House project update--Painting.

House project update--Painting.

• 10.11.2012

Well, the housewarming party is over, the pressure's off, and I'm taking a little break from nonstop house projects to blog about the house projects we've already done. Phew!

It's been a pretty loooooong list, so... how about I combine? Wanted to share the wall-painting projects we've done, since I think this will be it for a while painting-wise--I have a few other loose ideas but am not totally sure what will be painted what outside of these.

1. Half bathroom.
First, I painted the top half of the downstairs half bathroom this deep brown color, inspired by several pretty bathrooms I've pinned. Didn't want to overpower the room, so we painted the bottom half shiny white and put up a chair railing, sort of getting at the paneling look of wainscoting or bead board, but without actually buying and installing it. ;)

Before/after! (Update: See my stencil of the wall here!)

And here you can see my attempt at hanging art. Gosh, it is so hard to do in a new house. The pink and red in the Andy Warhol lips print really want to be picked up with another color somewhere else in the room... little rug maybe, or... I'm looking for a cute soap dispenser--preferably one that won't fall off the sink and break. Also desperately looking for a small cabinet thing to go in the corner across from the toilet to hold toilet paper and maybe a very, very small laundry basket for the kitchen towels and rags. Would love to have something bright in there. Oh, and it's hard to see since it's reflecting dark... but there's a lovely pretty round mirror there on the wall. MUCH better than the huuuuge framed thing that was in there before--way too big. The builder picked it out.

2. Guest bathroom.
Next was the tricky upstairs bathroom. It was so blah before. No windows, and the lightbulbs originally were really yellow... I changed them to cooler ones, but still not the same as natural light. And when I just put up a shower curtain, it was such an ugly room--plain except for a shower curtain that had no relation to anything else. I didn't know what to do in there to make it look better! My mom described it as "so suburban" and then as "mundane"--very accurate descriptions, Mom.

Before...

After!

My only idea for this room was grey stripes, like I've admired before in bathrooms, hallways, and dining rooms. I bought a shade of grey from the same Sherwin Williams paint card of the "Snowfall" paint that's in the whole house, SW 6000, and in the same eggshell finish. SW 6003, Proper Grey. I used a yardstick and wide sewing ruler to measure the stripes--9.25" apart, except the top one which is a teeny bit larger. Just picked a size that fit well on the wall. I marked every 5-10 inches, going along the wall horizontally, and then taped a line with masking tape.

These stripes were the hit of the housewarming party! Everyone loved them! I also had THE hardest time picking out towels for that bathroom. Seriously could not decide. All I like is grey and white, and that grey would have been super hard to match--the shower curtain isn't a perfect match but I want to add some embellishment of some kind to it which will hopefully distract. Also need a bath rug!! And I just threw those art pieces up there, but the red and pink in them make me thing a nice bold contrasting tomato red would look good as an accent somewhere in there. And would love something cute to go on the counter. Canisters for cotton balls or something...

3. Guest room.
The only other room I was sure needed painting was the guest room. I went back and forth but kept loving navy for this room--but of course you can't do too much navy without a lot of good lighting or space without looking cave-like. So my sweet husband painted one accent wall for us, and that's all it needs, I think. It's amazing what a change it made!

Before (well, yeah--practically empty):

After (paint and a lot of other decorating!!):

More on the rest of the pieces later!! We've been busy re-doing furniture too!