Main Floor Bathroom Makeover

We've been in this house for about 3 years.  In that time I think we've only changed 3 rooms.  I'm not sure why it's taking so long.  Well, one reason is that I can never decide what colour I want.  But it's only paint, right? 

One room that IS nearing completion is the main floor bathroom - the powder room if you will. 

This is the only "before" picture I have: 

Cool lizard, right?  Too bad it belongs to the people who lived here before.  As much as I liked each of the colours, I really didn't like the two-tone thing, and especially the wallpaper border between.  Most rooms had a border when we moved in.  Why, people, why?
I'm not a fan of that little corner shelf.  There are some in the basement as well.  It's just too small and impractical.  Nothing fits on it (except a bottle of something apparently) and it's too high up to be used to store a spare roll of paper.  My arms aren't long enough anyway.

The first thing I did was tear down that border and paint the entire room. I started by giving the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint. I had read about continuing your ceiling colour down onto the walls an inch or two to cover up any spillover from the previous paint job.  I think that's so brilliant.  I also did this around the window and door frame. I've spent way too much time in the past with artist brushes trying to cover up old paint.

There were all kinds of nicks in the wall, especially beside the toilet.  My guess is a toy was repeatedly banged against the wall during toilet-training sessions.  We took down the old towel rack and toilet paper holder and spackled the holes.  Or perhaps "craters" if you go by the size of the hole left by the towel rack.

I'm really happy with the new wall shade.  It's very soothing. What's funny is, at the same time I was doing this, Tom was painting the garage walls.  He didn't want to buy new paint so he mixed all of our light-coloured leftover paint together and came up with a pretty interesting grey-green colour.  I came home from the paint store, held my paint swatch up to his new wall...and it was the exact same colour.  Not intentional at all.  At least we'll be able to match it if he ever needs to do touch-ups.

We decided that this was also a good time to buy a new toilet.  Our town has terribly hard water and the previous owners didn't have a water softener, so all of the toilets have hard water stains in them.  And our town also had a $75 rebate program for toilet replacement this year.  Nice. Not to mention that we got to get rid of that wooden toilet seat. Taking out the toilet before painting also made it easier to get a smooth,even coat on the wall behind.  And I didn't have to practice my yoga moves to get in there.

As mentioned, the window & door frame got a coat of white.  As did the baseboards.  It was a "builder's white" before - which everyone knows is not white at all. Here is the nice new toilet all installed.  It's higher than the last one - the only thing Tom put on the "must have" list.  I like the flat top (and the white seat!)

I took down the light fixture and toilet paper holder and spraypainted them oil rubbed bronze.  I had looked for replacements but nothing caught my eye or was in my price range.  Just a few coats of paint and they look brand-new. Plus I like the contrast with the wall colour. I did buy a new towel rack that had similar lines and spraypainted it as well. Eventually I want to replace the light as I think it's too big for the space, but it'll do for now.

Wow, the wall looks like a different colour in every picture.

I also painted the magazine rack with ORB.  Gotta match, right?  It was originally an off-white that wasn't doing it for me anyway.

This room isn't finished though.  I still want to frame in the mirror.  I have the wood - I just need to stain it and get it installed.  I'm going to try to give it an aged barnboard look.  And the room needs some wall art.  Again, I have it, I just haven't gotten around to hanging it.  I found some plaques at Hobby Lobby (at 90% off!) that mimic the colours in the room. 

I'm also going to paint the sides and front of the cabinet a deep brown to go with the fixtures.  The current beige just doesn't fit.  I think once it's done, the brown, grey-green, and orange (tile) will be a terrific combination.

Have you been making any colour changes in your house? Planning any big projects for 2012? Trying to cover up the "mexican restaurant" theme like we are?

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I'm linking up here this week!