess bad photography skills hide that and I can’t complain. I have some plans to swap that out with something way cooler but they haven’t come to fruition yet. Stay tuned.
The funny thing about this bathroom is that, up until the very moment I swapped out the super orange-tinted lightbulbs for our current favorite 2700Ks, Anthony and I both thought the tile in here was tan. We were grateful for a neutral. HOWEVER, with normal lighting, we realized that it’s actually BLUSH PINK! FUN! No really, I was really excited! In case you haven’t noticed, this color is really in right now. Millennial pink, I think they call it. So, I’m totally fine with the fact that we are on trend in this room right now. :P
Back to the process though - what I never mentioned (because I was too busy entertaining kids + painting kitchen cabinets and every other wall in the house) was that, the kids and I had been tearing the wallpaper off these walls every night during teeth-brushing and after a few months, we made quite a dent. Most of it came off in large pieces, which was great.
Then, last month I spent a week scraping every last bit off, scrubbing down the walls, priming, and painting.
And the rest is history…thank goodness because, with the half peeled-off wallpaper, this bathroom was kind of an embarassment to any visitors who had to employ its functions. I should’ve taped a disclaimer to the door: “NOTICE: BATHROOM IN PROGRESS. WILL LOOK NORMAL EVENTUALLY.”
Anyway, some details…
The wall behind the open door holds the b-a-t-h-e hooks I bought when we lived in our second nest and, while they don’t fit as well in this space as they did in our old house, they inject lots of towel-holding function.
Here’s another blown out picture but for details sake, I hung a mirror (it used to hang in Sebastian’s old room) below the medicine cabinet so the kids could actually see the teeth they have to brush twice a day and the shower curtain is the one I made awhile back (it’s two of these shower curtains* sewn together and hemmed to the length I needed).
The walls were painted Sherwin-Williams Pure White (mixed in their Showcase line at Lowe’s) in eggshell and, while I’ve been disappointed by the quality of their Pro-Classic paint for the high price, this job has me applauding them. I know it’s frowned upon to go anything below a semi-gloss sheen in a bathroom but I just can’t stand shiny walls so I chanced it with eggshell. BUT, I’m glad I did because it’s held up amazingly well to the scrubbing of toothpaste I’ve had to do to the wall next to the sink. And all of those water drips from kids shaking their hands off before they dry them with a towel? Non-existent. Good job SW.
The vanity was painted with Behr’s (Premium Plus) in Broadway in a satin sheen and, while the paint went on really well, the kids have scratched it up a tad by rubbing their stool up against the front of the doors. It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but Broadway is a really dark, dark gray, not black. I grabbed some new knobs on clearance at Hobby Lobby ($1.25 ea) to replace the gross old handles (I had to fill in the old holes and drill a new hole) and I also cleaned and spray painted the existing toilet paper holder gold.
But the most exciting-to-me thing in the room is that big ‘ole piece of art over the throne.
I’ve been having a moment with large-scale art and so that just seemed a fun idea to take into here. Normally, I’d probably have hung a couple of larger frames, but since there are two stacked mirrors, hanging another double-stacked anything seemed too much. The art was painted by yours truly, and while I’d usually say my art skills maybe hit amateur at best, I was pleasantly surprised and actually love how this turned out.
You can’t tell in the photo above but the frame is green and the whole shebang once hung in Sebastian’s old room… Ringing any blog bells? No? Well, let me show you what the back looks like.
All I did was take that out of the frame, turn it over, paint the back, and pop it back in.
You’ll never guess what I used to paint it too. :)
Yep, a fork. The large serving fork from our silverware set, to be exact. Don’t worry, I made sure to clean it really good afterwards. ;)
I don’t know why, but a few weeks ago I watched some abstract art-making videos on youtube (like this one) and liked the looks they were getting by using paint knives. Well, I don’t have a painting knife (though I intend to soon) but I do have a big fork and wield it, I did.
I didn’t take pictures for a tutorial because I really had the bar set low, low, low for this and didn’t think it be anything worth a whole post about but next time (because there will be one) I’ll be sure to show you how I did this. Basically, I started by painting the foam board white. It was a dirty-looking off-white so I wanted to freshen that up. The twins and I carelessly brushed on some white latex paint we had with foam brushes one afternoon. I didn’t plan it this way, but with the imperfect new white atop the old off-white, there’s a nice texture/color variation between the two that created a nice background. Once the white was dry (the next day), I got into the colors. It went a little something like this - 1) squirt paint directly from tube onto foam board and 2) move it around/thin it out vertically with one prong of the fork a tad, being carefully to really just float the fork on top of the paint and not press down hard. To tie the pink tile into the art, I mixed some white latex with some red acrylic. Only five minutes passed before that mixture started to dry and harden and it was so weird!! I had mixed latex and acrylic paints together before without anything crazy happening so why was this…oops, that wasn’t latex, it was oil-based (unmarked jar I thought was latex). Face palm. But, BUT, in the places I had gotten it on the foam board before it dried to an unusable glob, it added fun texture so happy accident, I guess! :D See?
After I was done adding color, I let them all dry and went back over with some white paint the next day just using the same “fork technique” – dump a little paint on and thin it out vertically.
Last, I added a few gold dots to the bottom right corner because I heart gold and DONE!
At this point, I’ve spent about $30 in this bathroom and most of that was buying paint. A few more bucks will get added to that total once I get around to that light and maybe even whipping that countertop into shape. Until then, I’ve got more updates to come on the state of the kids’ bedroom in the next couple of days.
Happy Hump Day!
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You continue to amaze!
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