<<This powder room makeover was brought to you by Cutting Edge Stencils.>>
So, the previous owners of my house had an intense love affair with the colors red (tile), orange (cabinets), brown (carpet), and maroon (countertops), and, inexplicably, gold glitter (plastered on random surfaces, no joke, we had to remove it with a belt sander, it took 3 entire days), so in the couple of years we’ve been here, we’ve been slowly undoing all that mess while still trying to figure out what we want it to be.
One room the previous owners hadn’t touched was our half-bath downstairs. No paint, no faux brick murals like they blessed us with in the other parts of the house, no gold glitter thank heavens, no nothing. Basically a sink and a toilet. Well guess what? I finally did something about it! Check it out:
Woo! Do you like it? Isn’t that better? I’m pretty happy with it. Everyone who sees it seems to like it too, if only because I force absolutely anybody who drops by to take a look. Friends, neighbors, the UPS man, the guy who fixed my sprinklers today, I don’t care, I’m so proud of it!
Gray paint is my very favorite gray: Weathered Tin.
Mirror is from Home Goods.
Light fixture (not that you can see it, someone please tell me how to take a picture of a light) was on clearance at Home Depot.
Here is the stencil in action. It was really easy to use once we got the hang of it. You definitely want to use a foam roller like this and go v e r y l i g h t l y on the paint. We did a light coat followed by a few minutes spent watching 30 Rock, followed by another light coat, then we’d move the stencil. The cutouts on the bottom are there to help you line it up exactly when you move the stencil, and we didn’t have any trouble staying on track.
That’s not my burly arm up there, that is my husband Matt’s. I say “we” but I mean “he” because he did all the painting. He tries to pretend he doesn’t like it, but look at that grin.
I helped by watching 30 Rock while he painted and also taking stupid pictures of myself in the mirror.
I was VERY impressed with how well the
stencil worked, the lines were so crisp and clean. I only ever had to do minor touch ups when we accidentally overloaded the paint brush, or around the back of the toilet where we gave up altogether and I free-handed it. It was a little difficult getting into the corners with the stencil, but there are really helpful tips on their
YouTube channel.
All in all, this entire powder room makeover took about 8 hours total, a pretty decent time-to-outcome ratio, I’d say.
I once heard that you should have something unexpected in every room, so this is it. A tiny hot air balloon! You can only see when you are standing at the mirror, it’s like a little prize for washing your hands! Or I guess you can see it if you gaze upward while on the toilet, but who would do such a thing?
Hope you enjoyed this little powder room makeover, and if it inspired you to try something bold in your home, I’d love to see! Here are more
bathroom makeovers for your enjoyment.
